We received a ton of amazing submissions for our project with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation asking you for potential TEDxChange lineups. There are lot of interesting people out there, and we wish we could hear about all of them. We've selected the five most exciting submissions, which you can see here—everything from cookstoves in the developing world to beat poetry. We would like to thank everyone who submitted, this was a hard choice. We'll be announcing the winner—who will win an exclusive log in to the 2011 TED broadcast—next week.

From Tomiko Anders

Speakers:

Veronica Kitti—Director, ASA Initiative

Ms. Kitti is the Director of ASA Initiative in Cape Coast, Ghana. She directs a multi-pronged organization that provides  job-training, reproductive and sexual health education, micro-finance opportunities, and micro-enterprise skills development for people in Ghana who would like to improve their quality of life through education.

Related links: http://asainitiative.org/index.html

Nathaniel Mulcahy—Founder, WorldStove

A humanitarian engineer and inventor, he has engaged in humanitarian interventions since 1982. As founder of WorldStove, Mr. Mulcahy works with local partners in developing nations to facilitate the creation of locally self-sustaining jobs, reduce indoor air pollution, eliminate the need for wood and charcoal as fuels and improve sanitation with clean water and toilets through cookstove programs.

Related links: www.WorldStove.com; http://www.youtube.com/user/WorldStove; http://www.facebook.com/pages/Worldstove-LLC/252249696987

Carlo Petrini—Founder, Slow Food Movement

Mr. Petrini has led the Western world in reconnecting with their environment and their communities through local organic foods and appreciation for the cultural values of cooking and eating together. He, through the Slow Food Movement, has inspired people worldwide to improve their health and environment by cooking and consuming delicious meals.

Related links: http://www.slowfood.com/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Petrini

Davide Bonaldo—Independent Short Film Maker

Mr. Portico is an Italian-based short-film Producer and Director, specializing in humanitarian endeavors. He has produced short films in Italy and Tanzania with an environmental and humanitarian focus, often working with local at-risk youth as actors and crew. 

Related links: http://vimeo.com/18850771

Interlude—A Cook-Off! Ghana, U.S., Italy

For an Interlude, we propose a cook-off in the style of Iron Chef. The contest will be among three chefs: A Ghanaian woman living in one of the villages where ASA Initiative is work and two international celebrity chefs who are engaged in humanitarian and environmental issues. We propose Carlo Petrini, Founder of the Slow Food Movement and Jose Andres, a D.C.-based Spanish chef who brought the “small plates” concept of dining to the U.S.

The challenge will be to create a dish based ingrdients unveiled at the start of the competition, exclusively local and organic ingredients. Using Ghanian pots, clean-cookstoves produced in Ghana as part of the WorldStove ASA Intiative program in Ghana and directly under three smoke detectors.

The chefs will be scored on: food quality, presentation / style, and their ability to operate their stoves cleanly and without smoke. Judges will be randomly selected from the audience. Remote audience members can comment and vote on presentation and style via Twitter. Remote audience members can also Tweet or text questions for the chefs.

Audience Participation Beyond the Webcast

Three ideas for audience participation beyond the webcast:

1) The audience will be provided with plans for a simplified version of the stove that the chefs will be using on the program so they can make their own out of everyday materials.

2) During the presentations, audience members will be asked to Tweet or text their favorite dishes and the amount of time it takes to cook them. For the entire length of the presentations, the information will be updated on the web and on the screen next to the panelists. At the end of the presentation this information will be analyzed and visually displayed to show total energy consumption for cooking common meals translated into loss of trees that people's favorite recipes take to make.  The message will be: by becoming aware of how much energy is required for everyday cooking, we can become more aware of actual energy consumed.  Using stoves like those used by the chefs, other fuel-efficient technologies, eating locally and organically,  you can contribute reduce CO2, save trees and increase food security for our planet.

3) Short videos of people using the clean cookstoves in other countries will be posted on the web. Remote audience members can watch these 45 second videos to see how people in five countries have benefited from using clean cookstoves. Audience members will be invited to make their own video shorts about building and using their stoves from the provided plans.
 

Why This Line Up?

Because everybody eats. However, the environmental and health implications of the cooking methods available to a third of the world's population are not only devestating, but largely unknown by the other two-thirds. Fortunately, there are existing solutions and several of the core problems are easily addressed. This line-up will draw attention to the issues and one possible solution implemented in different ways around the world. Through this program we hope to show how simple solutions already exist with numerous positive impacts. Most importantly, that these solutions can locally owned by even the poorest and most remote villages and are able to be self-sustaining without outside aid.

Note: A demonstration of the stoves will be a part of the panel presentation.

If possible, we propose that this TEDxChange take place in one of the remote villages in Ghana where ASA Initiative and WorldStove work.

From Allison Cash:

Speakers

1.  Shawn Askinosie, criminal defense attorney turned bean to bar chocolate maker. Mr. Askinosie has dedicated his life to connecting international cocoa farmers to domestic children and youth.  His most recent education project marked the first time a chocolate maker traded directly with a Tanzanian cocoa farmer group, led by a woman farmer.  This project also funded a deep water well in the village.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5mF4-Mxj0M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E3VazSTlOs

http://www.lostandfoundozarks.com/

2.  Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist of Half the Sky.  Mr. Kristof brought widespread attention and action to the role of females internationally and the continued abuse they face.  This movement highlights the resiliency of these women but also the necessary involvement of everyone to improve their overall mental and physical health.

http://www.oprah.com/world/A-Message-from-Nicholas-Kristof-Video

http://asiasociety.org/video/policy-politics/nicholas-kristof-and-sheryl-wudunn-womens-education

3.  Wendell Berry, an American writer who has looked at the health of communities through an agrarian filter. His work on the connection of individuals and communities to their places ties into the health of the communities - physically as well as fiscally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMlvvZvXcPY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3tiGsmZGO4

4.  Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University.  An objective and vocal proponent of what is best for public health, her straightforward, no-frills approach makes food issues seem simple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qO39VEc0Ag

http://www.charlierose.com/view/content/318

Interlude

Music by How to Destroy Angels

Overview

I think this lineup represents a portion of the work in play in the arena of global health and development. From a manufacturing POV with Askinosie to a social justice POV with Kristof to a philosophical POV with Berry and a scientific POV with Nestle, this group brings together influential change makers who have changed lives.  They are improving global health through their research, writing and outreach.

Connection Point

A great way to connect the global audience would be to have short videos shot around where each person is located that can be shared in a cloud and pulled down by interested parties.  If you want to see what "Coleen in Toronto's" surroundings look like versus "Raoul in Lima" you can capture a bit of Day in the Life of the global citizens.

From Chandra Willard:

Speakers:

Muhammad Yunus

Founder of Graamen Bank, “Bank for the Poor," Economist, Noble Peace Prize Winner

From Bangladesh

Graamen Bank, founded by Muhammad Yunus, provides small loans (micro-financing) to the world’s poorest people that otherwise could not secure a loan. Over 90 percent of his clientele are women, who are given a chance at a successful career through these services.

Video about starting his bank

Grameen bank website

Video: ideas on social business model

Michelle Rhee

Founder and CEO of Students First, Founder of The New Teacher Project, Former Chancellor of District of Columbia Schools

From Washington, D.C.

Activist and voice behind the push to fix the United States’ failing school systems, while her struggle may be more local, she once said “… if the country can make its education system the best in the world, economic success will follow.” Rhee faced much criticism during her tenure in the District, but is now moving forward with her mission to transform public education by putting the “students first.”

Students First

The New Teacher Project

Video: Waiting for 'Superman'

Video: inspiration to teach

Video, Oprah announcing students first

Pierre Ferrari

Chief Executive Officer at Heifer International, Board Member, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, President, Hot Fudge Social Venture Fund

From Congo, Kenya, and England

Ferrari left the Fortune 500 world to give his knowledge and expertise to social needs, beginning with CARE. A social entrepreneur, Ferrari currently leads Heifer International that uses an interesting approach to aid those in need: giving families livestock and training to “help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways.”

Heifer International

Video about Heifer

Video: 30-second mba
 

Anders Wilhelmson

Inventor of Peepoo, Architect

From Stockholm, Sweden

Wilhelmson, an architect by trade, invented the “Peepoo,” a single use biodegradable toilet bag created to provide sanitization to the over two million people globally without toilets. His invention is urea-lined so it first breaks down feces and then becomes an effective fertilizer.

Peepoo website

Video on peepoo

Video: TEDxstockholm

Musical Interlude

Arcade Fire

Aside from being an incredibly talented, internationally recognized band, they have a record of supporting good causes including need in Haiti through Partners in Health and most recently they pledged to match up to $1 million in support of Haiti through Foundation KANPE. They were nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year and recently won FWA’s website of the year, which shows their forward thinking nature and ability to engage their audience.

from Montreal, Canada

Singer, Régine Chassagne, originally from Haiti

Ways to Engage a Global Audience:

It’s game time!

Create a social networking game. For example, Global Mind Games challenges users to create solutions to the world’s problems through a Facebook application. The questions are not overly challenging, but it makes people think, become aware of issues, and get involved. It would also come up on News feeds to let friends and family know they are participating in TED virtually.

There could be TED specific questions that people can answer throughout the day. At TEDxChange a side screen could highlight some participants’ answers with their location and age. To break up the day, TED could Skype chat with a few participants about their answers. A simple, 15-second chat with a variety of people across the globe.

Recap:

I was looking for an interesting mix of people to cover all areas that are important for global development and health. At first, someone might listen to these speakers’ stories and say “What were you thinking?” That, to me, makes it more interesting and shows they are truly thinking outside the box.

* Give money to people who might not pay you back?
* Shake up bureaucracy for student development?
* Create a poop bag? For… people?
* Free cows? Overseas?

My line-up features people of different trades, nationalities, locations, gender, ages, and causes – but they all have one thing in common, which is to believe in the potential of all people in the world. Each speaker’s ideas and approach to change betters the global community – improving education, creating opportunities, finding simple solutions, believing in one another, and lending a helping hand.

Additionally, I particularly like this line-up because all these speakers are smart, educated, very fortunate people that could have simply worked to make money, but made something more. If you listen to their stories you’ll notice they didn’t anticipate being where they are today -- Rhee, expected maybe to be a doctor. Yunus, always surprised about the new venture. Wilhemson, an architect by trade. Ferrari, making plenty of money at Coca-Cola. They all took their time and talents to create unique, sometimes controversial, solutions to help people near and far.

It’s inspirational to say they least, and I believe TEDxChange participants will learn a great deal about global development and health through these speakers.

From David Metcalfe:

My reasoning for the following line up is pretty simple, with all the issues surrounding the environment, the collapse of institutional support for the humanities, and the increasing reliance on technology in society... isn't it time that TED got a bit more poetic, raw, and green? The following speakers (and musical guest) where all chosen for their ability to cross boundaries, their familiarity with technology's effect on the global culture, and their reliance on the arts and humanities to express their positions in ways that speak to a wide cross-section of society.

In order to connect the global audience I would recommend that each speaker be positioned in a separate location across the globe, somewhere rural where a large number of people could gather and disperse easily, and that their talks be given via the most humble means possible, while still allowing them to be heard. Sort of a contemporary, interconnected, techno-rural version of Plato's academy.

Dale Pendell - author of the award-winning Pharmako trilogy, a literary history of psychoactive plants. His poetry is widely anthologized, most recently in The Wisdom Book of American Buddhist Poetry.
Resources:
http://dalependell.com/the-retort/
The Magic of Corporate Personhood

Gary Snyder - American poet, Zen Buddhist, mountaineer, environmental activist, deep ecology philosopher, founder member of the Beat Generation.
Resources:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/gary-snyder
Gary Snyder - Ecology & Poetry

Musical Interlude - Killing Joke, featuring Jaz Coleman EU's composer in residence, who is currently promoting permaculture and sustainable eco-villages.
"Central to this very old form of therapy is the idea that if you suffer from the underworld you can only be cured in the underworld."
Resources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naUAuptzUb4
http://theeyelessowl.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/cured-in-the-underworld-killing-joke-in-perspective/

David Abram - cultural ecologist, philosopher, and performance artist – is the founder and creative director of the Alliance for Wild Ethics. He is the author of The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World (Pantheon/Vintage), for which he received the international Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction.

Resources:
www.wildethics.org/david_abram.html
http://www.dark-mountain.net/wordpress/2010/12/29/sensing-knowing-a-conversation-with-david-abram/

Wendell Berry - Poet, essayist, farmer, and novelist
Our lives, half gone,
stay full of laughter.

Free-hearted men
have the world for words.

Resources:
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/675
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMlvvZvXcPY

From Rebecca Frank

First Speakers:

Marcus Samuelsson, chef Red Rooster, Aquavit, who draws on his Ethiopian heritage and Swedish upbringing to create innovative food, and who won Bravo TV’s Top Chef Masters and donated his winnings to Unicef’s Tap Project. http://marcussamuelsson.com/about-marcus

Kristen Lodai – Founder, LIFT who found a way to tap college student energy to help lift individuals out of poverty http://www.liftcommunities.org/about/history

Interlude

A giant jigsaw puzzle. Break attendees into groups to work on sections and talk to each other.

Second Speakers

Abigail Washburn – Folk musician who co-created “Afterquake” to raise money for earthquake relief funds in Sichuan province, China http://www.afterquakemusic.com/index.php

Carlos Ruiz Zafon – author, The Shadow of the Wind who is not only an incredibly spellbinding storyteller, but in The Shadow of the Wind paints a picture of what a country goes through following a time of uncertainty and trauma, particularly the fascist Franco regime in Spain. http://www.carlosruizzafon.co.uk/

Connecting the Global Audience

Create maps of both people who’ve watched the webcasts, as well as people they’ve passed the webcasts/stories/information along to. See who the influential watchers are, and see if there’s other information for them to pass along.

The idea for this TEDxChange lineup was to identify storytellers from different corners of the world who create to solve problems. Whether that involves creating a non-profit or writing a story about a country recovering from its past, each speaker is involved in creating experiences for others to help them understand the issues. They create meals that fuse cultures, volunteer hours that get college students to see the world around them, songs that help rebuild schools, and stories that show how nations heal wounds. The interlude is designed to be experiential, by having attendees work together on the jigsaw puzzle, and the map designed to connect the global audience shows how the experiences are moving worldwide.

From Anthony Armstrong:

Watch his video submission here.

From Michelle Sheridan:

I call myself the Senior Freshman (although I am now a sophomore). I graduated high school in 1977 and had to work to help with the family bills. There were seven children, my grandmother and parents. I saved money to start school at Montgomery County Community College starting in fall, 1979. My younger sister wanted to go to school so I gave her the money instead. I then took one class in 1979 (the bank I worked for paid for it). I got a better paying job with shift work and had to quit. I tried to go back again in 1985 but got pregnant. I then tried again in 1987 but got pregnant.  

In 1988 I started my own secretarial business and grew that to fifteen employees and over $350,000 a year in sales. In 1994 I took on a client who eventually offered me a position of VP Administration for his Custom Home Business. With my support this company went from One Million a year in sales to over Twenty Million a year in sales. In the midst of all of this professional success I always felt insecure due to my lack of education.

In 2006, my world was rocked. I invested all of my family’s money into the company I worked for. When the company failed, I lost my real estate, my car, my retirement, everything I had other than my clothes. I also lost over half a million dollars that I had invested in the business.  Lastly, I had over six million dollars in judgments against me personally (I as an officer of his corporation) due to the company’s real estate loans in default.

I could not have felt any lower. I felt that I had left everyone down in my life and felt like a complete and utter failure. I wound up having to go bankrupt in 2008 and was out of a job. That is when my life changed. I went to the PA Career Link office and they asked me if I was interested in going to school. I  had this vision of being an old mom-mom in the class and sticking  out, but I had no job and looked at this offer as an opportunity.

When starting Community College my self esteem was horrible. With each class I took, I felt more excited about learning and the realization that I was finally reaching one of my goals. The feelings of insecurity and unhappiness slipped away. Through the encouragement of my teachers, I realized it is never too late to go after your dream. When I started school I thought it would buy some time until I can get a job. I now am hoping that the job will wait until I complete my full education. I am a member of Phi Theta Kappa, carry an excellent GPA, have my own business that I started about one year ago (part time) and will not give up my dream.

Community College has started me in the direction to continue onto my Bachelors and hopefully, continue towards my Law Degree. I have encountered a diverse population at my school, I hope to one day be able to help others through my experience and education that I will have.

From Ashley Good:

Watch her video submission here.

From Paul Cataline:

My name is Paul Cataline, and I’ve decided to submit my story to you because I believe that if  it inspires even one person, it will be worth the telling. I’ll preface my story with an analogy.  One of the things that I know in this world is football.  I’ve been involved in the game, either as a player or a coach, for more than half of my life.  Any football coach will tell you that while a good running back is good because of the effort he puts in, the great running backs are great because of second effort; the determination to hit a wall, redirect, find a little daylight and drive themselves for a few more inches or a few more yards. It is, in fact, that second effort that often makes the difference between winning and losing, between being a champion or not. Mine is a story of second effort, and I believe it merits sharing.

On the surface, my story might not seem as compelling as some.  I was not raised in poverty, I am a native English speaker, and I have no disability to speak of unless you speak to my wife, who might say I have a learning disability when it comes to putting my razor back in its case every morning. I was a middle class kid from a middle class neighborhood in a peaceful community who had all of the opportunities that came with being so who squandered each and every one of them in turn. I was a smart kid and a pretty good ball player who was able to skate through high school with minimal effort because I was both. High School was largely an ongoing party. I never developed a problem with alcohol, and I didn’t experiment or get hooked on drugs. There was nothing that dramatic with me.  I was just a good natured underachiever who was content to be just that.  The problem was that the skill set required for being an unmotivated underachiever didn’t transfer very well to college. The things that just seemed to click for me in high school didn’t in that new environment. I lasted a couple of years, probably longer that I should have; private colleges are pretty good at giving you the benefit of the doubt as long as someone is footing the thirty-two thousand dollar annual tuition bill. Finally, though, my situation snowballed to the point where I was politely informed that I was taking a leave of absence for an indefinite amount of time due to poor academic performance. Apparently, private schools are also adept at sugar-coating ugly truths.  The ugly truth in my case was that I’d failed out of school with the option of applying for readmission in one year.

One year doesn’t sound like a very long time, except in my case one year became five; time I spent   travelling throughout the country working any angle I could or job that would pay enough to keep me on the move, burning through friendships and relationships almost as fast as I made them,  leaving a trail of bewildered and broken hearts in my wake. I delivered furniture for various rental companies throughout New York.  I sold Cable Television subscriptions in Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Virginia, and Maryland. I was a Bouncer in Bars and Clubs throughout Southern California, sold overpriced vacuum cleaners in Texas, mucked stables in New Mexico, and raked chicken coops in Kentucky. It was there, in a tiny speck of a town somewhere between Lexington and Louisville, in a motel less than a mile from a ramshackle barn that boasted a sign proclaiming it as Colonel Sanders’ original Chicken Farm that I came to a realization that had been five long years in the making; I was unhappy. It wasn’t depression or anything clinical but more the recognition that I was fundamentally unfulfilled as an individual, the awareness of having an existence without life, and the emptiness of it all settled on me like a weight. The next day, three days before Christmas, I called my father.  It wasn’t much of a conversation. In fact I spent most of it crying like I hadn’t cried since childhood, talking about what a mess I’d made of things. The thing about my father is that he is truly one of the good ones, the kind who, no matter what you might do or not do, loves you simply because you’re his kid.  So he did what the good ones do; he listened.

Eight hours later, after spending most of the night in three airports, three planes, and a cab, he walked into my motel room, packed my things, put me into my car, pointed the car towards New York, and started driving. For the first time in five years, I was going home.  It was a six hour ride my father and I talked, really talked, for what might have been the first time ever. He didn’t pull any punches; we were beyond such niceties.  In fact he was brutally honest. He agreed that I’d made a mess of things, adding only that it was astounding that I hadn’t realized that fact sooner. I’d spent years running a long con on the world, he told me, and the truth was that the only one I’d been conning was me.  I’d alienated every person who’d ever cared for me, squandered every penny or opportunity I’d ever been given, and wrung out every ounce of good will ever extended to me by anyone naïve enough to offer it.  And now here I was, spent up and penniless, unable to even look at myself in a mirror, or maybe unwilling for fear of the truth I might see in it.  Then he did something odd. He reached over, turned down the passenger side sun visor, flipped open the mirror, and made me look into it.  He made me do that for what seemed like a very long time. He said It was important, that I needed to burn that image into my brain, puffy eyes, tear streaked face, empty eyes and all. I needed to remember, he said, the way I felt in that moment. It was important, he told me, because not one thing I had done up to that point was in question.  I’d done what I’d done and been where I’d been, all of that was fact, ugly fact to be sure, no real question there. The only question of any importance was what I was going to do from that point forward. He told me that the person I’d become didn’t have to be the person I would always be. It was a demon of sorts that I had to let go of. Then, oddly enough, he asked me about a writer. He asked me if I’d ever read anything by James Agee. I was surprised by the question and hadn’t ever heard of the writer. I asked him why he asked, and he shook his head. He just shook his head and said that one day down the road, when I had some distance from where I was, I should look that author up and do a little reading. He said I’d understand. Then he told me he loved me, and I believed him. And I felt clean, somehow, and empty; ready to be filled with something more than self-loathing.

During the holidays, I contacted Hartwick College, the school I’d failed out of five years earlier, and inquired about re-admission. I was told that my best chance at being invited back was to enroll in a Community College for at least a year and demonstrate success. That January I enrolled in Finger Lakes Community College as a full time student. I took two classes at the local extension center and two at the main campus in Canandaigua, N.Y. During that time, I was living with my parents, but still needed to work, so I took a job working the overnight shift at an electronics factory assembling mother boards for computers from 11pm to 7 am every day. I spent that four months working harder between classes, homework, and my job, than I had ever worked in my life. During that time I met Louise Mulvaney.  She was an English professor and the instructor for two of the four courses I was taking that semester. During the third week of class, she returned a paper to me with a single comment on it. Don’t give up. I stayed after the next class to ask her about her comment. Was there a problem with my work? She smiled and assured me that there was no problem with my work. She told me that in fact I was one of the best writers in her class. When I asked her about her comment on my paper, she just smiled and said that I looked tired and like I could use some encouragement. I thanked her and proceeded to share my entire story with her, ending with the fact that my intention was to eventually return to Hartwick and finish what I had started five years prior. At the end of it she simply smiled and said, “Well, then, it appears we have our work cut out for us.” I thanked her for listening to me and excused myself.  In retrospect I think I may have been feeling a little embarrassed for being so open. As I was leaving, though, she stopped me. “If you noticed,” she said, “I used the word we. You are not in this alone; don’t forget that.”

 During the course of that semester, Louise and I had dozens of conversations.  She was a motivator, a critic, a resource, and a friend. She became my advisor, both academically and personally, introduced me to other students who were, as she used to call us, “non-traditional.” It was the beginning of one of the most important relationships in my life, a deep friendship that continues to this day. There were days when I felt as if I were literally sleepwalking through my life, but with Louise’ continued patronage  and the encouragement I found in new friendships,  I was able  to maintain focus, even on days when I could  scarcely focus my eyes on what I was reading. When the semester was finally over, I slept through nearly an entire weekend, spending what little time I was awake wondering if I would be able to keep going at that same pace in the fall. That next week, though, when the grade report came, I tore open the envelope and found myself staring down at a perfect 4.0 report. Later that summer I received an invitation to join Phi Theta Kappa, the International Honor Society for two year colleges. Louise was the advisor for the local chapter, so I threw myself into that group with the same focus and determination that I’d thrown myself into my first semester. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Over the course of the next year, my successes continued to mount. I was receiving top grades across the board, but in addition to that, I was being exposed to an entirely different level of academia through my association with Phi Theta Kappa. I was elected a chapter officer and traveled extensively.  I attended Honors Study institutes on both the regional and national level that challenged me to expand the breadth and depth of my own ideas and integrate those of others in creating a more global, wholly integrated perspective.  I took part in leadership development conferences and other enrichment opportunities that made me a more dynamic, confident student. I discovered and was able to nourish a talent for leadership, and became, on the whole, a more complete student, a more complete person.

A year and nine months after first walking through the doors of FLCC, and thanks I returned to Hartwick College with something one doesn’t get very often in this life – a fresh start. The Grade Point average that I had earned at FLCC—a 3.9—became my recalculated GPA at Hartwick, and I began anew. The skills and habits that I had nourished during my Community College time and with Phi Theta Kappa  served me well. Two years later, eleven years after beginning, I graduated from Hartwick College with a 3.8 Grade point Average and degrees in English and Education.  During that time, I remained active in Phi Theta Kappa, becoming the Founding President of New York’s first Regional Phi Theta Kappa Alumni Association, Zeta of New York, in 1996.  That association has emerged as a leader among alumni, receiving the Society’s Alumni Association of Merit Award three times since the award’s introduction in 2000. Fifteen years later and more than 700 members strong, it continues to thrive and serve the New York region today.

Building from these earlier successes, I have made successful career in education, determined to provide for others the same kind of compassion, support and nurturing that I found at the hands of Louise Mulvaney, FLCC, and Phi Theta Kappa. I have had a successful career as a teacher and school administrator and hold Masters degrees in Secondary Education and Education Administration. I am currently in the process of starting a Charter School – The Finger Lakes Preparatory Academy – a 9-12 Charter school whose mission will be to prepare students for the transition into college by offering a streamlined, more focused curriculum at the 9th and 10th grade levels and offering a full spectrum of college 101 and 102 level courses during the 11th and 12th grade years to provide students with the opportunity to transition into Community Colleges with a significant head start toward completing as Associates Degree. This is a labor of love for me, a way of paying forward my second chance in life, and the opportunity for redemption that I was afforded. It is nothing less for me than a sacred duty.

I am a husband and a father now. I have two sons of my own who even at the ages of 7 and 10 demonstrate much more natural sense than I did at their age. I am encouraged by that and sincerely hope that they can manage to parlay that natural sense into successful lives without hitting the speed bumps along the way that I did.  If they do, though, I hope and pray that I can rise to the occasion and be even half of the man for them that my father was for me. Even now I look back at that long ride from Kentucky to New York as the beginning of my new beginning. Not too long ago, between work and football practices and trumpet lessons and cub scouts, I managed to make some time to look up James Agee.  It didn’t take me long to find what I think my father wanted me to find, a frequently quoted passage from Agee’s, “A Death in the Family.” It reads:

"How far we all come. How far we all come away from ourselves. So far, so much between, you can never go home again. You can go home, it's good to go home, but you never really get all the way home again in your life. And what's it all for? All I tried to be, all I ever wanted and went away for, what's it all for?”

I read that passage a few times, and I have to confess that I just didn’t get it at first.  I had assumed that I would find a lightning bolt, a moral to the story, so to speak, but the passage ends with a question. It wasn’t until I was writing this that a realization dawned on me. I believe I know now what I couldn’t have possibly understood then, and what he wanted me to eventually understand; a lesson that none of us can truly see without a little distance and some hindsight: Life is not a neat thing and seldom happens exactly according to plan. At best, it’s a collection of choices and consequences, actions and results and questions, all of which change us forever, leaving us to search for answers, and in searching for those answers, somehow find ourselves.

 From Sheila Burson:

Thank you for wanting to know my story. I am one of those “nontraditional” students, now in my junior year at Mills College in Oakland, California. Here is my story.

My upbringing did not include going to college. Because it was rooted in a very fundamentalist type of religion, going further than high school was frowned upon. A girl was to marry within the religion, becoming a good wife and mother. I, of course, did this, although I dreamed of a higher education. Because this was denied me, I did my best to read as widely as possible, hoping to increase my education through books from the library.  

As a wife and mother (of seven children), I encouraged my children to get all the education they could, even though it meant going against church teachings. After I became a single mom, I supported myself and my last two children by working as a secretary in a law office, doing paralegal work (although I did not have the education, and consequently did not have the degree, I still learned from the ground up). I was content with my job, my sons (one of whom is autistic) and my books until November 4, 2004.

As I was returning home from work that night, I was in an automobile accident, rear ended by a driver who was traveling at a high rate of speed and never hit his brakes. I was transported to the hospital with severe injuries, the worst of which was traumatic brain injury and a stroke that paralyzed my left side. After nearly two years of medical care, I was told to be thankful I survived the crash and to go home and live my life as best as I could.

Depression hit hard. I am a fighter and to be told to sit at home was devastating news. Memory loss was a big partof my problems (for nearly two years after the accident I had problems remembering my children’s names and birthdates – numbers and symbols were particularly hard for me to understand). I also had problems with speaking and recognizing words and pictures and was sent to several therapists.

However, a wonderful speech therapist suggested I try one class at the local community college (Butte College in Oroville, California), a class on brain injury and accommodations for my disabilities. It was a giant leap of faith, but I followed her suggestion and a whole world opened for me. My permanent disabilities include short term memory loss, trouble thinking of words (I nearly always can think of the definition, but not the word itself), and right side neglect (this means that while I can see out of my eye, the “message” of what I am reading on that side does not reach the brain – in other words, I can only read the left side of a page).  

With accommodations, I discovered I could go back to school—which I did at 55 years old. I graduated last spring from Butte College with an AA and an AS degree – and a 4.0 grade average. In my second semester I was invited by the President of Butte College to join Phi Theta Kappa, an honor society of two year community colleges. I not only joined, but served as a member, then as Vice President of Scholarship. I successfully ran for Vice President of the Northeast District of the Nevada/California Region, then as President of the Region. Last year I ran for international office (but didn’t win) and am now currently serving as Vice President of the Nevada/California Regional Alumni Association – a post I will hold for another year, working as the liaison between the current Regional Board and the Alumni Association.

I transferred to Mills College (after being offered admittance at several other universities) and began attending Mills this fall, planning on a double major - an English Major with a Creative Writing emphasis  and a History Major before graduation.  While Mills College does not have the same accommodations that Butte had, I am now the Disability Senator for the Associated Students at Mills College.  The program that I need for my computer is quite expensive (nearly $2,000) and together with other students we are lobbying for the program to be added to Mills so those of us with disabilities can also use it. Phi Theta Kappa taught me leadership and organizational skills that I use often here at Mills and I will always be grateful for the opportunity for me to “enter a door” that I thought was closed to me forever.   

I often have other nontraditional students email me for advice and I still tell them the same thing—finish your community college education and remember to dream big because the whole world is open to you.