Changing the World by guest author Alex Marking

About the Author: My name is Alex Marking. I am 17, I go to Greenhill School, and I was adopted from Paraguay. A couple years back, I went on a trip to Paraguay with The Ties Program. This year in school, we were assigned a project that revolved around something we felt strongly about. We were encouraged to give insight to … Read More

My Journey of Self Discovery By Guest Author Elizabeth Mija Stanley

About the author: Elizabeth, aka Mija, traveled with The Ties Program when she was 15 years old. She wrote this essay for her college entrance exams, and recently updated it for a college English paper. She is currently 28 years old, attesting to the fact that the trip is a “beginning” or a day of birth as Mija states in … Read More

Citizenship is Sticky

Recently I was working on passport and visa information for one of our new programs.  My assignment was to draft a letter to explain the visa application process to parents.  We consulted Embassy websites. We connected with people and sent emails for clarification.  Laws and standard operating procedures appeared incongruent and frustrating, to say the least. At the heart of … Read More