Rebuilding Education: an AGC Celebration

Please join AGC staff, parents, friends, family and supporters for an event that is sure to be one of our best yet. 

DJ Derrick Carter, an internationally respected Chicago native and one of the most versatile DJs in the world will entertain us while we fill our bellies with incredible grub from Ruxbin Restaurant, Smoking Goose, and Pleasant House Bakery, drinks from Two Brothers Craft Beer, Death’s Door Gin, and Virtue Hard Cider, and, for desert: treats from Honeypie Café. 

Click here to buy tickets!

Earth Day Skype With Our Friends in India

Mr. Phillips’ 4th Grade students continue their partnership with India by Skyping with a few Ladakhi kids visiting New Delhi for an Earth Day Summit at the American Embassy School. The AGC group communicated their Earth Day plans, which included making seedling pots out of repurposed objects like newspaper and old shoes. The Ladakhi group explained a video they made that teaches the harmful effects of plastic bottles on their livestock. It was a wonderful international exchange of ideas!

Risk-taker Kacper

The students in Kindergarten are learning to read. They become more
knowledgeable everyday! The student in this video is Risk-taker Kacper. He
practiced a book called ‘The Teddy Bear’ and it has a strong text pattern
to it. During the reflection, Kacper stated that he feels super proud, as he
should!

Summer Camp 2012 at AGC!

AGUA Family Dance!

Join our AGC Community on the evening of April 20th, 2012 to honor the Earth through dancing!

Keep It Clean!

The Academy for Global Citizenship is committed to creating a healthy environment for our students, teachers and community.  One way that health is defined at AGC is the cleanliness of the building.  Sure, a little dirt builds up a strong immune system, but the accumulation of dirt and bacteria is certainly not healthy.

For the past 2.5 years, AGC has partnered with the Chicago based cleaning company PortionPac (http://www.portionpaccorp.com/).  In their own words:

Since 1964, sustainability has led our business, our products, our relationships, and our success. Decades before it became a buzzword, PortionPac’s founders, Syd Weisberg and Marvin Klein, believed in the value of sustainability and what it meant for the environment, the industry and the people that lived and worked in both. Built on a foundation of environmental stewardship and social responsibility, PortionPac continues to strive toward creating the world’s most sustainable solutions for clean buildings.

 

Many companies claim to be sustainable and healthy. PortionPac lives up to that claim.  But Sustainability is only one metric that we use to choose our partners.  The product needs to deliver on its promises.  PortionPac products are the most effective cleaning products that we have seen.  Beyond just their products, PortionPac trains cleaning staff in how to use their simple 1 to 1 color-coded system.  Their packaging is sustainable, their chemicals are non-toxic and the people behind the product are great.

You may be wondering why I am writing so much about cleaning supplies.  My excitement stems from the fact that they insisted that Mr. Danny (AGC’s head of maintenance) and I visit their facility.  I always ask farmers if I can visit their farms and use that as a litmus test for their transparency.  PortionPac proactively passed.  When we were there, we were amazed by the beautiful art, the transformed space and the lack of chemical smells, haz-mat suits and the like.  In the middle of their production floor they had happy and healthy plants growing!  Like our farmers, AGC works hard to find product vendors who match our sustainable vision and work everyday to make the world a better place.  Below are some pictures from our visit.

AGC is proud to have partners like PortionPac whose products work and who are sustainable not to make more money, but because it is the right thing to do.

Meeting our Ugandan Friends

I have just returned from an unforgettable 2 weeks in Uganda.  I was part of the Bold-Foods Fellowship run by Bold Leaders, Critical Mass Leadership and funded by the US State Department.  The trip was a four-part exchange with US, Kenyan and Ugandan leaders in urban agriculture.

In May of last year, Peris Mugo spent 5 weeks at AGC as one of the Kenyan fellows.  I had the pleasure of meeting up with Peris in Uganda last week!  Peris is an amazing extension worker with the Kenyan government and has 2500 farmers that she is responsible for disseminating information to!  Peris shared with me that the biggest lesson that she learned from her experience with AGC was the important role that children play in making change.  In Kenya and Uganda, working in the garden is seen as peasant work and is often a punishment in school (if you show up late, you are often handed a shovel and told to go work in the garden).  Peris shared with me how she was impressed with the way AGC made gardening fun.

As a result, Peris began organizing a youth program within her extension office- something that had never been done before.  Since July, Peris has led schools in planting native trees on their property and teaching the students about native fruit, how the trees will help with shade/cooling and how they will help prevent landslides in some of the more hilly areas.  Peris is a true catalyst for change and we are proud to call her our friend.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip was meeting the students at the Adonai Child Development Centre (http://www.adonaicentre.org/)– a school for Uganda orphans.  AGC students have penpal buddies at the Adonai Centre and have been writing to them for the past year.

I toured the school and met with the students. I was able to share pictures of their penpals, of AGC and of our garden projects.  The students were sweet, smiling, welcoming and inspiring.  The school is set atop a hillside in Namugoga- about 1 hour outside of Kampala.  There are approximately 300 students at the school, most of who live there year round.  The school is humble, beautiful, simple and vast.  They are working to procure 16 acres to be able to grow all of their own food.  AGC will continue to grow our relationship with the school and the students and will work together to share projects and learning.

I will be setting a date soon for a story night to share my stories and pictures from the trip.  I hope to see you there!

 

Click on a picture to see a larger version:

Students at the Adonai Centre “meeting” AGC!

Friends at Adonai Centre

Getting help carrying water

Adonai Centre Goat Pen. Made by hand.