During student division conference calls for region
leaders last weekend, it was decided to extend the deadline for turning in
the "Can You Make a Difference?" surveys until Wednesday, Sept. 15. Many
of the leaders felt it had been hard to promote during the summer, when
most of the students were on break. Francesco Miniati, Midwest Region
student division leader, volunteered his Web site for online versions of
the survey and the "How Can I Make a Difference in Society?" album page.
Visit http://www.msi.umn.edu/~min/sd/ and you will able to download both.
You will also find an option to fill out the survey online; once you have
inserted your answers, just click submit and you're done. You can contact
Francesco at min@msi.umn.edu if you have any problem in this regard. Also,
you can snail mail the completed survey hard copies and album pages (which
cannot be filled out online) to Valerie Thomas, SGI-USA Headquarters, 606
Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401. Please encourage your friends to
participate in the survey! All students studying beyond high school are
eligible to participate. The purpose is to evaluate how students feel
about their ability to make a positive difference in the world and the
factors that have influenced their feelings. Participants will rank
statements on a scale from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree."  Two
examples of the statements are: "In the future, the world will be a better
place because of my efforts." "My education has increased my ability to
help others." The hope is that this survey, which can be circulated to
both members and non-members, will not only be a vehicle to collect a
clear picture of students’ current views but a way for SGI-USA students to
introduce their non-member peers to the organization. Results of the
survey will be presented to SGI President Ikeda and published in Seize the
Day.

 Pamela Kanda, a student division region leader from
Chicago, has come up with the idea of creating a student division map of
the United States to present to President Ikeda. The map will show all the
schools across the nation where SGI-USA members are studying. Help us out
by sending to studentdiv@sgi-usa.org a list of all the schools that
members are attending in your area. With the school names, include the
city, state, the nearest big city, the SGI-USA region name and what type
of school it is (i.e., two-year, four-year, vocational/technical, etc.).
The deadline is…Sept. 15! We'll report in a future issue of Student Waves
the entire list.