Sustainable Schools

Prof. Charalee GRAYDON,  JD, PhD
Associate Professor of Mediation and Law
EUCLID (Euclid University / Pôle Universitaire Euclide)

Charalee Graydon was born in Alberta, Canada. She is a writer, journalist, academic and past lawyer. Her academic work is in the areas of mediation and conflict resolution and climate change education. She is a faculty member at Euclid University.

Charalee holds degrees in Bachelor of Arts in English and Political Science, and a Juris Doctorate in Law. Following receipt of a Rhodes scholarship in 1982, she pursued legal studies in Oxford, England where she obtained a B.C. L degree. She held academic positions in England, New Zealand, and Canada, and practiced law in Canada.

She has published three books of literary fiction and one of which has been translated to Spanish. She has published a children’s book, Life on Planet Earth: My Story and is scheduled to publish a non-fiction book, Creating a Masterpiece: The Arts and Conflict Resolution in 2021

0 (0s):
Hello, everybody. Welcome to the sustainable schools, virtual summits. And we have an amazing guest here today. This is Charalee Graydon. She's not just any old Charalee Graydon!!. and she is professor Charlie Graydon. She's a very special lady and she is going to take the floor and you are all going to be very intrigued and glued to either your screen or the audio of this podcast to listen to what she has to say today. Welcome sourly.

1 (36s):
Thank you so much, Melanie. That was a, a beautiful introduction. I appreciate it very much. I am just an ordinary Charale Graydon. I've written a few blogs, but, and I've done a few, you know, lots of teaching, but other than that, I am an ordinary Charalee Graydon. What I'm here today is to talk about some of the books that I have written, particularly in the last one that was just published, which is a book about the creative arts and a calling it's called creating a masterpiece, the creative arts and climate change, the creative arts and, and climate change conflict.

1 (1m 18s):
So in that sense, what we're trying to do is talk about how to deal with conflicts that are arising because of climate change and how the creative arts can add impact to, to help deal with these conflicts. Not only by you'll, you'll hear me talking about the different ways we can do this. So that is the first book that I'm glad to talk about. And most recently I've been working on a children's book. So this is, I'm going to say the first book creating a masterpiece, the creative arts and climate change conflict would be more for an adult audience. So either an upper ever upper level audience.

1 (2m 0s):
So I would say from six at pro, approximately 15, 16, 17 years old. And then the second book that that we're working on is about to be published today or tomorrow will be one that's called life on planet earth. My story. And that is a book that, that has the children telling their stories. So the reader that is the child reader, who is using this book is going to tell their story based on the designs and billboards that are provided to the job. So those are the two books that I'd like to talk about today. Some of the other books that I've written or, or different types of work, more fiction books, but those are the two that I want to speak about today.

1 (2m 48s):
So perhaps I can go to the first book, which is creating, you know, creating a masterpiece. Now people will say, now, what is it? She's not a painter. She's not, you know, she tries to do Jack she's tries to be a Jack of all trades. You know, she's a writer and you know, she, she's a, you know, she's an author, she's a university professor, et cetera, et cetera. So what is it scraping a masterpiece? Well, the masterpiece is really what people can do because we are facing, as we know a global challenge of climate change, that is the major challenge I'm going to say,

THE CLIMATE SCIENCE IS CLEAR
WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME

Are you and your school equipped to prepare your students to navigate and succeed in this climate-challenged world?

eduCCate Global is ready to empower every teacher in every school around the world, to incorporate climate change education (Climate Literacy, Carbon Literacy, Transition and Transformation) into every curriculum so that schools can be community leaders for climate action.

So far, we’ve upskilled teachers in more than 349,000 schools in 43 countries. In 2021 we plan to certify another 6 million schools; the equivalent of 100 million teachers.

Graham Williams, CMC, B.Com Hons, B.A. is on the Council of the International Mananagement Consultants and Master Coaches of South Africa (IMCSA), a certified management consultant and executive master coach, thought provoker, speaker and author of 9 business books who has worked in over 40 countries and many sectors around the world. He is a management contributor to 12Manage (the World's foremost management network). An essential component of his ‘motivational fingerprint’ is to overcome severe organisational blockages by installing creative, healing solutions – from concept to implementation. Special interest areas are building resilience, and embedding character virtues and sustainability practices in organisational culture. He makes use of narrative, anecdote and metaphor as critical contributors to successful business interventions. Graham comes from humble beginnings, grew up in Woodstock, Cape Town, began his academic career after marrying and while raising a family , and believes strongly in finding practical solutions to challenges. Prior to launching his own business, while with Shell, He conducted customer service studies at AT&T Universal Card, Agway, Fedex, Disney World, Duke Power, Thames Water Board, LL Bean, Pepsi, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Group, MIT. He developed the first Motorway Service Area in South Africa, the first multi-task Customer Contact Centre in the Shell Group, the first margin-management, price-elasticity system for Shell UK, and served as a member of the re-engineering team.

HIS PURPOSE IS TO CREATE THE SPACE FOR ORGANISATIONS (and their members) TO HEAL

I contribute regularly to a number of hard copy and online magazines including Culture University, Human Capital Review, Leadership and Change Magazine.

Andrew Stein
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN

Andrew Stein founded the Orphaned Starfish Foundation in 2001 to help orphans, victims of abuse, survivors of trafficking, indigenous populations, refugees and at-risk youth worldwide escape their cycles of poverty and abuse through education and job training. From humble beginnings building a small computer vocational training center in an orphanage for young victims of abuse in Santiago, Chile, he has built the Foundation to now serve over 15,000 children in 68 programs in 29 countries: American Samoa, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, United States & Uruguay. Andy has partnered with local organizations in each of these countries, including Save the Children, Rotary Club, and USAID. Around the world he is known as Tio Andy or Tio Mago. Andy makes yearly visits to each Orphaned Starfish program. Mago is Spanish for Magician. He brings a magic show complete with balloon animals for all the children. (His highest amount recorded was 1,000 balloon animals in one sitting.) His visits also allow for a personal connection not only to the children but to the institutions and their directors and teachers. For his work helping the children of the favelas of Brazil, Andy was awarded an Honorary Citizenship in Rio De Janeiro by their Congress. In the United States, he has also been awarded the Jefferson Award for Community Service, the key to the city of Miami Beach, and several other state and local honors. He and the Orphaned Starfish Foundation have been featured on CBS News, Fox News, ABC News, Telemundo and Univision as well as in the Wall Street Journal, Miami Herald, Star Ledger, Jewish Week and US Magazine. Andy has also been a member of the Benefit Committees for Aleh Foundation, National Academy for the Arts, US Doctors for Africa, and Harlem’s Playing 2 Win Foundation. Prior to his work with Orphaned Starfish, Andy was active in Special Olympics, Rotary Club and Counterpart International. Andy Stein is also currently President and CEO of Makopastreet Partners, LLC. Makopastreet Partners provides senior debt financing for luxury and ultra-luxury hotel, and mixed-use developments, as well as infrastructure projects worldwide. In addition, Makopastreet Partners coordinates all stages of development for luxury and ultra-luxury hotel and mixed-use developments in the Americas, with a focus on the United States, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Andy has been a featured speaker at several industry conferences worldwide and has been a guest professor on the topic of international hotel finance at Wharton for the past several years. From 1993 – 1996, Andy was based in Manila, Philippines as the Joint Head of Corporate Finance for Chase’s (formerly Chemical Bank’s) Manila Branch. During his tenure in Manila, Andy developed the Bank’s project finance and hospitality expertise in the Philippines. Andy also was instrumental in the execution of the Brady Plan bonds, which restructured the bank debt of several Latin American and Asian countries. Andy holds a B.A. in Economics and International Relations from the University of Virginia. Andy has two sons, both very much involved with Orphaned Starfish Foundation. Andy spends his time between New York City and Miami when not traveling for the Foundation.

• Our achievements at GCS with Sustainability and the Carbon Footprint Buster challenges.
• Our journey to achieve the ‘Bronze Award’.
• The positive involvement and response of the GCS student, staff and parent community.
• Our continued efforts inspite of covid.

At GCS we have

• Conducted grade wise assembly for the students on sustainability.
• Published the Sustainability Newsletter to the GCS community.
• Celebrated Sustainability Week.
• Conducted an elocution competition for the secondary school students on the topic ‘voice your concerns’.
• Celebrated ‘Harvest Day’ for the students.
• Conducted a poster making competition with the theme. ‘Plant a Legacy’.
• Created our own organic garden.
• Created display/notice board on sustainability.
• Appointed a student committee.
• Conducted regular meetings with the student and staff.
• Have involved the entire GCS community students, staff and parents.
• Have reviewed best possible ways of reducing electricity and water consumption.
• Collaborated with sister school to share our work on sustainability and encourage them to be a part of the same. A presentation was created to share our contribution towards sustainability by the Students Leadership Team.
• Collaborated with UNCCE for participating in various sustainability challenges.
• Interacted with teachers at GCS to include sustainability in our day to day lessons.
• Embedded sustainability topics in our lessons.