TakingITGlobal | By Jennifer Corriero

“Multilingualism is an important concept to be recognized because it can be directly linked to equality. TIG is a great platform for advocating such a concept. The involvement in non-profit organizations creates a great opportunity for networking which can be beneficial for teenagers’ psychological  development and perhaps actual career development.” —Jessica Zou , Chinese Language Engagement Coordinator

TakingITGlobal (TIG) strives to actively engage youth all around the world to create a more peaceful and sustainable world.  TIG’s online community provides youth with resources and collaborative tools to support social action and community development.  With members in more than 200 countries, TIG understands its role as a global platform. Therefore, TIG would like to provide for their users a resource that reflects the diversity of their network and showcases local opportunities, expressions and perspectives equally. The creation of TIG’s Multilingual Site serves as a multilingual platform that can be accessible to all users. The Multilingual Site assists in encouraging a sense of global awareness, collaboration, cultural understanding, leadership and initiative amongst youths in local communities and around the world.

“Multilingualism turns TakingITGlobal into community available to everyone everywhere around the world! And just the very idea that all the work is being done by enthusiastic and passionate volunteers, and not highly remunerated professionals, is going beyond awesomeness!” says Kseniia Beznos, Russian Language Engagement Coordinator.

Languages play a pivotal role in preserving diversity, presenting personal expression and communicating with others across the globe. To help facilitate global understanding and encourage youth participation in social movements for a stronger global society, TakingITGLobal now presents its website in 13 different languages. It is because of our 120 dedicated virtual volunteers that TIG was able to offer its platform in 13 different languages. In efforts to recognize TIG’s hardworking volunteers, every month TIG takes the opportunity to honour two multilingual volunteers. For the month of June, TIG would like to recognize Kamal Hamani from the French Team and Merybell Reynoso-Hidalgo from the Spanish Team (way to go!). Each language is broken down into teams of volunteers – there are 16 language teams in total. To read more about Kamal and Merybell’s experience volunteering with TIG, check out (add hyperlink http://www.tigblog.org/group/tigocs/post/4849051).

Meet Lavinia Spargo, TIG’s Romanian Language Engagement Coordinator. “I have lead the Romanian translation team for two months,” says Lavnia. “The reason I accepted the challenge was the opportunity to be in a decision making position. It is new to me, and I want to create a team that goes beyond their job description, a group of visionaries who are not scared to use TakingITGlobal in order to put their ideas into practice. I am now in the position where I can actually shape this team and produce results, and this excites me!” she says.

Lavinia has always been passionate about languages. Her obsession to learn languages started when she was eight years old. Born and raised in Romania, Lavinia has had the privilege to live in both Great Britain and France. She is now fluent in Romanian, English and French. Having learnt multiple languages, Lavinia never feels lost or afraid to live outside her home country because she has the greatest tool with her, language.  To communicate with a wider audience, Lavinia plans to add Spanish to the list of languages she can speak. Lavinia’s ultimate ambition is to one day translate for the European Commission.

Additionally, Lavinia wants to use her language skills to interact with individuals all around the world. She hopes her interaction with others can aid her in serving underprivileged communities in Romania. Her goal is to provide a level of education in order for impoverished Romanian citizens to live a decent life.

Lavinia believes that technology can be a strong ally to language and education. Hence, Lavinia felt TakingITGlobal was a great place for her to focus her voluntary work on translations. “TakingITGlobal is an organisation that brings these three elements together, and unleashes this potential to the benefit of the world,” she says. “It encourages multilingualism as a means of becoming citizens of the world, influencing more than one community through our actions, and sharing fresh ideas with people from all corners of the world. I have learnt so much since I’ve been volunteering!”

Lavinia also explains that Youth who get involved in non-profit activities grow more as human beings. They do it for the satisfaction, pleasure and joy that it can offer to others.
“This big world is made of little things, if each of us made a little change, it would have such a great effect on the world we live in!” says Lavinia.

TIG’s Multilingual page was developed to celebrate cultural diversity and to help TIG users make the most of TIG’s multilingual resources. TIG is committed in ensuring that everyone not only has a voice, but has an opportunity to be heard. TakingITGlobal is the web’s most multilingual on-line community for youth interested in making a different. TIG invites you to explore and participate in presenting your personal expressions on TIG’s Multilingual Community page.

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Jennifer Corriero is the co-founder and executive director of TakingITGlobal, an online learning community for youth interested in global issues and creating positive change. Her extensive experience includes developing and driving youth programs related to technology, collaboration and entrepreneurship, and designing and delivering interactive learning experiences to empower youth and community leaders. She has been a delegate to the World Summit on the Information Society; she’s presented and supported civil society engagement at events including the World Urban Forum, World Summit on Sustainable Development and other global forums. Corriero has been a youth engagement strategy consultant for Microsoft, TD Bank, Ontario Science Centre and the Canadian Government. She earned her BA in Business, Communications, Technology and a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University. An innovator, leader and engaging public speaker, she has been widely recognized by various conferences, organizations, universities and mainstream magazines for her tireless efforts in motivating the youth of the world. Contact her through TakingITGlobal.