Capacity Building for Experiential Learning

Students Shoulder to Shoulder

Bill Rohs and Dr. Neena Jain first met Mike Beerntsen, SStS
Director of Programming, when he led the first SStS trip to Ladakh, India in 2007. Working with a partner NGO at the time, Bill and Neena helped to coordinate the group of high school volunteers on the ground to cooperatively build the first ADA-accessible composting latrines for a disabled children’s school. With local staff, the entire group constructed the latrines at 13,000 feet elevation, taught hygiene education, and engaged with the inspiring children and supportive community.

In October 2014, with Vail Mountain School and other Students Shoulder to Shoulder (SStS) high school partner participants, we shared emBOLDen Alliances’ perspectives and field experiences on:

• Translating Compassion into Action: Lessons in Listening
• How might I get there from here? Career paths in the Global Community

We were also honored to engage with SStS and five of their NGO partners working with communities in Cambodia, US, Nepal, Bolivia, and Kenya. Collaboratively and cross-culturally, we explored organization, community, and key stakeholder definitions of resilience and sustainability. We then put these ideals into tangible practice through sharing of Best Practices in Leadership, Operations, Programming, and Monitoring and Evaluation.