Read more here: http://www.globalvillageschool.org/global-village-school-graduates.html

Alia Aizenstat,

Sustainability Associate

After GVS, Alia applied to 14 colleges and was accepted by all 14.  She chose Lewis and Clark University, where she majored in fine arts and spent a semester abroad in Italy. Now she works as a sustainability associate at Pacifica Graduate Institute where she has been given the task of “greening” their 2 campuses. Helping Pacifica develop recycling plans, improve energy efficiency and drinking water systems, Alia says “everyday I make decisions that make a difference.”

What would you say to a student considering enrolling at Global Village School?

Alia:  When I was at the public high school I was afraid to break from the norm.  The anxiety I had of test taking ruined school for me, but I felt like I would be a failure if I left the track that everyone else was on.  I guess part of it was that I was afraid to be myself, and also that I wanted to be anyone but me (laughs). There was a fear of being different AND a fear of becoming myself.  So I guess I would say, “embrace who you are and get on the track that is right for you.”  Finding out that I could succeed outside of the regular system was a lesson for me.

GVS Student Jane on the Pacfic Garbage Patch

A gift. Does everyone have one? Yes. It may be obvious, or not. Some may push it down, or some may discover and develop it. A gift comes in many shapes and forms. It could be the gift to write, to communicate with animals (like the boy in the Blessings Revealed article), to dance, to fix cars. But my gift is none of these. But can’t anyone do these things? You may ask. Yes, I say. I may be able to do these things with time and perseverance, but what is my real, true gift? The gift that I was born with to give to the world, and to myself? It is the thing that I love most. It is acting.

I was born to be an actor. To impersonate other people, to create characters out of writing. Born to give other people entertainment. To make myself vulnerable and open to others. The writing just jumps out of the page, into my head, surrounding me in something indefinable. All of a sudden, as if someone has taken me out, I’m another person.

Every moment on stage, whether rehearsal or performance, is like a dream. To be able to become something else; its pure heaven. To hold the world in the palm of your hand for a single second, is just the most beautiful experience one could ever have. To bring an audience to tears, to make them laugh, hold their breaths in suspense, be silent, watchful, as someone else, not myself, is just magical. They say magic doesn’t exist. But it does. In the form of the stage, of the person I become.

Senses heighten every time I’m on a stage or in front of an audience. Everything goes overtime. I feel like I’m in overdrive. Listening, feeling everything around me. Reacting to the other people on stage, or the audience. Reacting to make sure that everything is as perfect as possible. It becomes a part of my life that has to be spot on.

“Acting? Pfft!” some would say. “Anyone can do that, you just have to memorize lines and read them in front of and audience or camera!” Indeed, that seems to be the general view of acting, as I have come to realize. But acting is about changing. Showing people a different person! Not yourself.

Creating a character is just the first part of sharing acting. One creates a character so that it can interact with the other characters in a play/film. Developing the character is next, doing research, reacting to the other people around you. Watching people in life, picking out characteristics that are interesting. Adding them to your brain’s portfolio of interesting characteristics that can be pulled out at anytime. Without knowing it, individuals are contributing to and sharing your gift, because some of their mannerisms are helping you to develop your character.

Another part of sharing is the rehearsal. This is the part where you get to interact with the other characters in the play, so therefore shaping your role even further by reacting to the other actors and their characters. They do the same with you, so everyone is sharing each other’s ideas and developing them in their own unique way.

The last part of sharing the gift I am so fortunate to have is performing the piece that has been prepared, whether it be on film, on stage, or an audition. It is the part where you can hold the whole world in your hand, give angst, pleasure, excitement, to whoever is watching. Showing the world your character, sharing with them every part of your life, the place you come from, the kind of person you are, your emotions. It is the most elating feeling in the entire world.

Sometimes sharing this gift is just saying something from a good television show or movie, therefore stimulating the emotions that they had when watching it. This gift is an incredible one, and one that I can say I am proud to have. Bringing people a little entertainment in their lives is one of the many rewards it has, as well as being an incredibly elating experience. It is a part of me, but also something else as well. This gift is magic. My magic.

National Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands Americans enjoy.  As part of this mission they have solicited videos that answer the question “How Do You Love Your Favorite Public Land?”

Avalon, a GVS 4th grade homeschool student, narrated a video for Camp Bayou and this video is a finalist in the National Public Lands Day contest.  Please check it out and if you like it, sign into YouTube and vote by clicking the thumbs up icon.

You can check out Avalon’s blog where she shares her love of frogs, snakes, turtles and other things she loves to learn about here: http://www.wanderingwhimsy.com/

3Story Films Trailer

In the early days of Global Village School we paid a price for our inclusive mission – some people would not enroll and some schools would not refer students to us because we explicitly stated that we supported the rights of GLBT youth.  Many people tried to talk me out being so open and upfront about it, but it felt essential to say it – how can you send the message that you value and will be there for GLBT kids when your support for them is in the closet?  So openly supporting gay and lesbian students has always been non-negotiable at Global Village School.  Times have changed in the 10 years since I started the school; these days few people raise an eyebrow at the mention of our support for GLBT students.

Overall, GLBT adults have more rights and feel safer, but there are still so many places where people feel entirely justified in saying and doing all kinds of horrible and hateful things to GLBT people. I have friends right here in Southern California who are afraid to come out to their children because they fear that they won’t let them see their grandchildren. I know people who still get hateful threatening comments hurled at them from passing vehicles.  At a NO ON 8 (the anti-gay marriage initiative) rally a couple of years ago, some were not content to merely voice their disapproval of gay people getting married – a big truck revved its engine and swerved extremely close to the crowd.  All of these things happened in a so-called progressive area of the United States. In other places in the U.S. and around the world, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people are beaten, fired from their jobs, harassed unmercifully at school, and kicked out of their homes.  Some of them kill themselves because of these circumstances, and some are killed by their own governments.

Clearly there is still a need for GLBT visibility and education.  At GVS several of our teachers and staff are GLBT, as are a growing number of our families (students and parents alike).  We offer courses like History of Civil Rights in the U.S., which addresses the struggles of GLBT people in the context of other civil rights movements, and we also have classes like GLBT Literature, which focuses exclusively on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered experiences.  Distance learning is a very good way to reach people around the world in addition to being a valuable resource for students who are struggling with feeling isolated in small towns or hostile environments.  Peace and diversity focused coursework is good for achieving all sorts of positive social change, and it is particularly important in the process of teaching kids that differences in gender identity, religious affiliation, race/ethnicity, or sexual orientation are not an opportunity to harass and de-humanize each other.  Global Village School students learn how to co-create a better world in which respecting differences and understanding cultural diversity are accepted as being an essential part of life.

http://humaneconnectionblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/what-humane-world-looks-like-rethinking.html

http://www.3storyfilms.com/

Free to Learn is a 70 minute documentary that offers a “fly on the wall” perspective of the daily happenings at The Free School in Albany, New York. Like many of today’s radical and democratic schools, The Free School expects children to decide for themselves how to spend their days.

You can watch the whole documentary online here: http://www.educationrevolution.org/freetolearn.html