BEZOS SCHOLARS PROGRAM @ THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
ANNOUNCES 2009 SCHOLARS
Scholars to Attend Aspen Ideas Festival
and Create Local Ideas Festivals
May 27, 2009, Aspen, CO — The Bezos Scholars Program @ the Aspen Institute is pleased to announce the selection of the
2009 Bezos Scholars. This prestigious all-expense-paid scholarship brings together 12 of the nation’s top public high school
juniors and 12 of the most engaged educators for a week of exploration, dialogue and debate at the acclaimed
Aspen Ideas Festival.
In Aspen, Bezos Scholars will meet visionaries from around the globe—international leaders, acclaimed thinkers and creative
artists—and engage in seminars, plenary sessions and informal meetings on the Aspen Institute campus. Dates for Bezos Scholar
attendance are June 30 - July 6, 2009.
Past scholars met with retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Her Majesty
Queen Noor, President Bill Clinton, inventor Dean Kamen, physicist Brian Greene, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings,
Teach for American founder Wendy Kopp and President/CEO of the Aspen Institute Walter Isaacson, among many other notables.
2009 SCHOLARS @ THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
STUDENT SCHOLAR
HIGH SCHOOL
EDUCATOR SCHOLAR
Lanna Giauque
Greeley West High School
Greeley, CO
Edie Reynolds
Chair, Social Studies Department
Valerie Shen
James Madison Memorial
High School
Madison, WI
Troy Arneson
Chair, Counselor/ Student Services
Yannick Trapman-O’Brien
Saint Augustine High School
Saint Augustine, FL
Brian Braddock
Chair, Science Department; Teacher,
Science, Mathematics
Simon Boehme
Kalamazoo Central High School
Kalamazoo, MI
Christopher
Bullmer
Teacher, English Language Arts;
Director, Debate Forensics
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Aspen Colorado 81611
tel 970 544 7918
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Samanvitha Sridhar
Wichita High School East
Wichita, KS
Crystal Pilcher
Teacher, IB Psychology
Paul Tran
The Preuss School UCSD
La Jolla, CA
Scott Barton
Principal/Director
Blake O’Connor
Freedom High School
Tampa, FL
Rosemary Owens
Assistant Principal, Curriculum
Caroline Mills
Northside College Preparatory
High School
Chicago, IL
John Belcaster
Teacher, Microeconomics, AP
Macroeconomics, Sustainable
Robert Esnard
The Bronx High School of Science
Bronx, NY
Valerie Reidy
Principal
Jimmitti Teysir
City Honors School at FosdickMasten Park
Buffalo, NY
Frank DiLeo
Chair, English Department
Jane O’Bryan
Milford Central School
Milford, NY
Beatrice Webb
Chair, English Department
Sean Ashburn
Noble High School
North Berwick, ME
Jen England
Reading Workshop
Engineering, Economic Development
12 STUDENTS. 12 EDUCATORS. The annual scholarships are open to high school juniors at eligible public schools nationwide.
Student Scholars are selected based on academic achievement, demonstrated leadership and community engagement. Upon
selection of Student Scholars, an educator from each represented school is invited to participate, thereby offering a unique
leadership development opportunity for principals, teachers, college counselors and curriculum coordinators.
Why? Because, quite simply, we want to help nurture the leaders of tomorrow. It’s our hope that the Bezos Scholars return home
from Aspen inspired by creative, big ideas and use the students’ senior years to create sustainable, local Ideas Festivals that
transform their schools and communities.
“We know that attendance at the Aspen Ideas Festival can be life changing for the individual. When these scholars — exceptional
students and educators — return home to create local Ideas Festivals, it can be life changing for schools and communities across
the U.S. as well,” explains Jackie Bezos, co-founder with her husband Mike, of the Bezos Family Foundation.
REPLICATING THE ASPEN IDEAS FESTIVAL: Following a week at the Aspen Ideas Festival, each Student Scholar/Educator
Scholar team plans a Local Ideas Festival that focuses on a relevant issue for the scholars and their respective schools. The most
impressive plans are rewarded with $1,000 School Award Grants to use as seed money in support of festivals. In an exciting
development in 2008, the Bezos Family Foundation provided first-ever Continuation Grants to five alumni schools seeking to
continue festivals after Student Scholars graduated.
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Local Ideas Festival participants—from schools and local communities—have learned how to lower carbon footprints, take art and
dance classes, explore cultural commonalities as weapons against hate, learn more about America’s health care crisis and discover
connections between Big Sugar and the Everglades. The results, say students and educators, include an expansion of global
awareness and community involvement. There’s a little more knowledge, compassion and concern, and in some cases, direct action.
Kitty Boone, Vice President of Public Programs at the Aspen Institute, says, “We live in a sound-byte culture where our collective
attention span falls short when it comes to thinking deeply about many things. Time for such thinking is so precious. One of my
long-term goals for the Aspen Ideas Festival is to reach out to broader audiences and strike a chord about the value of listening
to, and talking about, the issues that we face in our world, whether they focus on conflicting religious beliefs, approaches to
education, the thrill of a scientific breakthrough or the very real challenges facing our environment.”
BACKGROUND
The Bezos Scholars Program @ The Aspen Institute was founded in 2005 to nurture the leaders of tomorrow. It is a collaboration
between the Bezos Family Foundation and the Aspen Institute. In 2009, the Bezos Family Foundation partnered with the World
Science Festival to create the Bezos Scholars Program @ the World Science Festival, a science scholarship for high school juniors
and science educators in New York City public schools: 5 Students, 5 Educators, 5 Boroughs.
www.bezosfamilyfoundation.org/scholars and www.bezosfamilyfoundation.org/wsf
ABOUT THE BEZOS FAMILY FOUNDATION
The Bezos Family Foundation is a private, independent foundation established by Jackie and Mike Bezos, who along with their
children and spouses, serve as directors. The Foundation works to strengthen educational opportunities for everyone, regardless
of economic circumstances and cultivate learning as a life-long process that begins in early childhood.
www.bezosfamilyfoundation.org
ABOUT THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and
ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The
Aspen Institute does this primarily in four ways: seminars, young-leader fellowships around
the globe, policy programs, and public conferences and events. The Institute is based in Washington, DC, Aspen, Colorado, and
on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and has an international network of partners. www.aspeninstitute.org
ABOUT THE ASPEN IDEAS FESTIVAL
In a ground-breaking outgrowth of its mandate to create opportunities for deep dialogue, the Aspen Institute created the Aspen
Ideas Festival to engage a broader audience in a discussion of some of the significant ideas and issues that touch all parts of our
society. Alongside its partner, The Atlantic, the Festival offers a stimulating and invigorating
celebration of some of the liveliest minds on today’s world stage. www.aifestival.org
Media Contact: Linda Shockley
[email protected]
917-521-0711