Winter 2009 Events

April 13, 2009
Dr. Charles Fish on Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Friday, April 24, 2009
Coffee 7:00 PM; Lecture 7:30 PM, Brooks Memorial Library
Ambassador Kenneth Yalowitz
Norman E. McCulloch, Jr. Director ~
John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding~Dartmouth College

Looking Back: The Russia/Georgia Conflict and What It Means
 for the Future in Economic Hard times.

Ambassador Kenneth S. Yalowitz is the Norman E. McCulloch, Jr. Director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College. He retired from the US Department of State on September 30, 2001 after 36 years as career diplomat and member of the Senior Foreign Service. He served twice as a U. S. ambassador: to the Republic of Belarus from 1994-1997; and to Georgia from 1998-2001. He speaks Russian. His other foreign assignments included two tours of duty in Moscow, The Hague, and the US Mission to NATO in Brussels. He also served as the Area Studies Chair on the former Soviet Union (1993-94) and Dean of the Senior Seminar (1997-98) at the Foreign Service Institute, the U.S. government's training institution for American diplomats, and other professionals for the foreign service.

May 18, 2009
Emily Jones, Head of The Putney School on Progressive Education.

February 16, 2009
Academic WorldQuest
7pm International Dining Room, SIT/World Learning

Academic WorldQuest is our way of reaching out to high school students in the area. It is a giant quiz program on world affairs. Students are very enthusiastic about the competition and study hard for it from a guide provided by the World Affairs Council of America. We send our local winners to Washington, DC for the national competition that will take place on April 4-5, 2009. The competition there is extremely challenging but provides our students with a chance to see Washington up close and to get acquainted with students with similar interests from all 50 states.

Seven high schools from the area will be competing at SIT/World Learning on February 16. They are:

The public is invited to come and to test wits with student teams.

For more information see Academic WorldQuest 2009, the Study Guide for 2009, and Sample Questions or go to the Academic WorldQuest 2009 Link.

We were fortunate in being chosen by the Turkish Cultural Foundation in Washington, DC to send four teachers to Turkey this past summer. We developed an application form to help us choose the teachers, provided them with an orientation program, and off they went. Their tour was arranged and paid for by the Foundation and focused on the history and culture of this unique country that bridges Asia and Europe.

The teachers returned full of enthusiasm about Turkey and eager to put their experience to use. They have made presentations in each of their schools, at one of our regular meetings, at the local Boys and Girls Club, and finally, at this meeting of Rotary International. While this completes their program of public presentations, all of the teachers feel that the experience has enriched their classroom teaching and that it will continue to be useful for years to come.

The teachers who traveled to Turkey are:

Jane Olmsted, social studies teacher at Leland and Gray High School
Kim Costello, social studies teacher at Fall Mountain Regional High School
Blake Zahn, social studies teacher at The Putney School
Al Hibler, social studies teacher, formerly at The Vermont Academy

We extend heartfelt thanks on behalf of the teachers to the Turkish Cultural Foundation in Washington, DC.

Friday, March 20, 2009
Coffee 7:00 PM; Lecture 7:30 PM, World Learning, School for International Training
Waheed Malik
Retired Senior Officer of the Commissioner of Official Languages, Canada

The Politics of Language

Mr. Malik has been a member of the Quebec Human Rights Commission, and is currently an Officer of the Commissioner of Official Languages with the Canadian national government. Malik’s work has focused on the evolution of  language  and emergence of Quebec separatism during the past two decades He received his undergraduate degree at the University of Karachi, and a Masters degree at the Sorbonne in Paris. He has studied Journalism as well from the Ecole Superieure de Sciences Sociales et Journalisme. Malik’s talk will examine the roots of Anglo-French rivalry;  its resurgence in Quebec; and  the long term prospects of Quebec separatism and impact of Canadian politics on Vermont and the United States.