REGISTRATION & CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST (7:45 – 8:30 am)

WELCOME & KEYNOTE (8:30 – 9:15 am)

Gigi Dekko Goldman
CoFounder, We Share Solar

Gigi Dekko Goldman is the CoFounder of We Share Solar, a solar STEM education program impacting over 1 million teachers and students globally. In addition to providing education in US schools, the program has provided clean energy in refugee camps, urban slums, on tribal lands, and in emergency response settings associated with wildfires, floods and hurricanes. The program has been studied extensively by the Lawrence Hall of Science through National Science Foundation grants and has won several academic and environmental awards. 

Before engaging in social entrepreneurship, Gigi put her MBA to work at General Mills in product management, eventually launching her own consumer products company (featured in Business Week, the NYTimes, and on CNBC) which she sold after 15 years of operation. She has served on the board of Princeton Day School, McCarter Theater and is a founding board member of We Care Solar. Gigi and her husband have 2 children and reside in New York City, although she counts Princeton, NJ and Lake Minnetonka, MN as home.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
ENGAGING STUDENTS AS SOLUTIONARIES

The “real world” figures in students’ lives like never before. Is it social media, 24/7 news feeds, existential threats? Further, their awareness of the challenges in the real world grows as they study social issues in humanities classes. How can we meet students where they are at, introduce content that matters to them and help them find hope and intention in their learning? How can we do this in science and STEM classes? Solutionary thinking and tactics can help. As solutionaries, students don’t just learn about problems faced by real people in the real world; they actually try to do something about them either literally or figuratively – through service learning with impact or exercises in innovation and entrepreneurship that lives within the classroom but engages creative thinking well beyond the classroom walls.

SESSION ONE (9:30 – 10:30 am)

SESSION TWO (10:50 – 11:50 am)