No Place to Call Home

The editorial section of last Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel included two articles under the heading “Foster Care’s Failure to Launch.”  Both pieces address the situation of teenagers in foster care and the difficulties they face when they “age out” of the system: in other words, they are forced to leave foster care at age 18, even though they are still young, vulnerable, and lacking functioning families.

One article, written by Kathy Markeland, describes current efforts in Wisconsin to try to address the problems of young people who “age out” of foster care without ever returning to their families or being legally adopted into a new family.   Wisconsin has made “modest steps” to help kids – and they are in many ways still kids – who must leave foster care, including funding individual post-foster-care planning, extended health care and some college scholarships.  Markeland argues persuasively that Wisconsin should follow Illinois’s lead, and give foster kids the option of remaining in foster care until age 21.  She cites statistics showing that 50% more young adults are living with their parents now than in the 1970s, and argues that failing to provide a similar option for foster kids means that they will be forced into adulthood before they are ready.

The other article, written by Greta Anderson describes the author’s own experience of aging out of foster care.

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Teaching International Criminal Law in Germany

Today marks the start of the second week of the Summer Session in International and Comparative Law in Giessen Germany.  Pictured at the top of this post is the “castle,” the building where my class in International Criminal Law meets.  Inside this charming old exterior are some of the modern and fully equipped classrooms of Justus Liebig University, although the Justus Liebig Law School itself is physically located elsewhere.

My International Criminal Law class has 34 students.  There are 15 students from Marquette University Law School, 4 students from the University of Wisconsin Law School, and 4 students from other U.S. law schools.  The remaining 11 students come from law schools around the world, including Germany, Ethiopia, Turkey, Luxembourg, South Africa, Norway, Greece and Brazil.

Giessen is a college town.  It is dominated by University buildings spread throughout the town, much like Madison, Wisconsin.  There are numerous outdoor beer gardens and cafes, and the local population seems to spend much of their time sitting outside and drinking either coffee or beer.  It seems appropriate that the word “Giessen” translates into english as “pouring.”

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What Causes People to Be Successful in Their Careers? Part III: Effective Speech Making

Let us review where we have been. In Part I, we asked the question: What causes people to be successful in their careers? I stated that I believe that understanding and developing “soft side skills,” and not just technical skills, will provide the best opportunities for a successful career. We reviewed evidence from leading universities that much more than half of job success comes from people skills. Many people who pursue a professional career think of their “work” as their technical expertise, but as one moves up in an organization, it becomes clear that dealing with people is of at least equal significance.

Communication as a Premier People Skill

We also noted that much of what we call people skills is really effective communication. We demonstrated how communication thinking and communication skills drive success in the legal field as well as business.[1]

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