About
Us
Staff
Team - Our core team of seven "Coordinators" are professionally
certified teachers, popular educators, and social change leaders.
The Coordinators develop and facilitate the activities and
workshops each day, and they are resources for helping students
develop their own amazing new ideas and projects.
Facilitator
Team - Crucial to the success of the program are the 16 peer-facilitators
who help the program run smoothly. They are selected from
amongst our partner United World Colleges and from our cohort
of participants from the previous year. They bring invaluable
skills and experience, and an international perspective, to
the program - as well as acting as role models for the participants.
2010
Coordination Team
The PSYL
Coordination Team 2010 (Clockwise from
left: Ruth Whyte, Ryan Cho, David Hatfield, Scott Read, Kim
Meredith, Brad Davis, Anna McClean, Natalie Gerum)
Ruth
Whyte is the Director
of the PSYL program. She oversees the big picture concerns
of PSYL and supports the coordinator team in being at their
best. 2010 was Ruth's seventh PSYL season- each one is unique
and yet all have been extraordinary. Ruth has been involved
with youth leadership training and sustainable community development
issues for over 15 years and has had the chance to work in
some amazing and remote parts of the globe including Cuba,
much of South America, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Ruth is currently
completing an M.A. in Leadership and is particularly interested
in aspects of self-awareness as a key leadership tool to uncovering
a person’s true potential. She believes that ANY-thing is
possible if you set your mind to it with a deep alignment
of intention and clarity of purpose.
David
Hatfield has worked with PSYL over the past 5 years as a Coordinator
and as a guest presenter. David Hatfield is a respected leadership
consultant and facilitator focusing on issues of masculinity,
conflict transformation, creativity, rites of passage, and
communication (www.davidhatfield.ca).
He has 12 years experience with culturally diverse youth and
adult populations including public and alternative schools,
health care and social service agencies, prisons, wilderness-based
rites of passage, and residential programs. As a specialist
in male issues, David is a powerful guide in exploring notions
of masculinity and a catalyst in illuminating and supporting
new possibilities for both genders. He is also an inspired
instructor of improvisational a cappella singing. David is
currently pursuing an M.Ed. in Social Ecology. David is also
a talented musician, and is passionate about creating ceremony
and rites of passage for youth. At PSYL he leads the guys
gender day, and coordinates many of our talent (and non-talent)
shows!
Natalie
Gerum, has pretty much gone through the entire gamut
of Pearson College experiences: she came to PSYL as a participant,
then to Pearson College as a student, then to PSYL as a Facilitator,
then worked with our team in 2006 and 2009 as our program
assistant (see the YouTube clip for her story!). So naturally
she brings a unique and rich perspective on the PSYL experience.
Natalie completed her undergraduate degree last year at Mount
Allison University, a 'design-it-yourself' degree in experiential
and environmental education. During the school year Natalie
works seasonally with the good folks at Sea to Sky Outdoor
School and is currently consulting in the design of Graduate
level Leadership courses with Renaissance College in New Brunswick.
Some of the sessions she delivers at PSYL include Sustainability
101, the Earth game simulation, and the girls gender issues
day.
Kim
Meredith, is a
high school teacher of ESL, Global Education, and Dance, and
has recently embarked upon undertaking her Ph.D. at UBC on
intercultural communication. 2010 was Kim’s third year with
PSYL. Kim’s contributions to PSYL include organizing the amazing
“Communication Crew” to pair students up with language buddies.
She delivers sessions on cross-cultural communication and
creating a culture of Peace, and coordinates the Bringing
it to the Streets day. The PSYL participants can also look
forward to participating in her star gazing and swing dance
sessions.
Ryan
Cho is a teacher
at Terry Fox Secondary in Port Coquitlam, where he runs the
music program and has been involved with coordinating the
International Education and ESL communications program. Ryan
is passionate about International Development issues, and
was involved in an internship in Botswana that used arts and
theatre for education on HIV/AIDS. 2010 was Ryan’s second
year with us. Ryan brings his musical and theatrical passions
to share with the students, and he also helps the students
capture and edit video footage of PSYL (see his handiwork
in our YouTube clips).
Scott
Read is an outdoor
experiential educator. He currently lives in Thunder Bay and
has just completed his teaching degree. Scott has coordinated
summer and environmental education camps, and run programs
with Outward Bound. He is passionate about developing leadership
and self-awareness skills in youth. As an outdoor educator
he shares his passion for nature and finds ways to help connect
our PSYL participants to the beautiful place that is our campus.
Some of the sessions that Scott contributes to the program
are the Adventure day, Earth walk, and a session on global
water issues.
Brad
Davis has recently
moved to Victoria BC and has spent the past eight years on
the road teaching with the Audubon Expedition Institute across
the USA and the Living Routes programs in India. The spectrum
of experience that Brad brings in the field of interdisciplinary
ecological leadership education and community building is
a perfect fit for the PSYL environment. Brad has also run
youth outdoor leadership camps in Ontario, and has experience
mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. Brad also seems
to be an avid outdoors person with many outdoor skills to
offer our participants. Some of the offerings that Brad shared
this year included activism 101, the geography of hope, and
envisioning the world we want.
Anna
McClean has recently
completed her M.Ed. in experiential learning, global citizenship
education, and adult education. Anna brings experience in
curriculum development and workshop facilitation in global
citizenship, diversity, ecological sustainability, and more.
Anna shares her passion for theatre and dance with our participants
and is also an avid outdoor adventure enthusiast. Anna worked
with the facilitator team to help them coordinate and deliver
some of their own sessions, and orchestrated a massive Bringing
It to The Streets public extravaganza for our program participants.
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