User:MHDU

A student at Drake University studying Law, Politics, & Society with a concentration in Business Law. I am taking | Global Youth Studies and we are working on a project to expand youth topics within Wikipedia. Youth is often overlooked, as it is a fluid category that takes many shapes and forms. I will be creating a page on Youth in Guatemala.

Topic Proposal
For my Global Youth Studies project, I will be creating a Wikipedia page on Youth in Guatemala. I was originally torn in my decision of choosing a topic but found myself more interested and passionate about the youth living in Guatemala. I traveled to Guatemala a few years ago and feel that my experience will lay a foundation for my Wikipedia page. I am very passionate about the low standards of health and education in Guatemala. The influence of government within these fields will be interesting. I am excited to explore areas outside of the cities I visited and see how their youth population compares. The customs and traditions of different areas will be interesting to learn about as my research progresses.

Within my page, I will be talking about the health of youth, specifically how malnutrition in the early stages of life affects their life trajectory. It was quite common for infants and children to be hospitalized due to the lack of substantial food. It will be interesting to see how this impacts them as they grow up. There is also a subsection on demographics that highlights the vast number of youth in Guatemala. One topic within the demographic subsection that will be necessary to analyze is the number of Guatemalans that leave the country for various reasons.

Education will also be an important part of my discussion of youth. There is a section on the page about education that seems to be lacking crucial information. In my experience in Guatemala, parents often undervalued education. Education is often inaccessible due to transportation and other barriers. I think barriers will develop into a more broad theme in my page. I am excited to research higher performing schools and see the tactics they use to retain students and how schools harness their students' aspirations and turn them into success. The location of youth will be crucial in an analysis of the education system, as many areas in Guatemala lack basic necessities. One topic that could be incorporated into this page is violence and the presence of crime and delinquency. The structural factors that push youth to commit crime must also be analyzed.

I am still struggling with my lead paragraph. As mentioned earlier, barriers may be an underlying current throughout my page. However, I do not want it to come off in a way that would be offensive to Guatemalan youth. Youths in every country face barriers to certain things and it will be interesting to see how it unfolds in the fields of health, education, jobs, etc. and how certain youth face more barriers than others.

Wikipedia articles to link to
Crime in Guatemala

Health section of the Guatemala article

Education in Guatemala