The 16th Annual Summer Symposium:
Women, Justice, Activism
June 27 - 29, 2023, 9 AM - 4PM
Women, Justice, Activism
June 27 - 29, 2023, 9 AM - 4PM
We are back to our roots this year, with a focus on topics that students will not see in their textbooks. Join us to learn about hot button topics from local and international experts. Students will also be joined by artists, poets, musicians and social entrepreneurs that will teach them how they can channel activism to make a difference. Students will also work on a group project on a topics of their choice designed to help the students create a program, event, or fundraiser on one of the following themes that the participant chooses on their application.
Topics include;
Open to any incoming 9th grader through graduating senior, the program will be held for five days at Erie 1 Boces Center. Students who sign up will have the opportunity to hear internationally-known human rights experts, take part in hands-on activities and field trips, and learn the skills they need to make an impact on the community, nation, and world
Topics include;
- Historical and rising tension in Bosnia
- Native American boarding schools
- Unrest in Ukraine
- Media literacy past & present
- Sustainability in Erie County
- Celebrating African American Women in Social Entrepreneurship
Open to any incoming 9th grader through graduating senior, the program will be held for five days at Erie 1 Boces Center. Students who sign up will have the opportunity to hear internationally-known human rights experts, take part in hands-on activities and field trips, and learn the skills they need to make an impact on the community, nation, and world
Speakers and Presenters:
Amra Sabic-El-Rayess is a professor, award-winning author and activist who grew up in Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina. After surviving ethnic cleansing and more than 1,100 days under the Serbs’ military siege, she emigrated to the United States in 1996. By December 1999, she earned a B.A. in Economics from Brown University. Later, she obtained two Master’s degrees and a Doctorate from Columbia University. Currently, she is a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College working on understanding how and why societies fall apart and what role education can play in rebuilding countries. She has published on education-related issues and has lectured around the world to adult and adolescent audiences. Her award- winning memoir, The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival, was published to critical acclaim. In her students’ feedback, Amra is consistently praised as one of the most inspiring professors they have encountered.
Wendy Weisbrot (MS, Elementary Education and Literacy) is a second- generation Holocaust survivor. Her father, Joe Diamond (1929-2017), was a local Holocaust Survivor who shared his story with students at several Summer Symposiums and was an active speaker in the Buffalo community. She has now taken the torch and has been sharing her dad’s story and legacy with students and adults. Recently, she retired from the Williamsville School District where she was a teacher for 30 years. Human rights, civic literacy, and empathy/equity were always core components in her classroom. Wendy is a Board Member of the Academy of Human Rights, Education Chair of the Holocaust Resource Center, and Co-Chair of our local Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration
Ryan Rish is a former high school English teacher and currently is an Assistant Professor in the Learning & Instruction Department at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). Ryan primarily works with pre-service and practicing teachers on approaches to teaching that involve critical approaches to student inquiry and digital media production. Ryan’s recent projects have focused on supporting student inquiry with digital tools that allow for the collection and dissemination of location-based data and media.
Julie Palmer is the Executive Director of PATH Inc. (People Against Trafficking Humans) and founder of the PATH Enrichment Center. She has a Masters degree from the University of Buffalo, Counseling and Educational Psychology Department and a Bachelors in Music Therapy from Fredonia State. She has worked in the field of mental health for over 20 years and has been an instructor for the BOCES Teacher Center on multiple topics. She completed a Trauma Informed Care Champion Learning Collaborative as a Health Fellows Program through the University of Buffalo and a Harvard Business School Not-for-Profit Management Program Course. In addition, she completed a Homeland Security Investigations Citizens Academy in 2019. Julie was a speaker for TedxBuffalo on the topic of human trafficking in 2018. She received a State of New York Legislative Resolution, honored and acknowledged by the Legislative body for enhancing the well-being and vitality of the community and having shown a long and sustained commitment to excellence in receiving the Yellow Rose Award from Zonta International in 2018. In April of 2019, PATH received a Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Service on Behalf of Crime Victims by the United States Attorney James P. Kennedy Jr. and the United States Attorney’s Office Western New York District. Julie was a finalist in the Remarkable Women Contest issued by WIVB Channel 4 in 2020. She was also featured by Business First in June 2021 as a Community Hero for Building a Better Buffalo. In January 2022 she was featured in the Selfless Among Us Series by WGRZ Channel 2. Under her leadership, PATH has grown as a not-for-profit with a mission to end human trafficking through education, prevention and restoration. The PATH Enrichment Center in the city of Buffalo provides support services to adults and youth who are at risk or have been affected by human trafficking.
Tracy Skalski is the Sustainability Coordinator in the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning. She helped develop the County's Climate Action and Sustainability Plan for internal operations and is currently developing the equity-centered Community Climate Action Plan. Tracy is the County’s Climate Smart Communities coordinator and has helped the County achieve Silver Certification. She oversees the initiatives of the County’s internal Green Team and is part of the Community Climate Change Task Force. Tracy has a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Earth Science from Buffalo State College and has 17 years of professional experience in the environmental field. Since 2015, she has concentrated on environmental sustainability and climate change.
What it takes to make a Difference:
A Panel Discussion of African American Female Social Entrepreneurs
A Panel Discussion of African American Female Social Entrepreneurs
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Antoinette Amos, a consultant, speaker, award-winning author, and proud Academy board member. A Social and Public Policy expert with a combined 25 years of government and human services experience. Corinthia Love Benison, the founder of Renaissance Center of Mastery Inc., in Harlem, which provides mental and physical health services to the youth of underserved urban communities ages 12-24. Rahwa Ghirmatzion, the Executive Director of People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH Buffalo), a community organization that works at the grassroots level to implement a revitalization plan for Buffalo’s West Side through affordable housing rehabilitation, weatherization, and green infrastructure, which include housing construction, solar installation, job training, and a youth center on Grant Street, as well as public policy issues facing urban communities. Lastly, Alicia Huff, a local civil rights activist and community leader. After graduating from Cleveland Hill high school outside of Buffalo, she later graduated from SUNY Fredonia where she received her baccalaureate degree in Criminal Justice and a minor in History.
Nada Odeh is a Syrian American artist, activist, humanitarian, and a modern-day poet. She was born and raised in Damascus Syria and lived in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates before coming to the U.S. in 2013 due to the conflict and revolution in her country. She established a project known as 'Nada's Picassos', which began in Damascus and currently in New York State. The medium she works in is acrylics on canvas and Arabic miniatures; Middle Eastern colors and small details of her heritage influence her art. The key theme in her artwork is Syrian refugees in camps and the Syrian people. Recently, she has focused more on displaced Syrian women in exile.
J.B. Stone is a neurodivergent/autistic slam poet, writer, and reviewer from Brooklyn, now residing in Buffalo, NY. He is the author of A Place Between Expired Dreams And Renewed Nightmares (Ghost City Press 2018) and INHUMAN ELEGIES (Ghost City Press 2020). He is the Editor-In-Chief/Reviews Editor at Variety Pack. His work has appeared in Chicago Review of Books, Flash Fiction Magazine, Rejection Letters, Crack the Spine, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Peach Mag, Frontier Poetry, Atticus Review, and elsewhere. He tweets @JB_StoneTruth. Jared has spoken at the Symposium for the last three years, and has inspired many students to express themselves through poetry.
Sharon Francis is a member of the wolf clan, with the Seneca Nation of Indians. She has been providing services to members of the Haudenosaunee for well over a decade. Her passion is helping her communities to heal from personal, intergenerational, and historical traumas by providing programming and opportunities to heal. She strives to bring awareness and advocacy to her people. Sharon is currently the Program Coordinator with the Seneca Nation of Indians, Crime Victim Services Department. She has helped organize dozens of events on territory and in local schools for National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and other MMIW causes. She also orchestrated an Every Child Matters Walk with hundreds of community members to show support for survivors of the residential school system, and remembering those community members lost to it.