Thinking Beyond Borders
In This Issue
Gap Year & TBB Featured by NACAC
New Website: Thinking Beyond Food by TBB Students
We Did It: $35,000 Challenge Grant Success!
Book Review: Three Letter Plague

Gap Year & TBB Featured by NACAC 

NACAC
Taking a Gap Year
An article describing how to manage your gap year with student interviews with TBB alumni and a

companion podcast

with Robin Pendoley, TBB CEO and Co-Founder.


Critical Language Scholarship

Congratulations to TBB alum Zander Rounds! Zander was recently awarded a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study in China this summer.

Gap Year

Find a Gap Year Fair near you and explore your options!
 

TBB Gap Year Programs
Luisa in India
TBB's Global Gap Year and Ecuador Gap Semester are designed for students who are serious about creating change. We are now accepting applications for the 2011-2012 Programs.  Apply early as space is limited. 
  
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Translations                            February 2011
Greetings!

"Grow organic. Eat organic. Save the earth!" is a quote from one of our partners in India that has stuck with our students. It is an exciting call to action. Slow food and local food movements are growing here in the US and agriculture is once again a hot topic. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to make responsible decisions about our food. Do you buy milk from a local "industrial organic" farm, or from a farm further away with best practices that you want to support? Do you buy milk in glass bottles that are returned and reused (but are heavy to ship and have to be shipped back) or in plastic cartons that require less energy to transport? If there is no good option, do you give up dairy altogether? And, why does it all matter?
Thinking Beyond FoodNew Website: Thinking Beyond Food

by TBB Students Mary Bryan, Luisa Redetzki, Kasha Coombs, and Rachel Jordan

 

India... has perhaps changed our perspectives on food most drastically. We have learned about the horrors of the industrial agricultural system and its negative impact on the environment, the economy, society, health and so many other areas.  Fortunately, we also discovered countless alternatives that are infinitely healthier, more sustainable, and that incite change. On a personal level, we have all been inspired to revise our eating habits and to amend our current unsustainable system.  

 

The four of us were so excited about our newfound knowledge that we wanted a way to share it with the world. Thus the creation of this website, where we hope to showcase our learning and communicate how we have changed. We want to document our different journeys as we redefine our respective relationships to food. We hope that you, our reader, will be motivated to do the same. 

 

Initial Blog Posts

Challenge Grant Success We Did It!
The Thinking Beyond Borders community came together and raised over $35,000 to win the Rounds Family Foundation Challenge Grant! These critical funds allow TBB to continue to develop and grow through this exciting but critical stage. Thank you for your support and contributions! Of course, a special thank you to the Rounds Family for their generous and unwavering support of TBB.
Three Letter PlagueBook Review:
Three Letter Plague
by Jonny Steinberg
It's often said that HIV/AIDS is a social disease. Jonny Steinberg's Three Letter Plague illustrates this point brilliantly. A White South African journalist, he set out in 2005 to understand the factors that prevent South Africans from pursuing testing and treatment for a disease that infects 20% of the country and has killed nearly 500,000 of their countrymen. His pursuit began after the South African government committed to rolling out free access to AIDS treatment that makes it a chronic rather than a fatal disease. Steinberg met and followed a young man from a small village in the Eastern Cape of South Africa for more than 2 years. This Black African man, Sizwe, was in his early twenties and owned his own small but growing business. He was fairly well educated, having nearly completed high school. Steinberg's efforts to understand the cultural, social, and political context of Sizwe's decision not to be tested for HIV is a fascinating window into perhaps the greatest challenge of taking AIDS from fatal to chronic - the social dimension.
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This month we're transitioning from a conversation around sustainable agriculture to a conversation around public health and HIV/AIDS. Stay in touch with some of our students as they continue to redefine their relationships with food through their website Thinking Beyond Food. Look forward to hearing their thoughts on public health as they write to us next month from South Africa.

Sincerely,
Sandy Pendoley

Co-Founder
Thinking Beyond Borders
www.thinkingbeyondborders.org 

Thinking Beyond Borders is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.