Ebb and Flow

In This Issue

TBB Alum Accepted to ThinkImpact Program

Ebb and Flow by TBB Student Eirann Cohen

Congratulations to TBB alum Silviano Valdez for his recent acceptance to the Scholar Program at the Innovation Institute ThinkImpact!

Thank You Donors!

Special thanks to those who have recently given financial support to Thinking Beyond Borders.

Inspiration Donors
$25,000 +
The Rounds Family Foundation

Visionary Donors

$5,000 - $9,999

Roy A. Hunt Foundation

Global Citizen Donors

$2,500 - $4,999

Gerald and Paula McNichols Family Foundation

Jim Porter and Elyse Rabinowitz

The Foster Family Foundation

Empowerment Donors

$1,000 - $2,499

John Bryan &

Nancy White

Marcy Elkind

Clint Kollar

Fred Ausubel &

Stephanie Bird

Tom Barry

Jon Falker

Tod Hunt, Jr.

Core Donors

$250 - $999

Jon Dudkowski

Jon Stauffer

Richard Hogan

Kimia Mizany

Jen Sheen

Judy and Scott Honican

Patricia May

Tod and Linda Chmar

Jim Dow

Jack & Bernadette Staph

Gene Ackerman

Bullpen Brawlers

Carolyn Moss &

Dan Hawkins

Sam Riber

James & Erin Moorhead

We continue to update our website with a Complete List of TBB's financial contributors.

Donate Now

TBB Gap Year Programs

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.

Translations March 2011

Greetings!

When spring finally appears in the US, fall is just beginning in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. Exceptional graduating high school seniors from around the US are applying to TBB in anticipation of their gap year. On the other side of the world, TBB students are shadowing home-based caregivers as they visit patients with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses in local townships. The ebb and flow of emotions of anticipation, motivation, inspiration, and determination are everywhere.

Ebb and Flow

by TBB Student

Eirann Cohen

I walked into a house where a young woman named Philiswag sat on a couch. She looked weak and wore a hat, even though the sun was scorching outside. "Moloweni!" she greeted us with a bright smile. She was very thin, but her stomach was distended and her left ankle was swollen-symptoms of an HIV infection. From her purse, she withdrew her ARVs and other pills and set them on the table to show us. She has to take them all at scheduled times throughout each and every day. If she misses a dose, everything could go wrong.

TBB Alum Brings Change to Brandeis

This month, Sam Porter (TBB '10) was featured in Brandeis University's "The Brandeis Hoot" for his efforts to green the campus. By working with the Brandeis Sustainability Fund and Facility Services, Sam has garnered tens of thousands of dollars in commitments to install smart meters on buildings across campus. Coupled with Lucid Design Group's "Building Dashboard" software, the community will have access to detailed information about energy use on campus. This, as explained by Thomas Friedman in Hot, Flat, and Crowded, is a critical step to empowering people and organizations to conserve energy. Congratulations to Sam on his great work!

Check Out Our Partners!

We've recently added a Partners page to the TBB website to highlight the incredible organizations with whom we work. Some are critical components of our international programs, while others work with us to create agents of change here in the US. Regardless, each of these organizations is a fundamental part of the growing Thinking Beyond Borders community.

Book Review:
King Leopold's Ghost
by Adam Hochschild

Over the past 20 years, perhaps the most constant and deadliest region of conflict in the world has been in Central Africa. While much attention has been given to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, relatively little attention is given to the conflicts, civil wars, and brutal genocides in Burundi, Congo, and other nations in the region. Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost is a fascinating and engaging history of the European colonialism that helped set the stage for these conflicts. If it were fiction, it would be a fantastic story of a distant European monarch who, against basic standards of human morality, conquered, killed, and oppressed in lands he would never see. The sad truth of this story lies not just in the very real era of his life and the direct impact he had, but also in the ravages of a century since his efforts to reshape and own Central Africa. Hochschild's story paints a broad picture of the personal pursuits of King Leopold, the rationalizations and ambitions of those he funded to explore and conquer, and those who bravely opposed his actions.
Read More

As the international portion of this year's program winds down, we are seeing an excellent new batch of applications come in for next year's class of TBB students. This means the TBB alumni community will soon have a new crop of students like Sam Porter and Silviano Valdez, anxious to take their next steps as agents of proactive change. It also means the TBB programs will have a new crop like Eirann Cohen, eager to learn about the world's greatest challenges and begin a lifetime of implementing solutions. It's an exciting time of year...

Sincerely,

Robin Pendoley

Co-Founder and CEO
Thinking Beyond Borders
www.thinkingbeyondborders.org

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