Homa Sabet Tavangar, an Iranian-American mother of 3 living near Philadelphia, has received wide recognition for her book Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World (Random House, 2009). Tavangar's book has been named "Best New Parenting Book" by Scholastic Magazine  (recognized leader in the area of parents and schools). Global Giving, the eBay of philanthropy, partners with Growing Up Global for its holiday promotion: "The perfect gift for a global family." And Dr. Jane Goodall gave her endorsement of 2009 to Tavangar's book, among other accolades and high praise.

Growing Up Global: Raising Children to be At Home in the World
By Homa Sabet Tavangar
Random House Publishing
www.growingupglobal.net
order from amazon

Why Growing Up Global?

When my youngest daughter was three, she loved Mexican mariachi music and Arabic belly-dancing. She recognized Spanish, French, Persian and Chinese words. On her world map placemat, she showed us Ukraine, where her friend Katya's baboushka lives. And she attended pre-school in West Africa for three months, where she was the only fair-skinned child in her class. To Sophia, these disparate cultures and places formed a natural part of her early discoveries and vocabulary. But most American children are unaware of the world beyond our borders. Can we assume that the United States will remain the world's super-power if our future leaders don't possess a deep-rooted appreciation of the world around them?

As parents, we don't know where to begin. While globalization drives the economy, our politicians talk about building a wall around our borders, and anxiety colors our experiences of how we leave the country and who comes in. There are numerous books telling businesses how to succeed internationally, but there is no parenting guide for raising children to be happy, comfortable and successful world citizens - until now. As a mother of three and adviser to hundreds of American businesses and international governments and organizations for almost twenty years, I have tried to help my clients and family thrive in - not fear - countries they can hardly pronounce.

I have spoken with Ambassadors and Generals, parents and teachers about this topic. While all recognize that training our children to understand and operate in the world is crucial, they have no model to accomplish this daunting task. With their encouragement, I supplement the results of those interviews and of my own experiences with the best of websites, films, CDs, books, magazines and service activities. The result is Growing Up Global: Raising Children to be At Home in the World, a timely book which breaks the process down into fun, easy-to-understand concepts. Each chapter forms a unique adventure without having to purchase airplane tickets, from celebrating Diwali to eating ugali.

The book will utilize anecdotes of diverse experiences, particularly from regions that make the news but perplex many Americans. It will share some statistics and global trends, and quote from literature on relevant topics utilizing sidebars, insets, graphics, and other tools to make the reading appealing to a general audience.

Growing Up Global helps adults grappling with questions of how their children will fit in a world that on the level of technology and business is increasingly inter-connected, but in politics, religion, and culture seems more polarized. Families using the book will gain a greater understanding of some of the vast changes in a shrinking world. They will grow closer to each other while they engage in activities that demonstrate the experiences and preferences of their peers around the world. Children who are comfortable in the globalized world gain a distinct edge in competitive environments, and ultimately, become better-adjusted and more confident adults.
 

About the author: Homa Tavangar has almost 20 years' experience working with governments, businesses, international organizations and non-profit agencies in global competitiveness, organizational and business development, and cross-cultural issues.

She was born in Tehran and moved to Cleveland, Ohio when she was just over a year old. Along with Iran, she has lived in East and West Africa, South America, and throughout the United States. In addition to English, she speaks Persian (Farsi), Spanish, Portuguese, and rudimentary French and Swahili. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in International Economics, and International Development and Public Affairs from UCLA and Princeton University. She spent one pivotal year studying at The Catholic University in Lima, Peru, and criss-crossing the lower two-thirds of South America. Her religious heritage includes four of the world's major faiths, and she has family living on every continent.

Homa has been researching Growing Up Global since spending the first anniversary of 9/11/01 in China, while she served as Special Advisor on International Business Development for the City of Philadelphia. From January through April 2007 she lived in West Africa with her children, where they spent a school term and she blogged their experience for the Philadelphia Inquirer. She is married and the mother of three girls, ranging in age from 6 to 16. She is active with their public schools in suburban Philadelphia and serves on the Boards of several international organizations. This is her first book.

It should be noted that Tavangar's brother, Kevin Sabet, is a policy advisor at the White House Office of National Drug Control Strategy in the Obama Administration.  He works closely with the Drug Czar writing President Obama's soon-to-be-released National Drug Control Strategy, and since his youth has been a nationally recognized leader in this field.  Sabet received his BA from UC Berkeley and Master's as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University and PhD at Oxford.  By age 30, this was the third U.S. President he worked for.

More information about the book and the author is available on her website:  www.growingupglobal.net.  

... Payvand News - 12/15/09 ... --