GAIA SCHOLARSHIP

1.  What is your purpose? 

My purpose is to offer help to Israeli and Palestinian people so that they can live the dream that they deserve.  My purpose is also to enjoy my life's calling- which would be easy if I were doing this!

2.  What do you love?  What are you passionate about?

I love seeing people ‘get it.’  I love getting to witness the lightbulbs that go off!  I am passionate about redemption.  I love sustainable design and I love the idea of using it to help impoverished war-torn areas and people groups.  I love the Middle East!  And finally, I love the arts and the idea of fusing it with sustainable design in order to help Israeli’s and Palestinians find and live their dreams.

I’ve taught Tennis, Skiing, Spiritual Studies, Psychology, History, Language, Art, Science, and P.E. and in every subject area I have had the pleasure of seeing kids and adults ‘get it.’  I taught in the West Bank and I have witnessed the atrocity and yet the heroism in the women and children in particular.  I have started my own residential design company and I have utilized green design principles and materials.  I have financially and volunteerily supported NGO’s that are providing medical and educational supplies to the Middle East; I also have volunteered with a non-profit that uses art therapy to help counsel young women. 

And finally, I am currently enrolled as a student at the University of Denver's Korbel School of International Studies to obtain a MA in International Administration with a minor in Middle Eastern Development.

3.  What is your ideal job description?  What do you like to do and if money didn't matter, what would that look like?

I love leading.  I love rallying people on behalf of a joint-cause.  I love creating and seeing something re-designed.  I am not an artist that can create something from nothing.  I have to see something and make it something different.  That is why, I love re-mixing and re-design/restoration projects.  I love coming alongside projects that are in place and seeing how I can add to them to make them better.  

How amazing would it be if I could begin my day (stateside or overseas) as a part of a project that is doing sustainable design in impoverished areas like the Middle East.  I can imagine myself doing consulting for local design/architectural firms and partnering with them for the funding from an NGO that I work for.  The non-profit would be one that offers educational aid and development resources to both Israeli’s and Palestinians.  My role could simply be to network the NGO with the local companies that will actually complete the project.  Or, perhaps, I would go in to local schools and teach on sustainable design and design’s offerings and relationships for jobs/economy boosts/social change and this could inspire kids with artistic passion to help make a difference in their homeland.  

As a teacher in the West Bank, I met kids who could write and draw and who loved art.  If today’s kids are tomorrow’s leaders...why can’t education and design can be the bridge and the inspiration for lasting social change?