2023 Workshops

Workshop leaders: Reagan Klein and Zoe Schwartz (Brewster Academy)

Join us and learn about powerful women in protest movements. We will discuss intersectionality, history, and what it means to make an impact in your community. By learning the stories and impacts of a number of powerful women, we will explore the purpose of protest and the ways in which women have influenced the world. Let's explore our own power to take action!

Open to students

Workshop leaders: Charlie Harrison and Andrew Harrison (Friends Seminary School)

What does it really mean to be environmentally sustainable in 2023? There are many misconceptions and false assumptions about sustainability. Workshop participants will unpack these issues and dig deep to uncover what’s really going on. We will begin by examining the impact of our habits, learn about the role of big corporations, and close the session with a hands-on direct action activity. 

Open to students and educators

Workshop leader: Maya Flores (Waynflete)

A large portion of the young homeless population is made up of LGBTQ+ kids, due to the fact that many are not accepted in their homes and are forced to leave. We will learn about resources already available for this population in New England, what more needs to be done to best serve this community, and what we can all do to help. 

Open to students and educators

Workshop leader: Allyson Gardner (LWVME & Maine Students Vote)

When only a portion of people are able to express their opinions, a conversation is incomplete. The same goes for voting. When discrimination and lack of community services build barriers to accessing polling places and prevent people from voting, that election doesn’t represent an entire community. Join us to discuss how we as individuals can work to ensure that all voices are heard. 

Open to students and educators

Workshop leaders: Rowen Woodcock and Dan Kipp (SafeBAE)

What we can do to prevent sexual violence among teens? On average, 81 percent of students will experience some sort of sexual harassment by the time they graduate high school. What would it be like to live in a world without violence? Come envision actions you can take and learn about resources you can access to help you and your peers create a culture of consent, healthy relationships, bystander intervention, and survivor support!

Open to students and educators

Workshop leaders: Kristen Brewer (Maine Climate Corps) and Cole Cochrane (Maine Youth Action)

Come learn about the Maine Climate Corps, an initiative to create service year positions to combat climate change; provide credentials and on-the-job training to service members; and engage the community in climate action through volunteerism. Learn about opportunities to serve now in your community and provide feedback to policymakers about the structure and design of new programs in this workshop. 

Open to students and educators

Workshop leader: Saga Hart (Maine Youth Power, Cape Elizabeth High School)

Learn how to get (or improve) gender-neutral bathrooms at your school and learn why it's important to have them! Get the opportunity to work with Maine Youth Power, The Youth-Oriented-Queer-Collective (YOQC) of Maine, and other queer youth on our statewide gender-neutral bathroom campaign in a series of conversations and games. All are welcome! 

Open to students and educators

Workshop leaders: Zareena Wiar and Keza Ineza (Waynflete)

Let's consider the challenges and difficulties that both immigrant and first-generation students face within school systems. These students struggle with balancing two identities and cultures every day. Our hope is to lessen that struggle by creating programs with schools in Maine.

Open to students and educators

Workshop leader: Chelsea Johnson and Kaiden Christie (Waynflete)

How can you tell your story? Create a small zine using words, color, collage, and anything else you can find to share your voice. How do you feel now that we are able to peel back some of the layers of the pandemic after three years? Do you feel heavier as time has moved on, or are you feeling lighter? This workshop is a chance to put your thoughts and feelings about the pandemic onto paper and hopefully feel a little lighter in this new normal that we are all trying to find.

Open to students and educators

Workshop leaders: Claire Arnold and Lauren McNutt-Girouard (Waynflete)

Let's explore the positive impact leadership on leaders and their communities. In this workshop, we will meet four student leaders from local communities to learn what it means to be a student leader. 

Open to students

Workshop leader: Ysanne Bethel (The Yellow Tulip Project)

Mental health matters, and you matter! Let's talk about smashing the stigma surrounding mental illness and what we can do together to foster connected, healthy, and hopeful communities. Get ready to think, reflect, and share! Remember—Hope Happens and You Are Not Alone.

Open to students

Workshop leader: Bailey Berges-O'Donnell (Rock Point School)

How does social media affect people's ideas on what an ideal body should look like? We'll talk about how society shapes our views on body image and how social media impacts our personal views. 

Open to students and educators

Workshop leaders: Waynflete students from West End Mentoring Program

What's it like to mentor an elementary school student? Come hear from high school students from Waynflete’s West End Mentoring program about their experiences as mentors for local elementary school students. The program is a yearlong activity where each Waynflete high schooler is paired with a student from neighboring Reiche School. Each week, pairs of students do things together like baking, rock climbing, and outdoor games, building both resilience and a sense of connection. We will have some activities and conversation as we explore the importance of mentoring and how a program like this could work in your community. 

Open to students and educators

Workshop leaders: Dorcas Bolese and Ollie DeSilve (Valo)

Join Valo teens as we lead the group in exploring and writing our own personal code to live by. Through journaling, sharing, and choosing our North Star value, our group will help each other peel back the layers to uncover the root of our beliefs and create a personal credo to guide us in our daily life. 

Open to students

Workshop leaders: Mira Levine and Jack Vickery (Waynflete)

You may know the Chinese tile game Mahjong from movie scenes, but did you know that lots of immigrants to America have used this game to build connections with their fellow minorities? Come learn about the historic relationship between Jewish and Chinese immigrants, why Mahjong's life in America makes it a game that everyone should know, and learn to play the game!

Open to students and educators

Workshop leaders: Maggie Doyle and Liam Carey (Brewster Academy)

What does "gifted child" mean to people with or without learning differences? Through the discussion, we aim to understand each person's perspective and discuss action plans for promoting positive change to this narrative in communities. We want to hear about your educational story!

Open to students and educators

Workshop leader: featured presenter Matthew Cumbie

Join Matthew to explore how our creative capacities can help us imagine and enact the worlds we want and need, reflect on those things we stand for, and celebrate our entire selves in the process. In this workshop, we will use movement and dance to bring our bodies to this conversation, and will slide and stretch our understandings of who we are and how this connects with how we move through the world. All are welcome! 

Open to students and educators

Workshop leaders: Tara Marble and Alisha Targonski (University of Maine)

How can we bridge agriculture and sustainability? With food as the heart of our communities, how can agriculture be a space for positive community change? How do we challenge the perceptions of agriculture and those who are involved? Join us to find out!

Open to students and educators

Workshop leaders: Mareena Batsungnern and Griffin Moreau (Windham High School)

What is a peer? Most of your days in elementary, middle, and high school are spent in classrooms with peers who you know little about in spite of having grown up together. How important are they at such a critical period in our lives? A peer is "an individual who is of equal standing to another." Is this definition actively reflected in today's "peer" environment? Join us to learn about the necessity of breaking down school hierarchies and encouraging connections between people with different backgrounds, interests, and beliefs, with hopes of transforming misunderstandings into compassion for one another.

Open to students and educators

Workshop leader: Jennifer Chace (The Source School)

Listening to our inner selves helps us connect our actions with our intentions and our life’s path. With so many needs in the world, this can help us decide where to put our energy. When our activities are aligned with our inner intentions, we are less likely to burn out and more likely to experience joy in our social justice or other community work. We can also help each other to do this by reflecting back what we hear our friends saying; this can deepen relationships too. In this workshop, we will connect with our life intentions (as they are today!) and some deep meditative visualization. We will also have the chance to practice sharing, being seen and heard, and reflecting back to our peers too. Participants will leave feeling more connected to themselves and nourished socially.

Open to students and educators

Workshop leader: Sophia Woodman (Waynflete)

All our lives, we have seen models who represent a very narrow appearance standard. For women, models are skinny, acne-free, body-hair free, etc. For men, models are muscular, acne-free, etc. How is seeing these images every day harmful? If we saw real bodies instead, how would that boost confidence and decrease body struggles? In this workshop, we will go over all questions like these and hopefully start to love and understand our bodies more.

Open to students

Workshop leaders: Macy Gilroy and Leila Tati-Pambou (Valo)

What is holding us back from our full capacity? Join Valo teens and consider what you could let go of that would make you feel more free to become a fuller and more authentic version of yourself. A "challenge by choice" conversation, you will practice listening and mirroring back to one another as you share your stories and extinguish all that is holding you back.

Open to students

Workshop leader: TBD (Waynflete School, West End Mentoring Program)

What's it like to mentor an elementary school student? Come hear from high school students from Waynflete’s West End Mentoring program about their experiences as mentors for local elementary school students. The program is a yearlong activity where each Waynflete high schooler is paired with a student from neighboring Reiche School. Each week, pairs of students do things together like baking, rock climbing, and outdoor games, building both resilience and a sense of connection. We will have some activities and conversation as we explore the importance of mentoring and how a program like this could work in your community. 

Open to students and educators

Workshop leader: Basil DiBenedetto (Waynflete)

Do you take a lot of photos, or do you want to? Are you looking for a way to use your photos to advocate for issues in your community? This is the workshop for you! In a world where access to cameras and technology are easily available, photojournalism has become increasingly relevant and necessary in the United States. We will explore the benefits of photojournalism, its importance in a modern United States, and a history of its use in American media. We will also share ideas for using our own photos for advocacy in our local community.

Open to students and educators

Workshop leader: Juston Newcomb (Downeast Rainbow Alliance)

The Traveling Rainbow Project works in the Passamaquoddy Homeland, currently known as Washington County, to improve mental health outcomes for queer teens in our region. We do this by improving allyship in our broader community and providing direct support to young adults. Come learn about this innovative teen design project and the ways it is making a difference in rural Maine.

Open to students and educators

Workshop leaders: Bryan Stark Chessa, Iris Stutzman, and Lizzie Valdmanis (Waynflete Environmental Action Group)

How can we rethink a sustainable lifestyle? Come calculate your carbon footprint and discuss your individual effects while also recognizing the historical blame corporations have put on citizens. We will contemplate different realistic lifestyle changes we can make to optimize our impact as a community. We will also think about the bigger picture (such as policy changes we can demand) and who is really responsible for climate change. 

Open to students and educators

Workshop leader: Anna Siegel (Maine Youth Action)

Looking for tools to create grassroots advocacy and political change? Come to this interactive workshop! Participants will leave with resources and worksheets to plan their own actions, engage directly with the legislature, and delve into the Maine youth climate movement. 

Open to students and educators

Workshop leaders: Lily Wyatt and Olivia Weiss (Rock Point School)

Let's explore our own personal identities and beliefs, as well as those held across the United States. What are the advantages of diversified beliefs and how do we engage in respectful and effective discourse?

Open to students and educators

Workshop leaders: Bessy Dushime and Naimo Mohamed (Narrative 4, Waynflete)

Come learn about Narrative 4, the global nonprofit harnessing the power of the story exchange to equip and embolden young adults to improve their lives, communities, and world. In this workshop, we will use an "object exchange" to build our empathy for each other. To prepare, come with an object in your bag or your pocket, along with a quick story to share about it. You don’t have to write it down. It's a unique experience, and we’ll walk you through it!

Open to students and educators

Workshop leader: Chelsea Johnson and Keza Ineza (Waynflete)

With so many different feelings and emotions surrounding the pandemic, the past few years have felt like a blur. Every person's situation has been different and has affected them in different ways. It's easy to feel lost and without a voice. Using cut-up masks and other materials and words, how can you show your voice? This workshop is about expressing your thoughts and feelings by creating a collage, while navigating this "new normal" world and uncovering that voice that has been stuck under a mask for three years.

Open to students and educators