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View the GIV 2009 Newsletter

 

2010 Summer Media articles:

Arts Institute


Sustainable Engineering

 

Engineering/Robotics

 

All GIV Institutes

 

STUDENTS BRUSH UP ON ROBOTICS AT VERMONT INSTITUTE

 

By Tim Johnson, Free Press Staff Writer

 

Constructed from Legos, the robot built by Matthew Chambers and Dillon Welch was a work in progress.

 

A day after they started putting it together, it could move across a table. Whether they could get it to perform a higher-order task -- picking up trash -- remained to be seen. They had another day or so to figure that out, but not before they heard a quick disquisition on adaptive robots by one of the University of Vermont's resident experts, Josh Bongard.

 

So it goes for technically inclined high school students during the annual Engineering Institute, a heady week full of intellectual challenges and diversions on the UVM campus.

 

Engineering is just one of seven summer enrichment programs held throughout the summer, and across the state, sponsored by the Governor's Institutes of Vermont. For 330 motivated high school students, the offerings range from arts, Asian cultures and activism to science, math and technology.

 

Renewable energy and robotics are among the hot topics in the engineering week. Typical activities include a sand-arch-building competition (on beach day, weather permitting) and designing innovative wind turbines.

 

Bongard, an assistant professor of computer science, regaled 14 students Tuesday afternoon with video clips of his celebrated "starfish" robot, which taught itself how to move -- if not exactly walk -- and then managed to learn how to keep moving after one of its legs was removed.

 

Creating machines that can adapt to changing conditions is a major focus in robotics these days, Bongard said. It's also a major interest of NASA, which wants to field robots that can keep functioning as they prowl the surface of Mars, say, even after they stumble into something unexpected, or fall off a cliff.

 

The starfish, which Bongard developed with colleagues at Cornell, essentially was programmed to be curious -- in that it considered all possible ways to move before choosing one and rejecting the others. That a machine could go through such a selection process suggests a form of consciousness, Bongard said. And what's especially stimulating about adaptive robotic research, he said, is that it's interdisciplinary, drawing from biology, psychology, neuroscience.

 

He also showed a clip of a robot known as "Big Dog," walking on four legs through woods and snow, slipping on ice.

 

After the lecture, Chambers, 17, of Fairfax, Va., and Welch, 16, of Duxbury turned their attention back to their own creation.

 

Their assignment, as Chambers described it, was "to build something that would help people do something."

 

They settled on a trash-picking device, which they were hoping would be adaptive in its own way. It was equipped with one sensor that's supposed to make it avoid obstacles as it moves across a floor, and another sensor to detect objects to be picked up with a kind of claw and then deposited in a receptacle.

 

That was how it was supposed to work, anyway.

 

"We still have to program it," Welch said.

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HARVARD GRAD CHOSEN AS DIRECTOR OF VERMONT GOVERNOR'S INSTITUTES ON THE ARTS


Harvard graduate Elizabeth Dotson-Westphalen returns to Vermont this summer to become the Director of the Governor’s Institute on the Arts.  Woodstock, Vermont native Elizabeth Dotson-Westphalen has been based in Brooklyn, New York since completing studies in psychology and neuroscience at Harvard. She has traveled all over the United States as a jazz trombonist, vocalist, and educator, and has performed internationally in South America, Europe, Canada, and the Caribbean. Her professional credits include national television (Conan O’Brien, Good Morning America, The Today Show) and employers such as Michael Bolton, Jill Sobule, Matt Wilson, Kenny Wollesen, and St. Vincent. She has just returned from teaching underprivileged music students about jazz in Ecuador, and her next album is due out later this year. Learn more at www.elizabethjazz.com


Elizabeth believes that giving back to the artistic community - and to Vermont – is an essential part of being an artist. She attended the Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts (GIA) in 1994, and is thrilled to have a hand in affording other Vermont students the opportunities she has gained from the arts. Her team members include several other alums of the program - Sarah Yorra, an educator, film maker, and actress, and Corey Harrower, a dance artist.


GIA (www.giaofvt.org) is a two-week summer arts-enrichment residency program for approximately 115 Vermonthigh school students entering 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. The program is part of the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont (www.giv.org), which presents seven summer Institutes in different subject areas (Arts, Asian Cultures, Current Issues & Youth Activism, Engineering, Information Technology, Mathematics, and Science & Technology).


Since 1984, students from around the state have gathered to create an unique and fun learning community while taking classes with experienced, professional teaching artists. GIA is not specifically a gifted and talented program, but exists to offer students with all kinds of interests the opportunity to try something new, embrace different perspectives and make connections with peers across the state.


GIA strives to offer classes unlikely to appear in Vermont high schools’ art curricula while providing students the opportunity to study and collaborate with professional artists and to make new friends. Each day is filled with classes in two artistic disciplines (chosen from such diverse fields as dance, theater, writing, music, and visual arts), community chorus, evening performances, and chances to attend and lead workshops in many areas.


The program’s cost is half of the national average, and financial aid is available. GIV also encourages students to raise funds through their local Rotary and Lions clubs, as well as small donations from local businesses. Applications are closed for 2010, but interested students can apply through their schools in February 2011.


GIA will be held at Castleton State College from June 27 to July 11, 2010. All are welcome to line Castleton's Main Street at 10amon Saturday, July 3 for the Annual Samba Parade, which features giant puppets, live music, and many surprises!

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KAREN TAYLOR MITCHELL HAS BEEN APPOINTED THE NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont (GIV), the state’s flagship provider of high-quality educational enrichment experiences for motivated high-school students in Vermont.

Taylor Mitchell holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor of Arts from Middlebury College.  Her background includes work with Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, Safe Tables Our Priority, and the Austine School for the Deaf in Brattleboro.  Taylor Mitchell also served as proprietor of Taymitch & Associates LLC, a local consulting firm, and teaches in the business school at St. Michael’s College. 

Taylor Mitchell takes over at GIV from Jean Olson, who announced plans to retire last year after 16 years of leading the organization.  Olson was only the third director in the history of the Governor’s Institutes, which were founded in 1982 through a partnership between the Department of Education, the Vermont Arts Council and private funders to address gaps in public high school curriculums.  Today, the Governor’s Institutes provide intensive residential learning experiences on college campuses to more than 300 students from 65 schools throughout Vermont.  

Taylor Mitchell joins the Governor’s Institutes at a busy time, as students and staff gear up for this summer’s seven Institutes in Math, Arts, Science and Technology, Asian Studies, Engineering, Information Technology and Current Issues and Youth Activism.  Students in 9th through 11th grade are nominated by their schools for their potential and interest in each area and are accepted without regard to ability to pay tuition.  Studying alongside professionals in the field, meeting peers with similar academic interests, and exploring responsibility for their own learning combine to create an experience that many participants refer to as “life-changing.”  

Taylor Mitchell describes GIV’s leadership priorities as follows: “Teens tell us that the Governor’s Institutes programs are extraordinarily powerful, and our aim is to provide them to every student in Vermont who can benefit. We’ll be focusing on getting the word out to all qualified students and schools and making sure nominees can participate regardless of financial barriers.”

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The author of the following article is Tom Tailor, co-Director of the Engineering Institute, Courtney Devoid is a Mathematics, Engineering and Winter Weekend GIV alum.  VSHI is a idea that grew from the GIV Winter Weekend.

Vermont Sustainable Heating Initiative field notes                              Jan 22, 2010

Courtney Devoid is a high school senior. I am a physics teacher.  We are part of a volunteer group called Vermont Sustainable Heating Initiative (VSHI).  We have installed pellet stoves in low income Vermont homes to provide safe,  affordable heat, and decrease the carbon foot print of those most in need.  We were able to visit three of the clients we have installed stoves for on Friday.  I believe every Vermonter has a need and a right to be warm.  All of the clients we work with own their own homes.  Two of the three visits were emotionally hard on me.  This is why.

Mrs.R in Lincoln Vt.

                    When we arrived at her house we knocked.  A minute later we heard her call for us to enter.  She was seated in her wheel chair.  Courtney asked her a series of questions from a form on how the stove was meeting her needs.  The pellet stove was running on a 5/5 setting.  It had been below zero that morning.  The modified trailer was warm and toasty.  Mrs. R said that when her arthritis kicks in she just wheels over and stays right in front of the stove.  She buys a few bags of pellets at a time.  She loves her stove and gave it a ten out of ten rating for how well it has worked for her.  She was the happiest I have ever seen her.  One of her cats was asleep in front of the pellet stove.  Her entire house has been built from recycled scrap from the land fill.  She has no extra money.  I have never seen her leave her wheel chair.  The floor is rough planks but she can get her chair over the uneven places.  The house has no extra decorations.  She is happy and warm.   

Next we went to visit the up side down house in Starksbrough Vt.   (The bed rooms are on the ground floor and the kitchen is on the second floor, hence up side down.)  The owner was recently diagnosed with cancer.  Her first string of chemo is over.   She asked if we wished her to put on her wig.  I said no, not unless she wanted to.  We talked with her about her cancer.  I told her that my mother had died in March and had been a cancer survivor.  This conversation was good for both of us.  We had helped to install the stove in a room next to her bed room.  She said it does not provide heat where she needs it.  We talked about moving it to the basement beneath her bed room and then cutting a vent in the floor to let the heat up.

A major issue for her is that she frequently has power outages for a day or more.  We set up a battery bank with an inverter to convert the 12 volt DC power to 120 volt AC to run the pellet stove.  The inverter that we provided was not of sufficient size.  On Friday we brought and installed a 1500 watt inverter.  This required larger gauge wire and a new connection.  While setting this up I asked her what she did when she lost power to keep her pipes from freezing.  She said she prayed.  Two weeks before she had lost power and had used a propane space heater in her hall out side her bed room.  In the middle of the night she had woken up to three foot flames shooting out the top of the space heater.  It was also not vented out side the house.  She was able to keep it from burning down her house.  By moving the pellet stove and inverter to the basement it will keep her pipes form freezing and be a safe system.  We all packed into the small room and talked about what she needed.  I explained that the work the ststudents had done with her had changed their lives.  She asked how.  I told her that one of the tough guys had shared his VSHI work during a discussion with his friends who were not part of VSHI.  They commented that it had changed his life in positive ways.  I told her that what she was doing with the pellet stove was helping people other that her self.  We were learning how to make her system work when the power goes out.  She started crying and gave me a hug. I held her shaved head against my cheek.  We scheduled a time next week when the students can move her stove and the inverter to the basement.

 

The third family we visited was Ms. S. also in Starksbrough Vt.  We knocked on the door and were let into the main room of the trailer.  Courtney and I were shocked to see that the wood stove we had replaced with a pellet stove had been set back up and was running next to the pellet system.  The stove was forty years old, the grates were missing and it leaked.  We asked why they were running it.  They had no money, had run out of pellets and were desperate.  They had burned the last of their wood from the year before and a neighbor had given them some wood.  The small pile looked like some one had gathered it in the woods by hand.  The small sticks were mostly rotten.  The wood stove was improperly installed with no heat shielding from a wall four inches behind it.  It did not have appropriate thermal protection from the floor.  The elderly man in the house is very ill.  His shoulder does not work well and he is not supposed to handle fire wood.  He had no choice.  He looked in great pain.

They had enough wood to last a few hours.

We drove back to town and purchased three 40# bags of pellets.   We returned to deliver the pellets.  This will get them through the weekend.   We will set up a program to make sure they have pellets.  I have faith that the local students and I will be able to raise the money.  When we dropped off the pellets all Ms. S said was “Thank you.”  We said “You’re welcome.”  You should have seen the look on her face.   Quiet desperation slightly eased by hope.  

There were three other homes we were suppose to visit that day.  Courtney said she would get to them that afternoon.  Last year the average Vermont LIHEAP fuel assistance was about $1,700.  This year the funding was cut and the average is about $1,100.  Some of the families have spent all of their fuel aid money and are now desperate.  The support system is failing.

45% of LIHEAP clients are elderly,  disabled or both. 

If we can not afford to help these household to stay in their homes it will impact the state in many ways.  By far the most humane and cost effective thing we can do is to help these people live in their own homes.  Will we let our disabled neighbors freeze or have to leave their houses?  What is the sense of that?   

I have learned from the work I do with these families.  I have learned from the impact it has had on the teenagers who do the work with me.  I have learned that at the end of some very scenic Vermont roads there are desperate people at the end of their resources.  I believe that part of teaching physics is more than the equations of efficiency and power.  Part of teaching is what it means to be a human being and how those equations can be used to keep our poorest neighbors warm during the worst challenges of their lives.

I believe that in Vermont we have the resources to provide affordable safe heat.  Pellet fuel can be produced in a way that will produce jobs, keep our heating dollars in the state economy, and be environmentally sound.  We need to make that transition now.  I believe we can be sustainable and heat every Vermonter.

Tom Tailer is a physics teacher at Mt. Abraham UHS in Bristol. Vt.

VSHI is a volunteer organization that has installed pellet stoves in Washington and Addison Counties for clients that receive fuel assistance.  

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Opening Young Minds to New Ideas!

“This was the most enlightening experience I’ve ever had.” Student

Want to make a difference in the world? Want a challenge? Freshman, sophomores and juniors have the opportunity to start solving the world’s sustainability issues and tackle local and global issues through the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont (GIV).

On February 13, GIV will kick off 2010 with their ”GIV Winter Weekend Workshop” at Montpelier High School from 9 to 5 pm.  This is the first of eight Institutes – seven others will be held this summer.  The GIV Winter Weekend asks students to share their ideas on some very tough topics:

What are the chances for world peace in this decade? Could eating locally literally change world economics? Could drinking water become extinct? What would a future post-consumer world look like? Can future robots help physically challenged individuals?  

Presenters will empower students with skills necessary to effectively communicate and support change during their lifetime as they gain an understanding of current issues and a share their thoughts and ideas.  The GIV Winter Weekend topics are ‘snap shots’ of what the GIV Summer Institutes are all about.


GIV Winter Workshops topics include: 

Localavore: How to Eat Locally; Water, Resources and War; Palestine and Israel; What are the chances for Peace?; Gender Issues and Roles, Gaming by Design; Political Action Starts With You; Robotics; Living With a Disability; What Is It Like To Be a Student In Vermont From Another Country?; Fashion For A Post-Consumer World; and twenty other topics chosen by students.

The web site contains a student application that can be printed, completed, and mailed with a $15 fee to:  The Governor’s Institutes of Vermont, 100 State Street, Suite 334, Montpelier, VT 05602. 

GIV’s 2010 Summer Adventures of a Lifetime

Seven other GIV Summer Institutes provide high school students the opportunity to continue exploring and learning moee about exciting career fields such as:

  • Dance, choreography, music, performance, composition, painting, drawing, graphics, sculpture, writing, theater
  • Asia's language, Chinese and Japanese cultures, customs, and issues, and experience hands-on and academic activities
  • Livable wages, child labor, HIV/AIDS, terrorism, Iraq, immigration, poverty, school quality, human trafficking, landmines, separation of church & State, gender, & civil liberties
  • Engineering (civil, electrical, mechanical and aeronautical) sustainability, wind energy, and robotics
  • Web strategy and design, Photoshop, electronic game design, and digital video, html and object-oriented programming
  • Mathematics, probability and statistics, fair division and fair apportionment, and problem solving in geometry and enumeration
  • Soils, geology, botany, landscape analysis, hydrology, and water chemistry

The seven GIV Summer Institutes are:

ARTS - June 27 - July 11 - Castleton State College 

ASIAN CULTURES - June 20 – June 26     - University of Vermont - Asian Studies Program

CURRENT ISSUES & YOUTH ACTIVISM  - June 29 to July 10 - School of International Training, Brattleboro, VT                                                 

ENGINEERING - June 26 – July 3  -University of Vermont, College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences                                                           

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - June 19 - June 27 - Champlain College, Burlington, VT                                         

MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES  - June 20 - June 25  - University of Vermont, Department of Mathematics and Statistics                                          

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY  - June 20 – June 27  - University of Vermont, Geology Department

Easy To Apply

Application forms are available on line: www.giv.org

Students interested need to print and complete the application and bring to their high school counselor by March 15 together with two recommendation letters, a parent signature and the application fee of $25. Grade point average or class standing are not the principal criteria for acceptance to GIV.

Leader of Governor’s Institutes of Vermont to Retire

 Jean Olson

After 17 years of service, Jean Olson has announced she will retire as of March 1, 2010 from the position of Executive Director of The Governor’s Institutes of Vermont (GIV).  Olson has spent over 30 years in education from teaching in private and public schools, to a  stint teaching English as a second language to mainland Turkish students in North Cyprus, to her most recent role of GIV’s Executive Director.

“I grew up in a small town in Vermont and had a variety of interests coupled with an utter lack of focus or direction. I would have loved to have been able to participate in one of these Institutes as a high school student,” says Olson. 

Olson has contributed to the significant “life-changing” outcomes students have received as participants. During Olson’s tenure thousands of Vermont high school students have been able to visualize their futures, rehearse their dreams, and experience what it is like to be a college student living on campus in a residential dorm through GIV’s one and two- week summer Institutes.

Olson was the first-generation student in her family to go to college. Her parents agreed college was a good idea but did not know what happened there, and therefore, could not offer much support during her college years. 

“While I was pretty secure in my academic skills, I was shy in college and had no idea why I was there”, says Olson. “I was terrified of living with a strange roommate, finding my way to classes, and figuring out where I would sit in dining halls. I stayed because my parents thought a college degree would be something good for me to fall back on.”  Olson goes on to say, “as I leave it is interesting to understand that I recently received a doctorate in education from UVM because of the stimulation and inspiration of working with GIV’s students.  This time I did know what I was doing in school.”


New Executive Director Search

The GIV Board of Directors are working to complete the final stage for hiring a new Executive Director for GIV – with an announcement to be made soon.

For more information on each Institute, visit the GIV web site: www.giv.org

Dawn Densmore, Director, Outreach & Public Relations, UVM, College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Phone: 802-656-8748

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BURLINGTON FREE PRESS, DECEMBER 22, 2009 – NOMINATIONS FOR VERMONTER OF THE YEAR


The Free Press asked readers to nominate someone "who has made a difference this year or through a lifetime of work; someone who stepped up in a time of need or proved to be a leader; someone whose acts or accomplishments embodied the best of Vermont."


In response, we received well over 100 nominations this year, offering a range of strong candidates for recognition. Look for more nomination letters Dec. 29. Starting Monday, the Free Press will feature one popular nominee each day, with the Vermonter of the Year announced Jan. 1.


Tom Tailer


I nominate Tom Tailer, physics teacher at Mount Abraham Union High School, for Vermonter of the Year.


Since the early 1990s there has been close scrutiny of the educational achievement of American students. President Obama recently observed that American students ranked low in mathematics and science compared to students from countries around the world. ... Mr. Tailer's teaching methods create high interest for students. I have read articles in newspapers for several years about his students competing in science competitions at UVM, where they have won numerous prizes. ...


If I were commissioner of education in this state I would be looking to highlight Mr. Tailer's talents to motivate educators in this state and would certainly broadcast his talents to the president and secretary of education in Washington, D.C.


KEITH L. HALL, New Haven

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GIV's EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JEAN OLSON IS THE 2009 RECIPIENT OF THE NEW ENGLAND FRIEND OF THE GIFTED AWARD

The selection was a unanimous decision, taking into account her years as ED at GIV as well as her advocacy, study and action for gifted adolescents.  The award was given at the New England Conference October 22-24 in Nashua, NH.

 

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National Conference of Governor’s Schools Meeting in Vermont

GIV hosted the 2009 Annual Meeting of the National Conference of Governor’s Schools which was held October 22 – 24 in Burlington, Vermont.  The meeting was jointly hosted by the New York State Summer School for the Arts and The Governor’s Institutes of Vermont.  The theme of this year’s Annual Meeting was “Challenges”.  Governor’s Schools around the country are facing difficult challenges at the same time they challenge their students to excel.  Members processed with speakers and workshop facilitators to examine innovative ways to identify and respond to current challenges individual states are facing.

The keynote speaker was Jean Olson, Ed.D., Executive Director of The Governor’s Institutes of Vermont and President Elect of NCOGS.  Her talk was based on her recent doctoral research, The Educational Experiences of High Performing Adolescents in Vermont.   

The Governor's School movement dates back to 1963 when Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina established the first special residential summer program for gifted students. Several other states followed suit in the next few years - Georgia and South Carolina among them - all focusing on innovative, non-traditional approaches to learning. The movement remained steady, but gradual, when suddenly in the early 1980s, it burgeoned. Several things happened at once. Governors, educators, and business and community leaders in the less affluent states became concerned about the "brain drain" from their states. Elsewhere, others recognized that traditional education was neither developing the potential nor sufficiently challenging their brightest and best students.

The Governor’s Institutes of Vermont was created in 1983 to serve high potential learners in the Arts.  It has since grown to seven summer Institutes in the arts, sciences, mathematics, and youth activism serving more than 400 Vermont high school students each year.

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Governor’s Institutes of Vermont Honors Outgoing Director of the Arts Institute

Donny Osman has announced his retirement as Director of the Governor’s Institute (GIV) on the Arts after more than twenty years of service. His work has impacted the lives of hundreds of students who participated in the “GIV Institute on the Arts” held each summer at Castleton State College in Castleton, Vermont.

“In honor of his legacy, the GIV has announced the creation of the “Donny Osman Scholarship for the Arts Award”, says Jean Olson, Executive Director of GIV. “The Scholarship will be awarded yearly to an artistically and financially qualified student who enrolls in the Arts Institute.”

“It’s an extreme honor to have GIV create a student scholarship in my name,” said Osman. “Through it, more lives can be transformed by the experience of living and studying with outstanding professional artists during this two week Institute.”

Osman served on the Vermont House of Representatives from 1996 to 2002. He received his BA at Goddard College and founded the Two Penny Theater Company in 1973 which performed at the Lincoln Center and at the Eleventh Festival of American Theater in Florence, Italy. He created “The Donny Osman Theater Productions” and taught theatre workshops at public schools, colleges, and community groups throughout the United States and Europe. Osman served as a member of the Vermont State College System, The Vermont Arts Council, the Head Start Policy Council, and the Washington County Mental health Association. He currently is a board member of the Central Vermont Community Partnership and for the Central Vermont Community Action Committee, and most recently served as Director for the Central Vermont Early Childhood Council.

“Experiencing artistic excellence, challenge, excitement, and exploring what it means to ‘be the best they can be’ is what happens during the GIV Institute on the Arts, says Elizabeth Dotson-Westphalen, former student from the GIV Arts Institute who will replace Osman as Director in 2010. She looks forward to witnessing the transformation that occurs when students learn to take risks and try new things including creating giant puppets for the yearly community 4th of July parade!

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Tom and Beth Tailer

When Mount Mansfield Union High School junior Hailey Burkhart returns from Taiwan this week, she won’t have only represented her country in an international competition — she also will have also worked with teenagers from around the world to solve some of the earth challenges of her generation.

Burkhart, 16, of Westford, along with two other high-school students from Monkton and Underhill, are part of the U.S. team participating in the third annual International Earth Science Olympiad. The competition, which began last Monday and continues until this Tuesday, takes place in Taipei, the Taiwanese capital, and aims at raising public awareness of earth science among students across the globe.

The event also promotes international cooperation between students and recognizes the talented youth in the realm of the natural sciences.

“If we’re going to solve the problems of global climate change, it’ll require the next generation to work together as scientists and human beings,” said team leader Tom Tailer, a physics teacher at Mount Abraham Union Middle/High School in Bristol.

Tailer and his wife, Beth, are escorting the team, which also includes three students from New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. At the competition, the kids mingled with students from the other 19 participating countries during a team field investigation that occurred after written and practical examinations, Tailer explained a few days before departing for Taiwan earlier this month.

“They will visit an earthquake site and evaluate a fault for the destructive power it may have,” he said. That’s why students were selected not only for their knowledge in earth science but also for their abilities to be good ambassadors, he said.

“I’m really hoping to do well on the test,” said Burkhart, “but the discussion and experience is what I’m probably looking forward to most.”

She said she is concerned with issues of environmental sustainability, and her interest in this and other aspects of earth science grew after she read “The Fate of The Elephant” by Douglas Chadwick.

“In biology I read this book on elephants and the problems they were facing between poaching and the changes in their habitat due to climate change,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I always knew that global warming was affecting the world and causing the creatures in it to adapt or die, but reading it really opened my eyes. Our choices as humans have not only caused us problems but they’ve also caused those that were innocent to suffer the consequences.”

Her concerns and interests, along with exemplary school performance, made her a candidate to the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont Engineering Summer Camp, which she attended in late June and of which the Tailers are co-directors. The eight-day program is for high-school students to explore the links between technology and humans through engineering projects.

At the camp — where about 100 out-of-state and international students participated and were tested in astronomy, geology, meteorology and oceanography — Burkhart was selected to travel to Taiwan.

Burkhart was a little shocked when she found out she would represent the United States at an international competition, she said. She had been studying the topics of the competition’s syllabus since she learned she was traveling, and each unit took her about 10 hours of study.

“It is an experience of a lifetime and I want to represent my country well by doing my best,” she said. “I hope to bring back to my community some ideas on how to make us more sustainable in an easy, relatively inexpensive way. I hope that through my experiences I can help others to better understand what earth science is all about.”

Courtney Devoid, a student at Mount Abraham Union, also was selected to participate in the olympiad at the engineering summer institute, where she was a staff member. Devoid, 17, of Monkton, said she wanted to take part in the competition to meet other motivated youth from around the world interested in the environment and its human impact. She also wants to bring back that experience and share it with her community, she said.

“On this trip, we will be able to make connections with students throughout the world and talk to them about issues of sustainability that are so important to the fate of our planet,” Devoid said. “I plan to bring the connections I made home to Vermont to inspire kids in my area to make a positive change.”

 

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Ruling class: Teens aim to be tomorrow's leaders

By KEVIN O'CONNOR Staff Writer - Published: July 19, 2009

They're too young to vote but soon will inherit the world. So who do teenagers tag as their role models?

Nick Skinas points to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, "calm and poised in a pressure situation." That said, don't mistake the 17-year-old Northfield student-athlete as single-minded. He's most concerned about tackling the challenge of renewable energy.

Alison Bliven, like a majority of her peers, appreciates President Barack Obama. But wearing a tie-dyed blouse with a peace symbol, the 16-year-old Bradford girl cites a more historic figure: 18th century social reformer and Russian Czar Peter the Great.

Ian Campbell would rather don his red, white and blue John McCain T-shirt. But that doesn't stop the 15-year-old Starksboro boy from questioning the Iraq war or hoping the state will serve as a national example on the progressive issues of climate change, health care and poverty.

Think high schoolers tune out each summer? Skinas, Bliven and Campbell are three of some 60 Vermont students who plugged into classes in politics, policy and public service this month at the Governor's Institute on Current Issues & Youth Activism.

Kenneth Williams, a teacher at the host site at Brattleboro's World Learning, greeted his group with a question: "Are leaders born or are leaders made?"

Students agreed with their instructor: Made. Williams believes good leadership skills can improve not only government but also families, friends, classrooms and careers. His tips, in turn, aim to help everyone.

So what's the lesson plan for tomorrow's leaders? How are they responding? And where do they hope to find themselves and the state in the future?

A true American Idol

First, they want to know who's who. Even before Williams could instruct students to introduce themselves, Alexis Reed, 17, of Georgia (the northern town, not the southern state) asked her peers, "Could we do names real quick?"

Reed, who likes quantum physics and the nickname "Allie," hopes to improve her communication skills to help the war-torn African region of Darfur.

Others said they didn't have trouble speaking out but fitting in.

"I want to learn to be a little more cooperative," said Kayce Penn, 17, of Corinth.

"I want to learn to work with people better," said Jacob Kornfeld, 15, of Norwich.

"I want people to want to follow me," said Campbell.

Identifying herself last, Jess Watkins, 17, of Springfield labeled herself an introvert. Even so, "I want to know what I can do to help change the world."

Asked what characteristics they want in a leader, Vermont students list intelligence, honesty, dedication, responsiven





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