Stand Tall International: An Interview with Charity Co-Founder Masha Balovlenkov

Welcome back, Germ readers! Recently, Germ had the great honor of interviewing Masha Balovlenkov, co-founder of the non-profit organization Stand Tall International. Through her team’s amazing work at the non-profit, several young lives in Tanzania and abroad are receiving life-changing surgeries and funds for schooling within their communities. So, I won’t waste any more time; […]

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The Power of Educating Girls

About three months ago, Glamour magazine sponsored an event that collaborated with the White House’s Let Girls Learn Initiative. A group of female leaders — including First Lady Michelle Obama, actor and activist Charlize Theron, former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and the sixteen-year-old ambassador for Plan International, Nurfahada — all gathered to talk about the […]

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Malala Yousafzai Graduates High School with Top Grades!

Human rights activist Malala Yousafzai recently graduated with top grades from her high school in the United Kingdom. She received a 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, and now she’s received A*s (equal to A+s) in two types of maths, physics, chemistry, biology, and religious studies. She also got As in the English language, English literature, history, and geography. Her proud dad, […]

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Where to Go Vs. What to Do

Through decades of bad hairstyles, poor fashion choices, rap music, and everything in between, the slogan of teen angst has remained consistent: “UGH, I CANT WAIT TO GET OUT OF HERE AND LIVE MY OWN LIFE!” …or something along those lines. Whether you’re from New York City or the northern most point of Alaska, you’ve probably […]

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WATCH: This Nine-Year-Old Is Cooler Than All of Us

What were you doing when you were nine? Probably not challenging decades of scholastic standardized testing policies. Sidney Smoot, a fourth grader from Brooksville, Florida, is not your average nine-year-old. Smoot recently got up in front of an assembly of adults at a local school board meeting to neatly and eloquently dismantle the ridiculous flaws with standardized testing. […]

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