Global Campus Participants Invited to Present at the University of Vermont

On Tuesday April 12th, Global Campus Participants responded to a teaching invitation by traveling to the University of Vermont to present about their Global Campuses at a graduate class entitled, "The Culture of Disability", taught by Professor Deborah Lisi-Baker. Scott and Shawn from GC Bradford, Grace from GC Moretown, and Hudson from GC Springfield all spoke about the classes they have taught and how Global Campus has affected their lives in a positive way. Hudson shared how teaching has given him a new light, passion and direction in life. He also spoke about the importance of inclusion, especially for children, which resonated strongly with students in the class and what they have been studying. Shawn shared about the new relationships and friendships she has developed. All the participants spoke about the challenges of teaching as well as the great rewards. Many of the students could relate to the participants teaching struggles, such as gathering materials together and doing research.

The students in the class were quite impressed by the presenters and had many questions. In response to one of the student's questions, each presenter shared a snapshot of one of their classes. Shawn passed around her scrap books from her class on her life story and shared a few of her favorite memories. Hudson presented some of his powerful poetry. Scott shared a few artifacts from his upcoming class on Romania, Bulgaria and Tranyslvania, inspired by his fathers ancestry. Grace spoke about her class on Broadway Musicals that is coming up in a few weeks.

Professor Deborah Lisi-Baker and the Global Campus Participants were very excited at the prospect of future opportunities and collaboration! Congratulations to all the presenters!

Global Campuses Foundation Releases New Video!

Global Campuses Foundation is pleased to present a short DVD production produced by Lincoln Street Inc. highlighting the dynamic experiences of participants at Global Campus Springfield. Lincoln Street is one of GCF’s partnering human service agencies in Vermont, USA. Global Campus Springfield was developed and is administered by individuals who receive a variety of services from Lincoln Street. We are very pleased that this agency felt so impressed by the Global Campus Experience that they wanted to share about Global Campus Springfield with the larger community through this production. Please enjoy this window into another vibrant Global Campus. Global Campuses Foundation would like to thank everyone at Lincoln Street Inc. for your continued positive participation with Global Campus Springfield.

Please CLICK HERE to watch the video!

GC Moretown Supports Haiti Reconstruction

Participants at Global Campus Moretown donated over $2000 to support immediate relief efforts in Haiti last winter after the earthquake devastated the small island nation. This year they did it again! Participants organized a benefit event and raised over $1000 and collected clothing and supplies to send down with Mary Jane, a Resource Person at GC Moretown, who traveled to Haiti with a local aid group based in Waitsfield called AMURTEL. Mary Jane then returned a few weeks later to give a presentation at our campus, sharing her stories and experiences in Haiti and telling us how our donations were used! Congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated in the project!

Campus to Campus Connections Conference with the Hale Street Gang

Global Campus participants from all corners of Vermont gathered at Chandler Music Hall in Randolph, VT on March 23rd for an all day Campus to Campus Connections Conference. As participants arrived they had the opportunity to browse the downstairs exhibit of the Hale Street Gang, a group of local seniors who get together each week to write down and share their life stories. The exhibit features life size black and white photographs of the seniors in the Hale Street Gang, as well as audio recordings of their stories and displays featuring their memoirs and books.

After browsing the gallery everyone gathered upstairs to hear members of the Hale Street Gang read excerpts from their memoirs and collections of stories. We were all captivated by the humorous and touching tales, some from long ago, some more recent. Dorcas Wright, a resource person for Global Campus Randolph and member of the Hale Street Gang, mentioned how touched she was to see her two passions in life coming together to meet and share each others life experiences. After a short refreshment break, Global Campus participants shared about their campuses, classes they are teaching, and stories about their own lives. Many folks also shared artwork. What a great collaboration!

In the afternoon, campus participants gathered at the Red Schoolhouse at Vermont Technical College to have lunch together. After eating, participants broke into groups with each group working together to create a fictional story based on a set of cards that sketched out the scene of a potential story. There were many laughs as we all shared our stories! The afternoon came to a close by sharing news from the various campuses and sharing a few new stories from participants who didn't have a chance to speak during the morning.

This conference was such a great success, thank you to everyone who participated!

Thailand Campuses Update

Thai Site Visit


Greetings from Chiang Mai, Thailand! It is a great honor to be visiting Global Campus Southeast Asia and some of the participants from Global Campus Chiang Mai, Global Campus San Sai and Global Campus Nan.

English Class was my first introduction to the campus. The campus meets in a house in Chiang Mai and participants sit in a circle with notebooks and looking at a white board. Around the campus I can see framed Certificates, campus flags and photographs of the campus' achievements.. The group meets weekly to practice English and is led by one of the Global Campus participants, who is fluent in English. We began class by reading some of the letters sent to Thailand by Global Campus Randolph. The class was working on their responses to these letters and asked for my help in proofreading and editing. Global Campus Randolph can look forward to letters coming soon –the letters will include pictures of GC Chiang Mai participants.

After working on the letters, I asked the group to share a bit about their interests – in English, of course! We practiced saying the phrase, "I am interested in…" and then went over some vocabulary words as they came up in discussion. The group has a diverse set of interests including farming, reading, bicycling, making jewelry, and cooking. After class, the group orders lunch together – take out from a food stall down the road. We sat around an outside table eating foods such as Pad Thai – fried noodles with egg and chili, Kao Klog Ka Pre – rice with shrimp paste, Hao Tom Ba – fish soup, or Pat See You – fried noodles with soy sauce. The noodle dishes are served with packets of chili and sugar to add more flavor to the dishes. Everything is delicious!

Many of the Global Campus Chiang Mai and San Sai participants do not come to the campus every week. In some cases, it is difficult for people to get out of their house or find transportation to the campus. To make sure all participants feel included, the group has set up a home-visit program. We spent a full day visiting participants in their homes and encouraging them to get out of the house and into the community. Ka, GCF's Regional Director in Southeast Asia, spoke with the participants about how to advocate for themselves. Many were worried that they would be a burden to their families if they went into the community, as they would have to ask others for help. Ka brought with her an informational video about how to improve accessibility in the home and the community.

On Sundays, the city of Chiang Mai is famous for its Night Market. Non, the Director of Global Campus Chiang Mai, took me to the market to walk around and explore Thai culture. The market has a section devoted specifically for people with disabilities to sell handicrafts and many of the campus participants have set up booths. Many of the GC Chiang Mai participants spend a lot of time at a place called, The House of Potentiality, which is a cooperative craft facility for people with disabilities to use. They have learned to make jewelry, metal work, leatherwork and recently soap. A few of the participants the crafts at the night market to make some extra money. I watched Khun Oo, one of the GC Chiang Mai participants make jewelry at the market. Using copper wire and beads she curls the wire around pliers to make little loops and then adds beads. Her handiwork is beautiful and very unique.

The campus has many events planned while I'm here in Thailand. It is fun to meet the campus participants and learn about Thai culture and disability culture. Every day I learn something new! Best wishes to the GCF community and I look forward to telling more stories when I return.

Amy Miller
Academic Coordinator
Global Campuses Foundation

Global Campus Bradford Hosts Community Connections Conference

On Monday February 7th, Global Campus Bradford hosted a Community Connections Conference at Grace Methodist church in Bradford, VT. This conference was created with the intention of introducing our campus to the community of Bradford, sharing the creative work we are all engaged in and making new friends and connections.

The core group was there first thing in the morning to get everything set up and ready to go. The room was beautiful with campus displays, photographs, past catalogs, and information about all the different campuses in Vermont and Thailand. As folks came in they received a program and name badge. Next they shook hands and were formally greeted by the core group. A beautiful dessert spread with coffees and teas was available for folks to enjoy at their leisure.

Promptly at 12:30, Robin presented the keynote welcome address. Audience members were then invited downstairs to enjoy an hour of teaching presentations. Robin, Shawn, and Robert taught in one classroom while Jeannie, Valorie and Scott presented in another. The classes were fantastic and everyone was quite impressed!

After the teaching presentations we all came back upstairs into the large gathering room to participate in a panel discussion. Shawn, Robin, Patrick, Scott, Robert, Val, Jeannie, Lorraine, and Jim were all on the panel with Andreas moderating. First everyone shared how Global Campus has affected their lives and then we all had a chance to share how we thought Global Campus has benefited our community. The audience was eager to jump in and we had a great question and answer session to round out the afternoon. After a big round of applause for the tremendous successes of the day, the audience had the chance to browse our displays and talk with the core group while enjoying the last of the desserts.

The conference was a tremendous success and all the campus participants are very proud of their hard work and accomplishments. What an impressive event, congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated!

GC Randolph and GC Chiang Mai Initiate Pen Pal Experience!

In the Fall of 2010, Global Campus Randolph faculty Rena Haevers presented a class on Pen Pals. As part of her class she asked everyone to write a letter to Global Campus Chiang Mai. GC Randolph participants just received their first response from half-way around the world featuring letters and photographs from participants at GC Chiang Mai. They were thrilled to receive the letters and learn more about the campus participants in Thailand. Everyone wrote back immediately, sharing more about themselves and the huge winter snowstorm we just received! What a wonderful new relationship sparked by Rena's class, congratulations!

GC Moretown Explores the World!

Global Campus begins by the ritual passing of the feathered pine stick that starts every class. Each person shares a little bit about their current agenda and plans for the future. Andreas, our Academic Coordinator, went to the library for our class project. For this project we are supposed to select a country we would like to visit and then choose a book that has stories and descriptions of that country. Once introductions are over, people dive into research on their topic countries, deciding how they are going to present their projects. Each person picks something unique to their own interests then by formulating a common goal of sharing compiled information about a specified place. We not only learn about our countries but inform others as well.

By Lee Willsey Potter, GC Moretown Participant

Thailand Missive #2

Hello to Global Campuses in Vermont,

I heard you’ve had quite the snowy few weeks! I hope you are able to enjoy the winter weather. It’s winter in Thailand as well and it’s about 80 degrees. At night it falls to about 65 degrees. All the locals here are very cold – they wear coats and scarves at night and complain about the weather. They are very interested to see photos of snow and think that they would not like winter in Vermont. One of the participants asked questions about wheelchairs in the snow – how do they move?

Last Sunday, Global Campuses Foundation had a meeting at a local hot spring. GCF has been working with the hot spring park for about a year in order to make it more accessible to people with disabilities. Before GCF began work with the park, people in wheelchairs could not use the facilities and it was difficult to walk around the park if you were not in good shape. Now, after many meetings and some construction, the park is accessible to wheelchairs. They are working on building guardrails on the hot springs so that more people will be able to get in and out of the hot springs.

The hot springs have become a big tourist attraction for people living in Chiang Mai. The park has long rivers of hot spring water that people dip their feet into. There are also sections where people can take baths or swim. A popular thing to do at the park is boil eggs in the hot springs. One section of the water is 100 degrees Celsius – perfect for boiling eggs. Outside the park, we bought straw baskets filled with speckled bird eggs and chicken eggs. Inside the park, we boiled the eggs in the baskets by putting them in the boiling hot spring water. We ate the eggs with soy sauce – mmmm!

Yesterday, I visited with Global Campus San Sai. The campus has about thirty campus participants and they met at the town building in San Sai. Volunteers from the village come to the campus to help with setting up the classroom and serving lunch. Lunch has been served at every campus meeting I’ve attended – I’m not sure if we could do that in Vermont! The campus does not meet weekly like we do in VT. But they want to get together more often and have lots of ideas for things they could do. While I was there, they were talking about a trip to the hot springs mentioned above. I told the group about the campuses in VT and all that you’ve accomplished in your Fall Terms.

I wish you my best and will see you soon.

Signing off from Thailand!

Amy Miller, GCF Academic Coordinator

Thailand Missive #1

Hello to Global Campuses in Vermont!

I am very excited to be in Thailand – I have been here for about a week now. I was greeted at the airport by Ka, GCF’s Regional Director in Southeast Asia, Non, Director of GC Chiang Mai, and Phakob, Director Global Campus San Sai. To welcome me, they put a necklace of jasmine flowers around my neck and greeted me with the traditional Sa Wa Dee Ka , or in Non’s case, Sa Wa Dee Krap, because he is male. I know many of you are familiar with that phrase. Jasmine flowers are often used as offerings in Buddhist temples and to pay respect. They smell amazing!

I have been busy getting to know the campuses here. Like in Vermont, the campus meets as a group for classes and meetings. They also go on many field trips and visit Thai historical sites in order to advocate for people with disabilities. Walking around Thailand, one might notice that many buildings do not have ramps for wheel chairs or accessible ways to enter the building. Part of Global Campuses Foundation’s mission in Thailand is to promote accessibility and equal opportunity for people with disabilities.

Global Campus participants in Thailand have learned to become great advocates for themselves. I have met three women in wheel chairs at the campus who all drive motorcycles. They have attached a sidecar to the motorcycle and wired the handlebars so that the bike can be driven from the sidecar. The sidecar has a ramp so the wheel chair can get into the car. The bike can take a passenger as well – the passenger sits on the motorcycle but does not drive. Khun Oo, one of these women, has opened a very successful jewelry business at one of Chiang Mai’s many markets. She makes necklaces and bracelets out of copper and entwines beads with the metal, looping the wire around the beads to make beautiful designs.

I am enjoying visiting many of Chiang Mai’s markets. The markets sell all types of goods, ranging from fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, spices, desserts, clothes, shoes, accessories, household supplies – you name it! It is neat to see all these things sold outside, not in supermarkets like we have in the USA.

I hope you are enjoying the beginning of your Winter Interim studies. In keeping with your theme, I’ve included some pictures of myself in some mysterious places… You all know I’m in Thailand, but can you guess where I am or what I’m doing in these photos?

I wish you all the best and look forward to catching up with you soon!

Amy Miller, GCF Academic Coordinator