Nine students from Rex Putnam and Catlin Gable schools made RCE Greater Portland proud with their excellent professional, thoughtful and thorough presentation on the topic of food security in our region.
They joined presenting teams from Grand Rapids, MI; Medellin, Colombia; Lima, Peru; and Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. In attendance were representatives from UN-IAS, Germany, Bangladesh, and Brazil. The presentations were informative, the questions were rich and we all learned a lot about local food issues in different countries.
It’s a brilliant forum and could only be improved by better technology. The format is good: presentations followed by questions from each team. Jocelyn McIntire from Rex Putnam was our calm and gracious hostess and tireless IT wizard. George Zaninovich from Catlin Gable engaged the students with smart questions and comic relief. Both had the complete respect of their students, and clearly, it was mutual. When we debriefed with the students and asked if we should participate next year, they enthusiastically said “yes!” and then shared what they liked/learned from this experience, as well as offering great suggestions for improving the process next year.