 |
2013 Summer Academy Evening Activities
July 15,16,17,22,23,24
The Evening Program of the Summer Academy is designed to give students the opportunity to work outside of their daytime course discipline. A combination of inspiration drawn from community professionals, Ted Talks, local movements, and knowledge from their classes will act as a springboard for students to tackle complex world problems. Students will balance understanding leverage points for change with action plans to address challenges on scales from personal, to local, and global levels.
Evening Program Coordinator:
Ryan Morra
Ryan Morra holds an MS in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont, in which he worked to implement a community education program in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico focusing on the integration of cultural and natural landscape history. He has worked as a high school science teacher, an environmental educator with the Green Mountain Club, and has led high school crews with the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. He will be continuing to work with the PLACE Program – a joint place-based education program of UVM and Shelburne Farms – during the coming year.
Themes
- Integrated, multi-disciplinary, working outside of discipline, group, area of study
- Creating new norms
- Changing the world on multiples scales – personal behaviors and norms to community-wide, organizational, global
- Framing the Solutions – balance understanding the problem with leverage points, action plans, implementation, longevity
Tentative Schedule
Monday, 7/15, 5:30-8:30 PM:
Bread and Butter Farm –Burger night and music. Our group will load into busses and have dinner at the Bread and Butter Farm http://www.breadandbutterfarm.com/, a diversified community farm in South Burlington. Bread and Butter puts together weekly burger nights with beef, buns, and salads raised, grown, and baked on the farm and veggie burgers sourced from other Vermont farms. This evening of music and food will give students a chance to enjoy the Vermont landscape, get to know each other, throw a Frisbee, tour the farm, and hang out to some of our local sounds, sights, and food.
Tuesday, 7/16, 7:00-8:30 PM:
Guest speakers, discussions, and dessert – “Be the change”: Local professionals in a variety of fields will join us to discuss their work in terms of service to the human and global condition on multiple scales. Speakers will talk with students about leverage points for change in the next 20 years in their professions.
Wednesday, 7/17, 7:00-9:00: Film and Discussion.
Drawing inspiration through Ted Talks across the world
Monday, 7/22 – Committee: A Case Study in Admissions
In this workshop students will dive into the college application process by assuming the role of a college admissions counselor at a mock university. Students will work with professional admissions counselors to gain insight into the admissions process by analyzing transcripts, reading essays, delving into letters of recommendation, and reviewing the Common Application.
Tuesday, July 23-Wednesday, July 24: 7:00-9:00 PM:
Insight Lab: This two-evening activity draws from the Insight Labs’ model of bringing problem solvers together from multiple industries and organizations to solve problems in small periods of time. http://www.theinsightlabs.org/ Working in multidisciplinary teams, students come up with a solution to a major problem in our country or world – i.e. Type II Diabetes, the focus of American schools, loss of biodiversity, overconsumption- and come up with a comprehensive plan to present and defend to a panel of peers and instructors.
Daytime Activities:
Friday, 7/19, 8:30am-5:30pm
The Jay Day
This includes ice skating, tram ride, lunch, and indoor water park.
A bus will need to leave UVM by 8:30AM and return by 5:30PM.