Community events include speakers Betsy Teutsch and Jim Walker.
For the ninth consecutive year, Chestnut Hill College will host the Global Solutions Lab, a collaborative effort between Global Education Motivators (GEM) and the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) Initiative, the week of June 19 to June 27.
The Global Solutions Lab gives students a chance to interact with participants from across the country as they work together to come up with solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.
This year’s theme is Human Rights and Human Development: Eliminating Extreme Poverty by 2030.
Participants will meet at the College to be briefed by several UN experts from organizations including UNDP, UNESCO and UNICEF. They will then learn a design and planning methodology developed by Buckminster Fuller and other strategic thinkers before developing their own designs, programs and strategies to deal with the critical issue of extreme poverty.
“They (the participants) will learn a powerful strategic design and planning methodology that will be of use for the rest of their life, as well learn about leadership, problem solving and the design revolution,” according to a statement on the event’s official website. “They will learn about global problems, options, technology, culture, resources and what they can do to make a difference. They will meet others with similar passions about the state of the world—and what we can do to make things better.”
Following the weeklong event, participants will have the opportunity to present the culmination of their work to a group of UN, corporate and foundation leaders at the United Nations in New York. In addition, the work of the participants will be published in the book, “Designing a World that Works for All.”
Chestnut Hill College also will host two speaker events in the College’s East Parlor, both of which are free and open to the public.
The first speaker is Betsy Teutsch. A former Communications Director at GreenMicrofinance and founding Board Member of Shining Hope for Communities and the Kibera School for Girls, Teutsch is a passionate activist when it comes to mobilizing resources for the world’s poorest women. She will share her experiences in her talk, Cool Tools to Empower Women around the World, on June 21 from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
The second speaker is Jim Walker, a strategic marketing and communications consultant whose career has focused on Healthcare 2.0 solutions, and whose positions have included working in e-Marketing at AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline. His particular interest has been helping brand teams take advantage of social networks, mobile marketing and video-based campaigns. Walker will give his talk, Changing the World with Communication Skills, on June 22 from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
For more information, contact Global Education Motivators at gem@chc.edu or 215-248-1150.
Click here to read more about GEM, the Global Solutions Lab and much more on how Chestnut Hill College is working toward global progress and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
