Upper School Students and International Guests Present Solutions to Environmental Issues

10/5/2018

At Collegiate School’s 8th Annual International Emerging Leaders Conference (IELC) this week, 43 international high school students and 18 Collegiate seniors collaborated in groups to design solutions to real-world environmental issues facing their countries.

During each day of the conference, in order to solve their team’s assigned problem, students used the process of design thinking and its five steps: discovery, interpretation, ideation, experimentation and evolution. The process encourages communicating and understanding the issue at hand instead of immediate solution-seeking.

The week’s activities and intensive participation in the design thinking process led to lastevening’s DesignPitch, held in Oates Theater and Sharp Academic Commons. The event showcased the student groups’ creative ideas as they presented them to the Collegiate community and the general public.

Students were tasked with solving the issues of used battery disposal and persistent organic pollutants in China; pollution and erosion from cruise ships docking in Venice, Italy; flooding and land overdevelopment and mismanagement in Malaysia; deforestation in Morocco; polluted drinking water in Spain; improper waste management and disposal in Ghana; air pollution in Kazakhstan; pollution produced by fast food outlets in Mexico, pollution owing to Diwali firecrackers in Delhi, India; the threat of the water hyacinth to waterways in South Africa; and the declining health of the Ogallala Aquifer in the U.S.

Prior to the pitches, students and the audience heard from keynote speaker Linda Cortright, founder, editor and publisher of Wild Fibers magazine. Ms. Cortright has traveled to nearly 70 countries to better understand the vital role natural fibers play in the environment and people’s lives. In 2015, she, with the support of her subscribers, built the Pangong Craft Center — the first cashmere workshop in India’s High Himalayas — providing much-needed income for the semi-nomadic women of the region.

As part of Ms. Cortright’s visit, Collegiate’s entire 6th Grade viewed the film, The Shepherdess of the Glaciers, and met with Ms. Cortright and the film's producer, Stanzin Dorjai, on Thursday. Ms. Cortright’s Pangong Craft Center spins the cashmere wool from the shepherdess’ goats.

Ms. Cortright spoke to attendees about leaving the corporate world to become a cashmere goat farmer in Maine. Later, when she wanted to create a magazine, she wasn’t sure it was a good idea and hesitated.

“The only thing that kept me from going was the fear of failure,” she said. “That is a bad reason for not doing something.”

Fifteen years later, Wild Fibers magazine is still going strong and has led Ms. Cortright to a chapter in her life, she says, that has deeper importance: watching the Pangong Craft Center thrive.

“People want to know where their products come from,” she said. “And the purchase of cashmere is helping these women have a better life and educate their children.”

In closing, Ms. Cortright expressed her thanks to the audience.

“I was invited to speak as an entrepreneur, but inside my heart I am a farmer,” she said. “I was fortunate enough to meet people who inspired me. It’s a remarkable thing we can all share.”

After Ms. Cortright’s remarks, the audience headed to Sharp Academic Commons to watch the students’ presentations. Each student group had four minutes to pitch their idea to spectators, with three minutes allowed for questions at the end. Attendees engaged in the process by listening to four different product pitches of their choice, voting with their “DesignPitch Dollars” (to “invest” in the ideas) and taking part in discussions with students.

Collegiate senior Laura Fairlamb remembers past IELC delegates visiting her Middle School classes. Those encounters sparked her interest in hosting students and serving as a junior ambassador last year and participating in the conference this year.

“I remember getting glimpses of the IELC program and thinking, I’m going to find a way to do this,” she said. “It’s surreal that it’s my year to do the program.”

Her team presented Mediclean, a solution aimed at combating the problem of persistent organic pollutants in China, which proved to be a challenge.

“There was a lack of awareness of the issue, even in China,” she said. “So we did a lot of research, which transformed our product.”

German Guzman Lopez of Mexico and his team pitched FlexABox, a container that could be reused 15-20 times and would lessen pollution produced by fast food in Mexico.

“We wanted to create a box made out of sustainable material that is durable but also biodegradable,” he said.

Younes Skalli, Laura’s teammate and a high school student from Morocco, expressed how much he was enjoying IELC and collaborating with his group.

“I really like how the process allows us to do everything in a short amount of time,” he said. “You know what you need to do and when you need to do it.”

The results of DesignPitch revealed that Aqua Sense, designed to tackle the declining health of the Ogallala Aquifer in the U.S., earned the greatest percentage of investment money from DesignPitch Dollars.

To cap the conference, the international delegates will visit students in their JK-12 classrooms on Friday morning. They also will participate in a Cultural Fair for 3rd and 4th Grade students and their families and hold a forum to discuss global issues before they head home on Oct. 7.

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