A whole new summer of the Global Leadership Youth Program (GLYP) is kicking off in a little over a month – here at the San Diego Diplomacy Council, we could not be more excited! With a new offering of topics to explore, and the exciting addition of college credits available through UCSD Continuing Education, we knew it was vitally important to bring on board a collection of stellar instructors to bring our vision to life.
With that, we would like to officially introduce the amazing instructors who will be joining us for GLYP 2023!
Jessica Wilson-Jones
Introduction to International Relations: Peacebuilding in the 21st Century
Jessica Wilson-Jones is a Foreign Affairs Officer for the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. She coordinates and leads interagency efforts in support of the Department’s foreign assistance programs and policies to strengthen inclusive governance, support electoral and political reform, and civil society development in Syria. Previously, she served in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs managing the Fulbright Programs in Afghanistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. During the Obama Administration, Jessica was appointed to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Policy, leading the advancement of national security and cybersecurity in the Middle East and North Africa.
Prior to her service in government, Jessica worked for the International Rescue Committee where she focused on immigration, refugee resettlement and community outreach and advocacy in Southern California.
“As a foreign affairs officer, Wilson-Jones serves as a liaison between the State Department and her colleagues in the field. She works with teams in D.C. and the region to shape the guidelines for U.S. efforts with Syria, specifically on stabilization assistance efforts. As with many of the big issues challenging our world, there is no easy fix for Syria.” – Michelle Choate via LJCDS article
William Doege
Climate Action: The Imperative of Ocean Conservation
“How do machines and devices work? Automobiles, wind generators, smartphones? Why do objects move and behave as they do? An airborne soccer ball, a bicycle, an airplane, the solar system? What are the scientific ideas behind their operation? From my childhood to now, I have always wondered how and why things work, and through teaching physics I aspire to stimulate a similar curiosity and enthusiasm in my students. I inspire greatness by facilitating lab activities that allow students to directly gather evidence for physics ideas in a hands-on manner, such that they are able to better understand where the ideas and equations originate. Then my students apply these ideas to solve engineering-like problems, to explain how vehicles move and devices function, and to design and build their own devices.”
Bill Doerge hails from Pittsburgh, and he started his career as an electrical engineer for Motorola in Phoenix, Ariz. While working with middle school students as a volunteer, he became interested in teaching. He has taught high school and college physics in both Arizona and San Diego. He also worked as a science curriculum developer and physics instructor at the Center for Research in Math and Science Education (CRMSE) at San Diego State University.
Mr. Doerge particularly enjoys working with students on engineering projects, which have included an electric vehicle conversion, robotics competitions, Rube Goldberg machines, solar-powered vehicles and a rideable hovercraft.
Outside of school, his interests include hiking and cycling, both on and off road.
Lorrie Culver
Market Themes and Financial Means: Global Economic Security
Lorrie Culver is in her 14th year as a faculty member at LJCDS. She currently is the Coordinator of Library Services and Research and the yearbook adviser. Lorrie is passionate about encouraging a life-long love of reading for pleasure and keeping that curiosity spark alive.
She lives amid the avocado and fruit trees of Fallbrook and can’t live without her Meyer lemons. Lorrie has traveled extensively and chaperoned a group of upper school students in Zambia and Botswana as they learned about the culture and how to build mud huts. She is the proud mother of two grown sons.
Lorrie earned her BA in English from Chapman University (go Panthers), her MBA from Pepperdine and an MLIS from San Jose State University.
Maya Torres
Democracy in Danger: Transparency and Accountability in Government
“I inspire greatness by helping my students dream about new adventures in various parts of the world, by opening their eyes to other cultures, and by encouraging them to think beyond themselves, thereby acquiring the gifts of empathy and compassion for others. I give my students the opportunity to make mistakes and realize that taking risks will make them better learners, helping them to grow stronger and go further.”
Maya Torres has a Bachelor of Arts in foreign languages and civilizations from La Sorbonne, in Paris, as well as a TESOL/TEFL/TESL certification from Oxford Seminars in New York City.
As La Jolla Country Day School’s Middle School and Upper School French teacher, Ms. Torres has a passion for foreign languages that expresses itself in sensitivity and compassion to the needs of students. Ms. Torres appreciates the reduced class size at LJCDS, which provides her the opportunity to genuinely connect with each one of her students.
Ms. Torres joined LJCDS in 2011. She has taught French I, French II, French III and French III Honors in the Upper School. She has also taught Spanish 1A and 1B in Middle School, as well as French 1A and French 1B.
Before working at LJCDS, Ms. Torres was a dance teacher and traveled extensively, teaching in four different languages. Ms. Torres’ language proficiency in English, French, Spanish and Arabic provides her with the desire to teach these skills in the most sincere and compassionate way. She also shares her facility and love for languages by raising her three young sons in trilingual fluency. In her spare time, she enjoys the practice of martial arts with her family, salsa dancing, reading, experimenting with new recipes from different cultures, baking, hiking and traveling.
Robin Stewart
Inequality Through a Gender-Focused Lens
“I inspire greatness for a better world by honoring my students’ dignity and by nurturing their ideas and intellectual creativity. I enthusiastically cultivate the potential in each of my students, and I encourage them to embrace literature and philosophy as catalysts to reflect on the possibilities for our world.”
Robin Stewart has been teaching English at La Jolla Country Day School since 2004. Prior to LJCDS, Ms. Stewart taught at an independent school in Macon, Georgia, and as an adjunct for a San Diego Community College. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English literature with a concentration in peace and conflict studies from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and her Master of Arts in African languages and literature from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
As a student, Ms. Stewart wrote poetry, played basketball and rowed crew. As a teacher, she continues to promote a love of poetry and a social conscience. She has served as a policy debate coach, facilitated the Amnesty International Club, and led student activities to celebrate diversity and global citizenship and promote equity and justice. As part of those responsibilities, Ms. Stewart has chaperoned LJCDS student representatives to the National Association of Independent School’s Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) for many years. She also facilitates the annual LJCDS Hope Conference, which is a student-led day of education and inspiration to embrace diversity with dignity and is modeled after SDLC.
Ms. Stewart is passionate about teaching sophomore English and senior English, including the senior elective World Beat: Literature of Africa and the African Diaspora, for which she is thrilled to utilize her graduate studies.
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