Making the World Better . . . 20 Solutions at a Time

A dozen Santa Cruz Cooperative School students selected through a competitive process will be attending a Global Issues Network (GIN) conference taking place at Theodore Roosevelt School in Lima, Peru starting October 19.

 GIN is an organization that brings together teenagers all over the world to try to find solutions to the major issues they will face in their lifetimes. The hope is that they can unite as a single community and work on building a better future.  GIN was inspired by the book “High Noon: 20 Global Problems and 20 Years To Solve Them” by Frenchman John-Francois Rischard, the World Bank vice-president for Europe.

The author breaks the 20 issues into 3 groups. Group one (sharing our planet) includes global warming, biodiversity, deforestation, and pollution. Group two (sharing our humanity) includes poverty, peacekeeping, education, and disease-Group three (sharing our rule book) includes biotechnology, international finance, intellectual property rights, and migration rules. 

     Schools that participate in the Association of American Schools in South America (AASSA) will attend the Lima conference. It is designed to bring together students from all over the continent to work for a good cause hand-in-hand with their teachers. This conference involves people from many different backgrounds, and allows everyone to practice being leaders. The students from each school have the opportunity to showcase action projects from their schools that address one of the critical global issues.

      Santa Cruz Cooperative School has the privilege to participate in this prestigious conference this year for the first time. Librarian Rebecca Battistioni has offered her time and energy to guide the students, which is appropriate since Battistoni engineered SCCS’ participation in GIN. She heard about GIN when she traveled to Brazil to attend an AASSA conference, and GIN conference came up.  She believed that SCCS students would enjoy taking part.  

After she returned, she asked the school´s director William McKelligott if she could put the group together, and, without hesitation, he agreed. To join the group students had to pass through the two phases of the selection process. The first consisted of a short application. Battistoni said that it was difficult to narrow the number of students because she believed many had done an excellent job on the applications.

 In phase two, high school principal Nicholaas Mostert and Battistoni interviewed the students who survived phase one, and chose the ones they believed would contribute most to the GIN group.

 Those finally chosen include six seniors: Jorge Melgar, Samuel Melgar, Carla Limpias, Ana Paula Peredo, Sofia Sotelo, and Maria Velasco; five juniors: Anna Sophia Rivero, Maria FernandaVillegas, Hyun Kim, Paola Querejazu, and Karolina Guzman; and one sophomore, Jorge Zankis.  

       After the team was created, biodiversity in Bolivia was chosen as the topic the group would present at the conference. Over the past few months the group has worked closely with the Santa Cruz Zoo, learning about and helping to build new environments for the animals there. In the process the students learned how important it was to preserve many different aspects of the animals’ natural habitat, said Ms Battistoni. The students later served as tour guides for people enjoying a day the zoo. The group has also done fundraisers like bake sales to raise money for the trip.  

The participants are looking forward to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join in this prestigious organization’s efforts to find solutions to global problems, while also learning more about their own country. They are eager to be part of this effort to bring together youth to focus on these problems, and are already putting to use the philosophy expressed in the GIN slogan, “Building New Futures by Breaking Old Habits.”

                                                                                -By Ximena Fagan and Andrea Gutierrez

My Best Photography

Smiling Jaguars!

All so beautiful!

Sebastian Vedia

Manuel Saavedra

Celebrating!

Chanting Cheerleaders

 

Take it Easy Griffins!

Horses

Red Team Beautiful Girls

The Middle School Medieval Day

                The Middle School Medieval Day was a great turn out for the kids. Their houses put in a lot of effort into making beautiful costumes out of recycled materials and code of arms to represent their house colors. Red, white and black had a fun time in these medieval games. Roberto Maureria form 8^th grade said that he and his teammates took about two to three weeks building and decorating their white costumes. “I really do believe my house has a HUGE chance to win today” said Roberto.

                After the games inside the coliseum, Maureen Harrison from 8^th grade said that the red house was doing well so far but that they were beginning to get tired and very hot. She also recommended that for the next activity she would like to see water games because it was over 30°.

                After a lunch break the rest of the game took part outside. There was a sand castle competition which all the girls were very excited about. Also in the other end of the field there was one of the major competitions of the day the horse challenge. Naria Rodriguez from the white house was the first to compete against Natalia Medina from the black house. “It was one of the most amusing competitions of the day!”Said Jose Mario Zambrana. Natalia beat Naira but she did not seem too happy about the results. Ms. Rodriguez was later interviewed and said that even though Natalia was chosen as the winner she wanted a rematch, which was later on won by Natalia.

                Annalee Davis form 6^th grade mentioned that even though she had a fun time, there were many arguments about points and who won what. She also said that she wouldn’t mind if there were some water games or something to cool off for the next time they had some sort of activity like this one. Jose Carlos Paz seemed to agree with Annalee recommending that there should be water games or actual spots. “I think that people in the medieval times would have enjoyed modern games like capture the flag or a slip and slide! I know I would like it!” he said as he let out a laugh.

                

Applying Lessons Learned in Barcelona

      Jason Hershberger, the current head of the English department and 10^th and 11^h grade English teacher, arrived at Santa Cruz Cooperative School in August after several years of teaching in the Benjamin Franklin International School in Barcelona, Spain, and with great expectations that he can improve the learning levels of English here.

     Hershberger, 38, was born in Akron n Ohio, and graduated from   Miami University in Ohio, where he studied English literature and political science. . Afterward, he moved to Oregon and studied medieval literature at Portland State University. But he says he found that this was more of an expensive hobby rather than a real preparation for life, and so he only studied it for a year. Later on he decided to move to Barcelona, Spain, and obtained a certificate to teach English as a second language.

     For a year, Jason Hershberger tutored adults and children in English and also was a frequent substitute at the Benjamin Franklin International School. After a year of substituting in many subjects, the school offered him a job in the English department. That was when he earned a certificate to become an international teacher from Cambridge University.

     He prepared students in their freshman and sophomore years for the International Baccalaureate program that they would enter in junior and senior year. This IB program is a demanding secondary curriculum that many international schools are offering in an effort to establish a common standard. At the school he met the women who would become his wife, who was also a teacher. After eight years of teaching in Barcelona, they were offered jobs in Santa Cruz and accepted the new challenge.

      There were two main reasons that Mr. Hershberger became a teacher, one professional and one personal. He likes having a vibrant life that allows him to travel and learn about new things and places. Being a teacher has also permitted him to practice his favorite hobbies like reading and writing. With his traveling across Europe, Hershberger has gained new interest in cooking and enjoying appetizing food. He has also been learning Spanish in Barcelona, which has made his move to Santa Cruz easier. He remains a fan of the Spanish soccer team, Barcelona, but also enjoys watching and practicing many sports.

     His main goal as the head of the English department in elementary through high school is to require more reading and writing from all the students, and to raise the standards of achievement in these areas. To be able to change the student’s way of thinking and learning, he recommends that students always remember that “you will achieve whatever you put your heart and mind into.” Never question yourself, he advises, and don’t simply hope to get good grades, but earn them, by working hard and exercising responsibility.  

-- Ximena Fagan