THE LITTLE ANT

URBAN ROULETTE
The little ant

Quebec, Canada: This morning I saw hair blonder than mine flying in front of me.
I have not seen Jennifer many times, but every time I see her she reminds me a little ant. Those kind of small ants that run over the walls coming and going, carrying food to their nest, and now that I think about it, that's exactly what Jennifer does, she transmits enthusiasm and produces changes in ant strategy.


Jennifer is my age, frightening 28, the difference between us is that she is one of the 100 most influential women in Canada and I am not even in the Mexican white pages.

But lets travel back in time to the year 1999, when the radio would not stop playing Ricky Martin's song Living la vida loca, and jeans used to cover your butt crack when you sat down. That year, Jennifer and Michael rolled-skated over Ottawa, they were very exited after attending a youth conference, and chatted about all the good opportunities they have had during their life and the importance of getting other young people involve in organizations that can have an impact in today's world.

Their roller conversation went from words to actions and in 2000, their project had a name and website. With a group of volunteers they created takingitglobal.org.

Takingitglobal.org is a web based community where 200,000 young activists from 261 countries share ideas and projects. Young people that work in philanthropic projects, education, sustainability, volunteering, animal and human rights, you name it: taking it global has it.

This web page is the entrance door to a world full of opportunities, available in 12 different languages, were youth can find scholarship, international conferences, guides to create their own organization and many other opportunities such as sponsors for their projects and networking with other youths involved in similar projects around the world.


If you are interested in creating your own organization in the place where you live, taking it global is the place to begin. The newest advantage is Tiged.org: a website for educators, where teachers can find interesting material for their classes and information to begging projects with their students.

Takingitglobal.org has taken Jennifer to international stages. She has worked with important companies such as, Microsoft, Xerox, Credit Union, Nike and HP as well as having the opportunity to collaborate with six United Nations agencies. In 2005 Jennifer was selected by the World Economic Forum as World Young leader.


"I think that with each moment we live, and each decision we make, we have an impact on our own lives, and the lives of those around us. Most of the time, we are unconscious of the impact that we have. I think that the first way for 'others to make an impact' is to become more conscious and aware of the decisions we make and the choices we have. Once this happens, we are able to critically examine our own lives, and imagine new possibilities for ourselves and the world.

"There are an infinite number of ways to affect change and have an impact - the question we should ask ourselves should centre around what contribution we want to make, what kind of experiences we want to have, and what kind of world we want to live in." Jennifer Corriero

Jennifer has achieved through takingitglobal.org the networking of a huge amount of little ants. Ants that carry different flags and speak different languages, but now support each other in the search for peace, equality and order in this enormous ant's net that we call planet earth.