October 4, 2013
Press Release/Announcement
Contact: Cynthia Barry
Director of Communications
St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School
375-A Benfield Rd.
Severna Park, MD 21146
410-647-7055, ext. 31
www.stmartinsdayschool.org
St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School Hosts its first all-school Distinguished Visitor: Author and National Geographic writer Jennifer Holland speaks about animal friendships and journalism
by Cynthia Barry
“She was awesome!” said a preschool student. Another said, “I’m going to be a scuba diver when I grow up.” Distinguished Visitor Jennifer Holland gave three separate addresses on October 2 to preschool-kindergarten, elementary, and middle school students at St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School, which serves children age 3 through grade 8 at its campus on Benfield Road in Severna Park.
Ms. Holland’s stories and pictures of animal friendships both charmed and challenged her audience’s thoughts about the emotional lives of animals. Her talks centered on the themes of learning, leadership, and friendship—the school’s core values.
A National Geographic contributing writer, Ms. Holland is the author of the New York Times best-seller Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom, a New York Times bestseller.
Her latest book, Unlikely Loves: 43 Heartwarming True Stories from the Animal Kingdom, was published just the day before her visit. Ms. Holland read from her new book for St. Martin’s Episcopal’s elementary and middle school students.
As a writer and reporter, Ms. Holland has traveled to a dozen countries, flown in zero gravity over the Gulf of Mexico, dived with tiger sharks, climbed the tallest tree in Costa Rica, and camped out with bushmen in the forests of Papua New Guinea.
Her science background and writing skills give her a unique perspective on ecology and biology. Her writing exemplifies the new Common Core emphasis on narrative non-fiction writing that is vivid and well-researched.
Her message to the students: you have to find a narrative thread and carry the reader along with you through evocative, sensory writing. Above all, a writer needs to be curious and have a sense of adventure. Don’t be shy about asking questions.
The students were not shy about asking Ms. Holland questions. When she asked for questions, hands shot up. Among the queries: “Did you find parts of the Great Barrier Reef that had been damaged by fishing?” “Have you personally felt a special human-animal bond?” “What did it feel like to hold a baby bear?”
In answer to “What’s your favorite kind of animal to work with?” Ms. Holland replied that she feels especially drawn to the beauty and surprising gentleness, even from feared species, of marine animals. She had a picture of herself kissing a goliath grouper. “It was a dream of mine to meet one, so we kissed,” she said. “He had fish-breath.”
The Distinguished Visitor Program at St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School brings exemplary writers, explorers, scholars, and scientists into the school as ambassadors of the adult world of achievement and excellence. Distinguished Visitors inspire young people to find their own paths in life.
Press Release/Announcement
Contact: Cynthia Barry
Director of Communications
St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School
375-A Benfield Rd.
Severna Park, MD 21146
410-647-7055, ext. 31
www.stmartinsdayschool.org
St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School Hosts its first all-school Distinguished Visitor: Author and National Geographic writer Jennifer Holland speaks about animal friendships and journalism
by Cynthia Barry
“She was awesome!” said a preschool student. Another said, “I’m going to be a scuba diver when I grow up.” Distinguished Visitor Jennifer Holland gave three separate addresses on October 2 to preschool-kindergarten, elementary, and middle school students at St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School, which serves children age 3 through grade 8 at its campus on Benfield Road in Severna Park.
Ms. Holland’s stories and pictures of animal friendships both charmed and challenged her audience’s thoughts about the emotional lives of animals. Her talks centered on the themes of learning, leadership, and friendship—the school’s core values.
A National Geographic contributing writer, Ms. Holland is the author of the New York Times best-seller Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom, a New York Times bestseller.
Her latest book, Unlikely Loves: 43 Heartwarming True Stories from the Animal Kingdom, was published just the day before her visit. Ms. Holland read from her new book for St. Martin’s Episcopal’s elementary and middle school students.
As a writer and reporter, Ms. Holland has traveled to a dozen countries, flown in zero gravity over the Gulf of Mexico, dived with tiger sharks, climbed the tallest tree in Costa Rica, and camped out with bushmen in the forests of Papua New Guinea.
Her science background and writing skills give her a unique perspective on ecology and biology. Her writing exemplifies the new Common Core emphasis on narrative non-fiction writing that is vivid and well-researched.
Her message to the students: you have to find a narrative thread and carry the reader along with you through evocative, sensory writing. Above all, a writer needs to be curious and have a sense of adventure. Don’t be shy about asking questions.
The students were not shy about asking Ms. Holland questions. When she asked for questions, hands shot up. Among the queries: “Did you find parts of the Great Barrier Reef that had been damaged by fishing?” “Have you personally felt a special human-animal bond?” “What did it feel like to hold a baby bear?”
In answer to “What’s your favorite kind of animal to work with?” Ms. Holland replied that she feels especially drawn to the beauty and surprising gentleness, even from feared species, of marine animals. She had a picture of herself kissing a goliath grouper. “It was a dream of mine to meet one, so we kissed,” she said. “He had fish-breath.”
The Distinguished Visitor Program at St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School brings exemplary writers, explorers, scholars, and scientists into the school as ambassadors of the adult world of achievement and excellence. Distinguished Visitors inspire young people to find their own paths in life.
Distinguished Visitor Paul Salopek, Winner of Two Pulitzer Prizes, Speaks to 4th through 8th Graders
by Cynthia Barry
Paul Salopek began with a question: “How many miles do you think you walk in an average year? When you come to school, when you’re playing?” Grant in 5th grade raised his hand. “About a couple of hundred miles a year?” he responded. “You are so close,” said Paul. “We generally walk about 200-250 miles a year.”
With that easy given-and-take (and impressive guessing), the conversation between St. Martin’s-in-the-Field 4th through 8th grade students and National Geographic magazine writer Paul Salopek got under way.
“You are the first group of students I’ve spoken to,” said Paul. “I’ve talked to magazine editors, radio station owners, scientists, thinkers, fellow writers. I hope you’ll give me some good ideas about how to improve this project.” Paul will be meeting with educators at Harvard this summer, working out the educational component of his project.
Paul’s project is a planned walk around the world, a distance of 26,000 kilometers, following in the footsteps of our ancestors out of the Rift Valley in Africa about 65,000 years ago, through the Middle East and into Europe and Asia before finally reading land’s end in the Americas, as early humans did about 15,000 years ago. He is following a map based on the fossil record and on newly emerging information embedded in our genetic code, “the library we all carry inside of us.”
Here were some of the questions our students asked:
· Will you go to Australia? “If I did that, I would probably be 70 years old.” The route through Africa, the Middle East, southeastern Europe, Asia, and into the Americas will take about 6 or 7 years.”
· Will we be able to communicate with you as you walk? “Yes. If you email me or Skype and say there’s a really cool archeological site over there, will you take a look for me?—I will.”
· Will you bring your own boats? “I’ll probably just use other people’s boats. I can’t take anything I can’t carry.” At this point, Paul lifted up his knapsack and said, “I probably can’t take anything bigger than this. About 35 pounds.” His bag was about the size of our students’ book packs. “I’ll take a very light laptop, a satellite phone, a GPS, a couple of changes of clothes. When I get to boats, I’ll just hop in.”
· What is it like traveling? “Boy, you’re asking...” Paul thought for a moment. “It is like dreaming when you’re awake....It has some downsides. You don’t have a home…. It’s more difficult than being in one place in that you don’t have comfortable things. Having comfortable things frees up the brain to think about other things. I live in discomfort. Travel is like moving around the world without skin on. It’s like being completely permeable to experience. Different cultures. Different food…,Even the color of lakes is different under different skies. The color of the sky changes as you get closer to the Equator…It’s what makes me very happy.”
· How are you going to take pictures of your feet? (This was a question about how to shoot the walking videos.) “In that case, I was talking to a woman who was making the local version of Dunkin’ Donuts and I said, would you mind just taking my camera and taking pictures of me walking along? What’s nice is that it’s collaborative….The most important part of that video is not my feet. It’s the people around me. The crazy dog. It’s the music. All the sound around me was natural. By asking people to collaborate with me, I share the project.”
· How are you going to travel in Siberia? “I may have to travel by dogsled because it is so wild and I will need survival gear. In wild areas I will be under a tent. I hope to be under roofs most of the time….I will pay the families for the trouble of putting me up. Most of the people in the world are poor. Most people live on under $2.00 a day….People who have the least, not always, but often, share the most.”
· How do you communicate with people if you don’t know the language? “It’s a big handicap. I’ve got enough Arabic to get through a roadblock and not get shot….I’m going to have to travel with somebody who is bilingual. That’s the beauty of journalism. It’s one of the most fun parts of being a foreign correspondent. You develop bonds with people who through their window you see their world. In Iraq, my first translator was a teacher who was a Kurd. If I had not met that man, I would have missed all the riches of Kurdish culture…You become a buddy.”
· What’s it like being in jail? “It’s difficult….At least, for me, it requires prodigious memory—a well-stocked memory—to fall back on….Because I travel so much, I’m a connoisseur—you know that word? an expert—at places. I have favorite landscapes that I love. Like you have favorite places of your neighborhood, even favorite places in the school, I have those around the world. I was able in my head to revisit those places and inhabit pleasant places. You can do the same with people you love, but my advice is to keep the people you love in deep reserve for emergencies because that is the ultimate refuge.”
· What kind of delays do you think you’ll experience? “You have to be comfortable with uncertainty….I wait, and I write.”
· What will you do with your life after your walk? “There is a character in fiction called Candide. Like him, I will probably settle down and grow tomatoes.”
· When we travel, we eat the local produce. How do you build up a tolerance for that? “I have a cast-iron stomach….Other people collect pottery, I collect diseases.”
· Where you scared when you first decided to make the journey? On one hand, it’s very exciting. I think it’s going to be fun. There are times when I wake up and I’m scared. I’m scared about causing problems for other people.”
· Will you be walking in Maryland? “Ancient people waited in Alaska for 4,000 years for the glaciers to melt. One route early people took was down the eastern side of the Rockies, and they spread to the East Coast. On the West Coast, native Americans moved down from Alaska to the tip of South America in less than a thousand years. They did it fast.”
· Do you go back to where you were born? “You carry home in here.” Paul points to his heart.
· Are you going to be near Mount Everest? “I’ll be close. My intention is to go along the southern foothills of Mount Everest. I’ll take a picture.”
· How do you train? “I run about 4 miles a day. I eat healthy food.”
· Do you anticipate going back and seeing some of the people you’ve met and seeing what happened to them? “I have friends all over the world….but there’s also something to be said about departures.”
Soon after that, Paul departed. But he left behind a great excitement about his long walk and a desire on our students’ part to follow him as he goes. Students at St. Martin’s-in-the-Field said they wanted to stay in touch with Paul and connect with other students around the world through his project, “Out of Eden Walk.”
by Cynthia Barry
Paul Salopek began with a question: “How many miles do you think you walk in an average year? When you come to school, when you’re playing?” Grant in 5th grade raised his hand. “About a couple of hundred miles a year?” he responded. “You are so close,” said Paul. “We generally walk about 200-250 miles a year.”
With that easy given-and-take (and impressive guessing), the conversation between St. Martin’s-in-the-Field 4th through 8th grade students and National Geographic magazine writer Paul Salopek got under way.
“You are the first group of students I’ve spoken to,” said Paul. “I’ve talked to magazine editors, radio station owners, scientists, thinkers, fellow writers. I hope you’ll give me some good ideas about how to improve this project.” Paul will be meeting with educators at Harvard this summer, working out the educational component of his project.
Paul’s project is a planned walk around the world, a distance of 26,000 kilometers, following in the footsteps of our ancestors out of the Rift Valley in Africa about 65,000 years ago, through the Middle East and into Europe and Asia before finally reading land’s end in the Americas, as early humans did about 15,000 years ago. He is following a map based on the fossil record and on newly emerging information embedded in our genetic code, “the library we all carry inside of us.”
Here were some of the questions our students asked:
· Will you go to Australia? “If I did that, I would probably be 70 years old.” The route through Africa, the Middle East, southeastern Europe, Asia, and into the Americas will take about 6 or 7 years.”
· Will we be able to communicate with you as you walk? “Yes. If you email me or Skype and say there’s a really cool archeological site over there, will you take a look for me?—I will.”
· Will you bring your own boats? “I’ll probably just use other people’s boats. I can’t take anything I can’t carry.” At this point, Paul lifted up his knapsack and said, “I probably can’t take anything bigger than this. About 35 pounds.” His bag was about the size of our students’ book packs. “I’ll take a very light laptop, a satellite phone, a GPS, a couple of changes of clothes. When I get to boats, I’ll just hop in.”
· What is it like traveling? “Boy, you’re asking...” Paul thought for a moment. “It is like dreaming when you’re awake....It has some downsides. You don’t have a home…. It’s more difficult than being in one place in that you don’t have comfortable things. Having comfortable things frees up the brain to think about other things. I live in discomfort. Travel is like moving around the world without skin on. It’s like being completely permeable to experience. Different cultures. Different food…,Even the color of lakes is different under different skies. The color of the sky changes as you get closer to the Equator…It’s what makes me very happy.”
· How are you going to take pictures of your feet? (This was a question about how to shoot the walking videos.) “In that case, I was talking to a woman who was making the local version of Dunkin’ Donuts and I said, would you mind just taking my camera and taking pictures of me walking along? What’s nice is that it’s collaborative….The most important part of that video is not my feet. It’s the people around me. The crazy dog. It’s the music. All the sound around me was natural. By asking people to collaborate with me, I share the project.”
· How are you going to travel in Siberia? “I may have to travel by dogsled because it is so wild and I will need survival gear. In wild areas I will be under a tent. I hope to be under roofs most of the time….I will pay the families for the trouble of putting me up. Most of the people in the world are poor. Most people live on under $2.00 a day….People who have the least, not always, but often, share the most.”
· How do you communicate with people if you don’t know the language? “It’s a big handicap. I’ve got enough Arabic to get through a roadblock and not get shot….I’m going to have to travel with somebody who is bilingual. That’s the beauty of journalism. It’s one of the most fun parts of being a foreign correspondent. You develop bonds with people who through their window you see their world. In Iraq, my first translator was a teacher who was a Kurd. If I had not met that man, I would have missed all the riches of Kurdish culture…You become a buddy.”
· What’s it like being in jail? “It’s difficult….At least, for me, it requires prodigious memory—a well-stocked memory—to fall back on….Because I travel so much, I’m a connoisseur—you know that word? an expert—at places. I have favorite landscapes that I love. Like you have favorite places of your neighborhood, even favorite places in the school, I have those around the world. I was able in my head to revisit those places and inhabit pleasant places. You can do the same with people you love, but my advice is to keep the people you love in deep reserve for emergencies because that is the ultimate refuge.”
· What kind of delays do you think you’ll experience? “You have to be comfortable with uncertainty….I wait, and I write.”
· What will you do with your life after your walk? “There is a character in fiction called Candide. Like him, I will probably settle down and grow tomatoes.”
· When we travel, we eat the local produce. How do you build up a tolerance for that? “I have a cast-iron stomach….Other people collect pottery, I collect diseases.”
· Where you scared when you first decided to make the journey? On one hand, it’s very exciting. I think it’s going to be fun. There are times when I wake up and I’m scared. I’m scared about causing problems for other people.”
· Will you be walking in Maryland? “Ancient people waited in Alaska for 4,000 years for the glaciers to melt. One route early people took was down the eastern side of the Rockies, and they spread to the East Coast. On the West Coast, native Americans moved down from Alaska to the tip of South America in less than a thousand years. They did it fast.”
· Do you go back to where you were born? “You carry home in here.” Paul points to his heart.
· Are you going to be near Mount Everest? “I’ll be close. My intention is to go along the southern foothills of Mount Everest. I’ll take a picture.”
· How do you train? “I run about 4 miles a day. I eat healthy food.”
· Do you anticipate going back and seeing some of the people you’ve met and seeing what happened to them? “I have friends all over the world….but there’s also something to be said about departures.”
Soon after that, Paul departed. But he left behind a great excitement about his long walk and a desire on our students’ part to follow him as he goes. Students at St. Martin’s-in-the-Field said they wanted to stay in touch with Paul and connect with other students around the world through his project, “Out of Eden Walk.”