Topic: "Improving Family Relations"

Date:    January 23, 2009

            2:20 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. 

Chair:  Dr. Thomas Gage as Chair, Professor Emeritus in English at Humboldt State University

Download the flier.

As the Gulen Institute, we encourage all high school students in Houston to participate as panelists in a session that is part of the Dialog of Civilizations Platform 2010.

Participating high schools:

Bellaire High School

Awty International School

Houston Academy for International Studies

East Early College High School

When and where will this session take place?

Saturday, January 23, 2010. Turquoise Center in Houston.

From 2:20 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

How will the session take place?

There will be six panelists and every panelist will have 15-minute speech on their papers.

“Improving Family Relations"

Students can touch base on one of the following subtopics:
• Isolation within the Family
• Internet (including the online social networks) and Game Addiction
• Special Memories with Grandparents
• School Environment and Friends
• Extreme Individualism
• The Health of the Family and its Impact on the Social Problems of Younger Generations 

How can a student participate as panelist in the Platform?

Platform Judge Committee will select six panelists from the high school students who submitted their papers. 

Requierements for the papers

- A student who wants to participate will summarize his speech of 15 minutes in three pages and these pages will not exceed 1000 words

- Social Studies/Debate/Supervisor teacher will collect the papers from the students and deliver them to the Platform Judge Committee by sending e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or personally 

- Deadline for submission is November 27th, 2009.

- The maximum number of papers submitted from the same school cannot exceed 20.

What are the awards?

- Each of six students who is selected as panelist will receive: $200

- Supervising teachers of a selected panelist student will receive $ 200

- Students who are selected as honorable mention will receive $50

In addition, panelists and honorable mentions will receive a certificate.

For any question/comment, please send an e-mail to:

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