Health, Wellness, and Learning Center Update

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The Health, Wellness, and Learning Center at CS 55 is up and running! We have begun to fill the old library on the 4th floor with Tower Gardens, Growums kits, food education materials, alternative energy systems, and a variety of other science equipment. Though we are only just beginning, we are already seeing roughly 300 students per week in the center from grades pre-K through 5th. These students are learning about vegetables – how they are planted, what they need to grow healthy, how they are harvested and prepared, and especially how good each one tastes. Students are also learning about how energy is created, stored, and used on our bicycle generator system – they are pedaling to power blenders to make smoothies with the very vegetables they just grew!

WE ARE ACTIVELY SEEKING DONATIONS, EQUIPMENT AND SPONSORS – please contact us if interested. We need microscopes and technology including computers, tablets and interactive science equipment; gently used and refurbished functional equipment is welcome!

GBM in Social Media

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GBM has a brand new student managed Instagram account! Follow us to see all the latest photos from our events, and to keep up with all the action in the Health, Wellness, and Learning Center. Watch for our new student blog – we believe in student voices! Please keep up with us Facebook and Twitter. HELP US SPREAD THE WORD and share with your friends and colleagues! Remember, together we can all prosper!

Where in the world is El Capitan?

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Keeping up with our founder, Stephen Ritz, aka El Capitan, is a full-time job in and of itself. He has been speaking to motivate and help other organizations and schools create similar programs of their own. Of note recently was his trip to WOBI in Mexico City, where he shared the stage with Richard Branson, Peter Diamandis, and Rachel Gutter, amongst many other notable speakers. Everyone appreciated his “Si se puede – Mex-I-CAN” message! EL Capitan is proud to be working in Mexico, collaborating with Instituto Thomas Jefferson and in Medellin – dedicated to innovation and social justice / workforce-community development.

Later this month, El Capitan will take his energy and enthusiasm to California for the Social Innovation Summit, where he was invited to speak to leaders from around the world about his experience with GBM and have conversations about how to tackle the world’s biggest problems.