Advancement of Public Action: Related Content
![Image of PEI conference participants](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/dsc04864.jpeg?itok=nujdtPpJ)
On May 17 and 18, Bennington's Prison Education Initiative (PEI) gathered together a small group to engage in conversation around access and opportunities to higher education for people serving life or virtual life sentences in America.
![Image of BD Clean river cleanup](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/ef232dfe-a290-4518-ba3b-d962f32f009b_1_105_c.jpg?itok=yDWoqJap)
Mehedi Sizar '25 studies Mathematics and Computer Science at Bennington, but he also has a personal passion for protecting the environment. His experience as a 2024 Endeavor Foundation Environmental Action Fellow allowed him to return to his birthplace of Bagmara, Rajshahi, Bangladesh to work with BD Clean, the largest environmental group in Bangladesh.
![Endeavor Environmental Action Fellowships 2024](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/1500w-20240327-endeavor-environmental-fellows-presentations-david-morelos-img_7883.jpg?itok=XfkaUTmj)
The American writer and political activist Alice Walker said “Activism is my rent for living on the planet.” This could have been the theme for this year’s Endeavor Environmental Action Fellowship.
![Harvesting lettuce with Lyra Holahan and Gracie Yaconelli](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/lettuce-2.jpg?itok=l24bboMa)
On a chilly early spring day at Purple Carrot Farm, Lilliana Kelly ’25 took a break from the crew repositioning a silage tarp to recount her history with the place.
![Paulo Araujo ’26](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/paulo-20240327-endeavor-environmental-fellows-presentations-david-morelos-img_7781_0.jpg?itok=ktWomRfO)
Paulo Araujo ’26 was home in Mozambique in 2019, the year two powerful cyclones, the most destructive in decades, hit the country within just a few weeks. It was the first time in recorded history two strong tropical cyclones struck in the same season. The storms killed 603 people, injured more than 1,500, and put 2.5 million people in need of humanitarian services.
![Genevieve Hammatt](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/974574e8-b9eb-473e-b838-9b6babdfa070_1_105_c-1cropped.jpg?itok=jS8Hi9Ph)
A native of Washington state, Genevieve Hammatt ’26 came to Bennington with a plan to study social justice and social work but quickly realized that she could incorporate her lifelong passion for the environment into her studies.
![St. Clair Detrick-Jules](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/stclair2-2.jpg?itok=qs4txiIf)
Presentation to address storytelling as a form of social activism on April 16, 2024.
![Sgorbati with international partners at the United Nations COP28 Climate Change Conference in Dubai](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/dubai_2.28.24.jpg?itok=zP2ltvju)
![Sgorbati with international partners at the United Nations COP28 Climate Change Conference in Dubai](/sites/default/files/inline-images/dubai_2.28.24.jpg)
Susan Sgorbati, director of Bennington College’s Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA), shared her work with the Transboundary Water In-Cooperation Network (TWIN) and their international cooperation to develop a new United Nations convention on conserving the river deltas (UNCCRD) with the Reporter Danielle M. Crosier of the Bennington Banner.
![Ahmad Yassir '20](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/ahmad-yassir-headshot-2b.jpeg?itok=-_JrHkNF)
Ahmad Yassir ’20 stayed in the town of Bennington after graduation and works as a digital advertising and marketing specialist for the Bennington Banner. He had an amazing 2023.
![Students at COP28 UN Climate Conference in Dubai](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/dsc03487.jpeg?itok=RV9AAyHT)
Bennington College was on the ground in Dubai as the 28th round of UN sponsored climate negotiations got underway.
![Souleymane Badolo](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/souleymane-badolo_1200x750_web.jpg?itok=WNMyfg-i)
Souleymane Badolo’s people gave him dance, and dance gave him opportunities to learn, choreograph, and teach around the world. Now, he is using his influence to provide greater access to a crucial resource: water.
![Souleymane Badolo](/sites/default/files/inline-images/souleymane-badolo_1200x750.png)
![Lika and Aisha at the UN](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/lika-aisha-un_1200x750.png?itok=edMCfrlj)
In December 2022, when the Taliban’s ban on tertiary education took effect in Afghanistan, Aisha Khurram was about to finish her law degree. She and her classmates mourned the painful repeat of history. Two decades of progress for women’s rights—which in 2020 related to more than 100,000 Afghan women enrolled in public or private universities and more than 2,000 female lecturers at higher education institutions—were being reduced to ashes.
![Alma Reiss Navarre ’24](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/alma-cropped-for-web-20230525-pentagram-photoshoot-luise-stauss-37.jpeg?itok=cq15wUv3)
Alma Reiss Navarre ’24 is from Harlem. They had ballet instruction from the time they could walk and were on track to join a professional dance company when the pandemic struck and canceled performances for the foreseeable future.
![Visionary Leadership Award honoree Souleymane Badolo MFA ’13, left, with Susan Sgorbati, Director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/souleymane-badolo-vla.jpeg?itok=ykTlGeKH)
Dancer, choreographer, and activist Souleymane Badolo MFA ’13 has been named the 2023 recipient of Bennington College’s Dr. Elizabeth Coleman Visionary Leadership Award. This annual award recognizes an engaged Bennington alumni who has successfully demonstrated leadership and confident willingness to step forward and take risks in order to solve problems and achieve results in the areas of education, government, the arts and sciences, or industry.
![Image of two men in front of chalkboard](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/photo-john-and-mansour440x300_sfw.jpg?itok=fFULv9Ep)
Experts on Iranian culture and politics blur the lines between the familiar and the unfamiliar.
![Image of CAPA courtyard](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/capa-outdoors.jpg?itok=F4M-064L)
Peter Welch, one of two United States senators representing the state of Vermont in Washington, D.C., will hold a public Town Hall Meeting at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, April 4 at Bennington College’s Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA). The event aims to build consensus and trust among people with different political perspectives.
![Image of conference convening](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/img_0540-560.jpg?itok=gqlSjDcV)
Bennington County’s leadership and collaboration efforts were highlighted during a first-of-its-kind public safety summit held at Bennington College.
![Image of Susan Sgorbati](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/img_0328-1200_sfw.jpg?itok=6HpThPVy)
Through a thought-provoking Q & A, Susan Sgorbati, the Director of Bennington College’s Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA), reveals a refreshing philosophy and original means of working toward a better world. Interview by Chief Writer Ashley Jowett.
![Image of CAPA](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/capa440x300_sfw.jpg?itok=7or-Jqw0)
The director of Bennington College’s Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA), Susan Sgorbati, will join Asim Zia, PhD, Director, the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security, Professor of Public Policy & Computer Science, Department of Community Development and Applied Economics & Department of Computer Science at the University of Vermont, and Oluowo Freeman of the African Centre for Climate Actions and Rural Development Initiative (ACCARD) and others to present an event at the 2023 United Nations (UN) Water Conference.
![Image of group eating](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/img_4629.jpg?itok=sgwseKhU)
The drive to connect and make food more accessible during Field Work Term inspired students and faculty to reimagine and expand a pandemic-era program with BIPOC students in mind.
![Image of Will Greer](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/img_4734.jpg?itok=wpDADFxQ)
Will Greer ’25 spoke with Paige Colby ’25 on his work in local politics and his time at Bennington.
![Image of 4 people seated around table](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/peiconferencesharp.jpg?itok=dGTEehlK)
Bennington College’s Prison Education Initiative (PEI) has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation to continue and expand a program bringing quality liberal arts education to incarcerated students at Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security men’s prison in Comstock, NY.
![Image of smiling group of people](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/560-img_9549.png?itok=uavHXfXv)
The Social Kitchen in the Student Center hosted a traditional Pakistani dinner on January 14 with Ayesha Attique as a special guest.
By Paige Colby '25
![Image of woman at podium](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/dsc00878.jpg?itok=jK2nvvhK)
Bennington College students testified to the Town of Bennington Select Board about the scourge of oil trains parked in the community.
![Image of Senator Patrick Leahy](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/patrick-leahy440x300_sfw.png?itok=ptwruF6I)
On October 20, 2022, Bennington College and local community members gathered for a conversation with U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy. The conversation took place as the College named its Public Policy Forums after Senator Leahy in recognition of his service to the state of Vermont.
![Image of Zoom presentation](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/all-participants-.png?itok=mQGFdcAi)
Lika Torikashvili '22, Georgia's Youth Representative to the United Nations, hosted a Jewish-Muslim Peace Talk through her nonprofit, Network of Former Youth Delegates to the United Nations.
![Lika Torikashvili Round Table Promo](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/lika-t_roundtable-promo.jpeg?itok=fOAaXMK9)
Lika Torikashvili '22, a former UN Youth Representative of Georgia, has co-organized a series of roundtable discussions with UNFPA and UNESCO in Afghanistan on Online Education through her non-profit, the Network of Former Youth Delegates to the United Nations.
![Image of students outside doing artwork](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/prototypia440x300_sfw.jpg?itok=JkzdSKIx)
Visionary and futurist Divine Bradley MFA ’22 turned his passion for reimagining and transforming education into an immersive learning experience for the Bennington community.
By Halley Le '25
![Margaret Morgan-Hubbard](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/margaret-morgan-hubbard.jpeg?itok=Wagz3suY)
Environmentalist, educator, and founder and CEO of ECO City Farms, Margaret Morgan-Hubbard ’67 has been named the 2022 recipient of Bennington College’s Elizabeth Coleman Visionary Leadership Award.
![GAD logo](/sites/default/files/styles/alumni_story_300x225/public/sources/stories/gad-logo.png?itok=boJ6LGXv)
David Bond has been awarded the New Directions Prize by the American Anthropological Association (AAA).