Afternoon Breakout Sessions
Breakout Session Speakers
Below is an alphabetical list of the Breakout Session Speakers. This list is not yet complete and will
be added to as we get closer to the conference. You will find both the biographies of the speakers as well as the focus for their talks.
Afternoon Presentations
Dr. Alan Betts – Dealing With Climate Change, Part 2 – White 21/22
Bio:
Dr. Alan Betts of Atmospheric Research in Pittsford is Vermont’s leading climate scientist. He is a frequent speaker on climate change issues around the state and has worked on climate change adaptation planning for Vermont. He is a columnist for the Rutland Herald Sunday Environment page. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the Royal Meteorological Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a past-president of the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering. He is the author of more than 160 reviewed papers in the scientific literature. He was the AMS Jule G. Charney Award winner in 2007. Atmospheric Research was established in Vermont in 1979. Its mission is to understand the Earth’s weather and climate, to develop improved earth system models and to help society understand the deep challenge that global climate change presents to humanity.
Presentation Description:
What is happening to the climate of Vermont and the Earth and how can we deal with it – as individuals and as a society? The afternoon session will address the huge transition we face as a society: how to deal with climate change and how students can make a creative contribution to the future.
Many rich resources are available at http://alanbetts.com
Taborri Bruhl – Sustainable Us – Red 28
Bio:
Taborri Bruhl lives in rural New Haven, Vermont, with his wife, three children, and two dogs in an off-grid house powered by solar and wind. Taborri is a former Marine Corps officer, and holds a bachelors degree in history and journalism from Texas A&M University and a masters degree in history from California State University. He currently teaches history, economics, and government at the high school level, and is on the board of directors for the Acorn Renewable Energy Co-op in Addison County, VT.
Presentation Description: Sustainable Us
How big are the world’s environmental problems? What might a more sustainable future look like, and how can humanity transition to this new paradigm? Exactly how much trouble are we humans in with regard to our environment? Are we wrecking the planet, and if so, is there a better way forward? Join Taborri as he discusses these issues, and the lessons he’s learned from being involved in the environmental field. Ideas for more sustainable systems will be discussed, as well as the forces that will enable change. Taborri will close with his list of “Ten things we all should be doing for a more sustainable future”. It is about changing the ways we live to have less impact on the planet, as well as practical things that everyone can do that will have an impact.
Talla Caruso – Narcissism: It is Affecting You – White 12
Bio:
Talla is a Senior at Rutland High School and is the President of the Art Club and the Vice Chair on the Teen Advisory Board for the Library. She is also a participant in the Creative Writing Club at RHS. Her presentation discusses narcissism and its effects on people of her generation.
Presentation Description:
What is Narcissism and how it is affecting people in our generation? My presentation will go over what Narcissism is and how I have seen it affecting people. My presentation covers social media, and how the idea of broadcasting yourself publicly has made people analyze themselves more than people have previously done. This constant self reflection is causing people to lose compassion, and this loss of compassion is leading or will lead in the future, to volatile relationships among people and violence. My project aims to get people aware of the world around them and regain their compassion to continue to make the world a happier and healthier place physically and emotionally.
My idea is to get schools to make current events a must. The reason current events are so important is that they remind people of the world around them and it reminds people that everyone stories. This reminder of humanity and not being alone in the world makes people more compassionate, and compassion is what makes change. Compassion drives ideas behind charities, donation, programs for impoverished countries, and even getting basic needs to the homeless in our own communities. This one simple step of instilling more learning and more awareness into schools, will get people to open their eyes and realize the world is vast and people struggle. With more compassionate people and thinkers in our young generation, the world will grow with more thought and people will come together to solve problems.
Marta Ceroni – Where do I start? How to find solutions to complex problems – White 27
Bio:
Marta Ceroni is the Executive Director of the Donella Meadows Institute. Before that she was at the University of Vermont, where she taught and did research on how nature contributes to people’s wellbeing through services such as water purification by wetlands, or climate regulation by forests. A forest ecologist by training, over the years Marta has seen the redesign of the economic system as the leverage point to get to “unsustainability”. Besides her work, Marta gets energized by dance, accordion playing, native Italian cooking, and the experience of the wilderness and friendship in the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Presentation Description:
The talk will use the case study of a lake in Macedonia that turned from famous beach resort to a contaminated water body and current restoration efforts. The aim is to discuss leverage points, or points of intervention in a system where a change can bring the most positive impact. Once trained in recognizing leverage points, people can apply this thinking to other systems and act towards change that has deep and long lasting effects.
Dr. Harry Chen – Infectious Disease- Global Issue with Local Connections – Red 13/14
Bio:
Dr. Harry Chen is the Vermont Commissioner of Health. Prior to serving as commissioner, he was an Emergency Physician with over 30 years of experience. Dr. Chen is a graduate of the University of Oregon Medical School and has specialty training and certification in Emergency Medicine. He is on the clinical faculty of the University of Vermont. Dr. Chen is on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Office of Infectious Disease at the Centers for Disease Control. In addition to practicing in Vermont, Dr. Chen has practiced on the Navajo Indian Reservation and in Haiti after the recent earthquake.
Presentation Description:
What is the burden and nature of infectious disease in our world? What are the major strategies to address them and how can we act locally to assist in reducing the burden? The presentation will provide a discussion of the global burden of infectious disease and a discussion of how that burden differs in America. The presentation will also describe strategies to address the public health threat of infectious disease globally and locally.
Katie Fusco – Intolerance – Red 15
Bio:
Katie Fusco is a senior at Rutland High School. As part of the Global Studies Capstone Seminar, she spent the fall researching different types of intolerance and the roots of intolerance (and tolerance). Katie has traveled greatly, spending time in various European countries as well as Japan. This travel as well as her interest in psychology prompted her to study intolerance. She will spend next year as a Rotary Exchange student in Brazil.
Presentation Description:
How is intolerance ingrained in modern society and what affect does this have? This presentation is an in-depth look at how intolerance is seen throughout history and how it continues to affect modern day society. This presentation will also look at how prejudice differs from intolerance and what our generation can do to stop the spread of intolerance.
Ward Heneveld – Education for All: Schools in Low Income Countries – White 25/26
Bio:
Ward Heneveld has been a teacher and headmaster in rural Kenya and a teacher educator and college president in Vermont. He has worked as an advisor and grant maker for education at three foundations and the World Bank with assignments in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Romania, and throughout anglophone and francophone Africa. Ward holds a Diploma in Education (Secondary) from Makerere University in Uganda and a doctorate in educational planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. For the last fifteen years Ward has published and consulted on improving the quality of primary education, early childhood education, and the education of girls in low income countries.
Presentation Description:
How effective is education in low income countries? All countries and their citizens value education for their young, and the international community has been supporting more and better education for Africans and Asians for more than 50 years. Each nation’s school systems will continue, and international aid continues to play an important role, especially in the formulation of revised global development goals for education that will be announced in 2015. The presentation will cover what it is like to go to school in Africa and Asia, including in conflict areas, and use that introduction to talk about why schooling is so important to everyone there. There will be an introduction to what is being done to improve students’ learning in these areas, and we’ll explore ways that Vermonters can participate in supporting better education in poor countries.
Melanie Hubbard – Social Media and Cyberbullying (PM) – White 18
Bio:
Melanie Hubbard is a senior at Rutland High School. There, she serves as a class officer and works with various clubs. She was part of the Global Studies Capstone Research Seminar in the fall of 2013, and spent her time researching various social media and how it is used as a platform for cyberbullying. She established the club Cyber You within RHS that will work to change school policy around the state regarding cyberbullying.
Presentation Description:
How has social media affected youth culture and helped cyberbullying grow? We will review each of the most popular social media websites and look at how they handle privacy and bullying within their site. We will then define cyberbullying and look at how it has grown due to the increase in social media sites, and how we can stop it.
Caleb Kenna – Migrant Labor on Vermont Dairy Farms – Red 23
Bio:
Caleb Kenna is a photographer based in Brandon, Vermont. He grew up in Vermont and his photographs have been published by Vermont Life, The New York Times, Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Outside, Orion, Vermont Land Trust and National Geographic, among others. Along with Chris Urban and The Vermont Folklife Center, Caleb created The Golden Cage – Mexican Migrant Workers and Vermont Dairy Farmers. This project combines photographs and audio interviews to explore the issue of migrant labor on Vermont farms.
Presentation Description:
What is the relationship between migrant workers and Vermont Dairy Farmers? This session will be focused around Caleb Kenna’s project entitled: The Golden Cage – Mexican Migrant Workers and Vermont Dairy Farmers. This project combines photographs and audio interviews to explore the issue of migrant labor on Vermont farms.The project has raised awareness of the issue of migrant labor in Vermont since it was first created in 2008.
Kelsey Knowles – My Trip to Tanzania, Africa – White 17
Bio:
Kelsey Knowles is a junior at Rutland High School. There, she plays soccer and skis for the Nordic team. She is a member of the Global Studies Advisory Council and part of the Global Studies Concentration. She spent time last summer in Tanzania, teaching English. She plans to take a Gap year between high school and college and return to Tanzania with an organization called Volunteer International HQ for six months.
Presentation Description:
What can YOU do to improve the lives and education of students living in poverty and third world countries? My life was changed after living in Tanzania, Africa for three short weeks. While volunteering there, I taught English to 72 fourth graders at the Himo/ Korona school along with 32 other high school students from all over the world. My experience in Tanzania changed my life. I can’t wait to share the exquisite memories I have of the amazing children at the Himo/ Korona school and the education system in Tanzania. I also want to continue spreading awareness about the conditions of schools in third world countries specifically in Tanzania.
Alvaro Lopez Acosta & Patricia Alonso Schaft – A Year Abroad – Red 24
Bio:
Alvaro Lopez-Acosta is a 16 year old from Madrid, Spain. He has traveled to France, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Maldives, China, Singapore, Mexico, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, India, Vietnam, Bali, Austria, Thailand, Turkey and Indonesia before coming to the US. Obviously he enjoys international travel. In many of these places he has taught Spanish as a second language. He also likes to play tennis and enjoys judo. He may be attending an international school next year, which will afford him the possibility of attending an international university. What a difficult time he will have to narrow his choice after having seen so many interesting places.
Patricia Alonso Schaft is a Cuban American who lives in Proctor, Vermont. Patricia is 29 year world language teacher, and holds a bachelors degree in Spanish and German from Stephen F. Austin. She currently teaches Spanish IV- AP at the high school level, and is the Vermont State Director for the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica. Patricia is cultivating a liaison (sister school) with a school in Lleida, España. She’ll be joined in the presentation by her students Tyler Strusinski, Maricate Magan, Quinn Curtis, Allie Wolf, and Maria Rowe.
Presentation Description:
Alvaro will tell us about his home and speak about what his expectations of American youth culture was before he came to the US and how his opinions have changed, as well as what it is like to be an exchange student. He is well qualified to speak to this topic. He will be followed by Patricia Alonso Schaft and her students discussing a student exchange with Lleida, Spain that is being developed at Rutland High School. Both parts of the presentation will discuss the importance of experiencing a culture outside your own and how full immersion allows for greater empathy and understanding.
Ian Lyle, Shanti Boyle, Leah Kelleher, Henry Weith, Peter Feehan, Emily Goodrich, Dylan Randall, and Lindsay Hallowell – Connecting with Schools Internationally – White 15
Bio:
The students are intermediate French language students at Essex High School. They have been studying French since middle school. They are freshmen and sophomores and this is the first time they have been part of a virtual international exchange.
Presentation Description:
How we can we use easily accessible twenty-first century tools to make learning about language and culture a real time, real world experience that is relevant, fun, and sustainable? Virtual Intercultural Avenues (VIA) is a tool that allows schools, teachers and students to connect internationally. Through blogging, Scopia (a virtual classroom), Twitter, and videos, students learn languages, learn about cultures, and make and sustain real world connections around the world. Through VIA, we learn about the potential to gain cultural knowledge through many different kinds of communication. Through Scopia, Twitter, Vimeo, and Blogger, we are fostering ongoing relationships with sister schools abroad, learning about cultural similarities and differences, and debunking cultural stereotypes.
Bill Mares – What’s the Buzz? Honey Bees and Food Security – Red 21/22
Bio:
Raised in Texas, educated at Harvard, Bill Mares has been a journalist, high school teacher and member of the Vermont House of Representatives. He is the owner of Mares Apiaries and has served as president of the Vermont Beekeepers’ Association. He has authored or co-authored 14 books on subjects ranging from the Marine Corps to workplace democracy to desert travel to presidential fishing. His hobbies include running, homebrewing, beekeeping, singing and fly-fishing. His latest books are Brewing Change co-authored with Rick Peyser,and The Bach Road to Boston. He lives in Burlington, Vermont with his wife of 42 years, Chris Hadsel. Their two sons live and work in Asia and Latin America.
Presentation Description:
How can bees help provide greater food security for coffee farmers in Latin America? As a board member of Food 4 Farmers (food4farmers.org), I have been working for five years to demonstrate how beekeeping can help coffee farmers in Mexico, Nicaragua, and Guatemala supplement their incomes and diets with the products of honey bees–honey, pollen, propolis, wax and pollination. I will show images of our work in Mexico, Nicaragua and Guatemala. Food 4 Farmers has one focus: to help coffee co-operatives and other coffee-growing organizations fight hunger by diversifying farmers’ livelihoods. We work with communities, to build long-term plans and implement effective strategies so farmers can produce food for income or personal consumption, and feed their families, every day. Our initial phase of work — the diagnostic and plan — is completed within weeks, and strategies to implement solutions, like cocoa production, school gardens, beekeeping, community and home gardens, and processed foods, can be up and running within months.
Mira Niagolova – Welcome to Vermont: four stories of resettled identity – Theater
Bio:
Mira Niagolova is an internationally recognized award-winning documentary filmmaker committed to telling socially conscious stories portrayed with sensitivity and compassion.
Presentation Description:
“Welcome to Vermont: four stories of resettled” is a documentary film that offers a nuanced view of lives of forcibly displaced people once they achieve their ultimate desire to resettle in the US and live the American dream. In four vignettes, it takes us inside the daily lives of four families from Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq, and Rwanda who have recently moved to Vermont. The PM session will cover 2 of these segments and be followed by a discussion with Mira.
Jamin Peck – Water: A Global Issue – Red 26
Bio:
Jamin has been with Pure Water since 2007. After traveling to Haiti in 2008, she became even more committed to supporting Pure Water’s mission. Jamin has been instrumental in donor relations, personnel, database management, marketing, public relations, and her newest effort as Pure Water’s program manager. In this new role, Jamin manages programs in Haiti and Honduras as well as marketing and social media.
Presentation Description:
How does the lack of safe drinking water affect those living in developing countries? This presentation will shed light on the water issues around the world, local water issues and what can be done to address these issues. We will also share how Pure Water for the World is providing safe drinking water, hygiene education and sanitation to children and their families living in rural areas of developing countries.
Colleen Bramhall Popkin – Fighting Hunger in the Coffeelands – White 13
Bio:
Colleen Popkin is a Senior Manager in Sustainability at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR). Colleen manages grantmaking to social and environmental projects with the goal of improving the quality of life of farmers and workers in GMCR’s agricultural supply chain. Currently, this represents a multi-million dollar portfolio of 100+ projects in 15+ countries with 45+ grantee organizations, through a fund made possible by GMCR’s annual donation of a percentage of its profits.
Prior to joining GMCR, Colleen was a Senior Manager with Accenture, the global business and technology consulting firm. During her 10+ years consulting, Colleen provided support to multinationals and governments before transitioning to work exclusively with the international development sector on a not-for-profit basis with Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP).
Presentation Description:
What is the role of business in addressing social issues in their global supply chain? Much of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ (GMCR) farm community work has been around food security — a complex, global problem that requires the concerted, coordinated efforts of many organizations and resources. The priority we place on food security at the household level stems from research we conducted in partnership with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), a multi-stakeholder collaboration that identified widespread seasonal hunger as a major threat to the agricultural supply chain. When coffee is out of season, many farm families do not have other sources of income, nor do they have other ways to keep food on the table. To address this ongoing problem, GMCR has supported programs to address food security in our coffee supply chain and has reached out to other coffee companies to galvanize support within the industry for this important issue.
Ken Puzey – Global Safe Water Solutions – White 28
Bio:
Ken Puzey is an inventor that has developed a device to provide a sustainable solution to safe drinking water. The device costs $40 and can provide safe drinking water for 4 people for 15 years. The devices can also be used for cooking. Each device reduces the need to burn 35 tons of wood and avoids 67.9 tons of carbon dioxide production. Recently Mr. Puzey opened a factory in Kisumu Kenya that employs aged out orphans to make the devices.
Presentation Description:
Over 1 billion people don’t have access to safe drinking water which leads to over 1 million deaths per year and 117 million disability adjusted life years lost every year. What steps can we take to help global health, improve the environment, and reduce poverty? What are the impacts of these steps? This presentation will begin with a clear explanation of the problem of safe drinking water around the world, focusing on global health, environmental issues, poverty, and security. We will then talk about what has been done and finally focus on the next steps and action required to solve this problem.
Some information also available on globalsafewater.org and on the Kisumu Kenya Safe Water Project facebook page.
Jean-Francois Rischard – Discussing the Future of the Planet – Red 11, Red 25, Red 27, White 14, White 23
Bio:
Jean-Francois Rischard is the author of High Noon, 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them, which inspired the teachers who originally formed the Global Issues Network. He is a former member of the World Bank.
Presentation Description:
In this video, Rischard speaks to a vision of what the world will look like in the next 40 years. This nineteen minute address was recorded for the October GIN 2013 Conference in Quito, Ecuador, is reprised here in Rutland. Just as in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities , he says that it will be the “best of times and the worst of times.”
A facilitated discussion will follow. Some of his talking points include the aging shift, oil depletion, the ecological footprint, and global warming.
Dr. Stephen Sterns – Turning the ME into the WE, “Life in the Interesting Zone” – Red 17
Bio:
Dr. Stearns has a Masters in Directing, Doctorate in Shakespeare and Post Doctorate in Acting from LAMDA in England. He’s founded: The Horizon’s Project, artists in residence, 1977, The New England Youth Theatre (NEYT) 1998, The Maria’s Children Orphan’s Arts Camp in Russia, 2001, and The Theater Program at Gifft Hill School, St. John, USVI, 2007. Stephen and Peter Gould formed Gould & Stearns Clown Theater in 1980. They’ve written ten plays and performed over 4,500 shows. Their play, A Peasant Of El Salvador has won national awards and been performed from across the globe from L.A. to South Africa, twice at the Edinburgh Festival, once at England’s National Theater. Stephen has written four musicals, and in 2012 received the Vermont Governor’s Award for Excellence In the Arts, a life-time achievement award. His Youth Theatre teaches students life skills that assist them in leading creative, productive and fulfilling lives.
Presentation Description:
Learning the keys to building a sound philosophy of life in order to develop an indestructible internal core that will, in turn, enable participants to tackle global issues with independent thinking and confidence. Through dialogue discussion, students will learn the power of positive thinking, keeping one’s mind on the things one wants and off the things one does not want, and will ponder the question, “What do I really want, and am I willing to pay the price?”
Dr. Gail Stevenson – Global Careers – White 16
Bio:
Dr. Gail Stevenson is the Executive Director of the Vermont Council on World Affairs. She has been involved in global education since the age of 16. She has had many global experiences that have helped shaped her worldview and career as a teacher and provider of global education.
Presentation Description:
What does it mean to work in a global world and what can you do to prepare yourself for it? Gail Stevenson is the Executive Director of the Vermont Council on World Affairs. How and why does it fulfill its mission to “bring the world to Vermont and Vermont to the world?” She will share personal experiences that have shaped her global career over many years and learn about your interests. The VCWA is now in its 63rd year. Still, only 35 % of US citizens have a passport. After more than three years of combat and nearly 2,400 U.S. military deaths in Iraq, nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 could not find Iraq on a map. Less than six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 33 percent could not point out Louisiana on a U.S. map.Education about the world sustains us in every way and is critical to the future of Vermont, the US and the world.
Jennifer Musick Wright – Be the Change: You’re Not too Young to Change the World! – Red 16
Bio:
After graduating from Mill River UHS in 2005, Jennifer attended Wagner College in New York City where she graduated in 2009 with a BA in International Affairs and French Studies. During her senior year in high school, she volunteered at an orphanage in Zimbabwe. This experience changed her life and marked the beginning of her journey with HEAL. In 2007 she volunteered at another orphanage in Kenya. It was during this trip that she decided to open her own orphanage. Seven months later, HEAL Raising Our World Foundation, Inc. was founded as a New York State not-for-profit.
Today, HEAL cares for 54 children at an orphanage in Kenya, and recently opened a secondary school, where 46 children receive an education. Jennifer dedicates her time and her heart to the mission of HEAL. She spends part of the year in Kenya supervising the development of the orphanage and school, and the other part in Vermont and around the US, where she raises money, rallies volunteers and spreads the word about the work of HEAL.
Presentation Description:
How can we break the cycle of poverty that has resulted in so many children living in unbearable conditions? How can YOU make a difference in our world today? When Jennifer set out to build an orphanage at the age of 22, many people doubted that she would succeed. Through determination, and always believing that she could, her dream has been realized. Join Jennifer as she shares her journey, and the work that her organization does with orphans and vulnerable children that is crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty in Kenya and beyond. Hear the stories of children that will inspire you to reach for your own dreams. We all have a part to play in making our world a better place. This presentation will show you that you’re not too young to make a difference today!