Students, Ginevra and Vanessa from the Blue School project have also been been great speakers at a public event last year and this year we have have been lucky to welcome guest speakers to our classes to learn more...

Mr Marchetti and Ms Olsen

Mr Marchetti was our guest speaker last month. He's the founder of Yoox Net-A_Porter Group and one of the first successful start up fashion and tech companies. His work has led him to focus a lot on sustainability and is currently developing the Fashion Taskforce which is committed to being exemplar leader in the sustainable global fashion industry.

Ms Valentina Ladigiani

Ms Ladigiani is a local fashion designer. She graduated from the IED (European Institute of Design) here in Milan, then moved to South Africa to work for two years, before returning to Milan to set up her own fashion design studio.

She ran a 2 week workshop at the school to teach students how to make a skirt and lessons included learning some technical terms and practicing sewing stitches which the students have been practicing during other class projects.

Using this learning experience students are now preparing for the end of year Fashion Show which they plan to use as a fundraiser for #oceanclean up efforts.

One of their main pieces will be their liberation skirts which also addresses SDG 5, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17 and focuses on using sustainable materials by upcycling and recycling including plastics!

Mr Hernandez

Mr Hernandez is a former high school student of Mrs Ernstberger from Bridgeport Aquaculture in Connecticut, USA (2015). He went on to study landscape architecture and urban design at University. At the university he started an aquaponics farm and has then been using his skills and experience to design and develop recirculating aquaculture systems for the private sector.

He directed his talk to the Year 9 STEAM students and focused on aquaponics and hydroponics: the differences as well as the advantages and disadvantages for setting them up in schools.

Prof Giussani

Prof Giussani visited the school early in June to give a talk on city planning and Climate Change. His current research work at Politecnico di Milano University is focused on finding sustainable solutions to some of the problems Year 8 STEAM students have also been investigating. His talk was very interesting and spot on! Prof Giussani spoke about many topics the students have covered. Students also shared their work and gave a brief presentation of their storm drain designs to fix the flooding problems we often see in Milano.

We are always happy to learn from our guest speakers. Please let us know if you would be interested to share with us!

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