We are very pleased to share that Stiller Family Foundation has awarded a $ 1 million gift to Champlain College’s David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry to plan and convene a national Positive Education Summit that will use Appreciative Inquiry to accelerate positive education from early childhood on up. The summit is planned for 2018 and will include Mayerson Academy as a lead partner.
“Dr Lindsey Godwin, Professor of Management in the Stiller School of Business and Director of the Cooperrider Center, said the Stiller Family Foundation gift will fund the planning and implementation of a Positive Education Summit in 2018 which is expected to attract a wide array of stakeholders, including teachers, administrators, parents, students, scholars, government and business leaders, and international thought-leaders from around the world.
The Positive Education Summit’s goal will be to unite the best in the field of education with the best in the field of positive psychology to accelerate the impacts of positive education for some 23 million preschool children, 50 million students in K-12 classrooms and 20+ million students in higher education, and also help further support schools as positive institutions that are also great places to work for all employees, Godwin said.”
Dr. Neal H. Mayerson, Chairman of the VIA Institute on Character and the Mayerson Academy, commented, “Thanks to the groundbreaking system change work of David Cooperrider, the generous support of the Stiller Family Foundation, and recent advances in positive psychology and character science, we are in a position to create a catalytic watershed moment through this Appreciative Inquiry Summit on Positive Education. We now have tools we can use to elevate teaching and learning that were unavailable 10 years ago, and whole system change technology that can help education in the United States and beyond implement these tools to improve learning and human development. A big thanks is due to the visionary and pioneering efforts of the Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry and its ardent supporter, the Stiller Family Foundation.”
“I am absolutely thrilled that this summit will focus on all children and youth and the application of proven positive character strengths work,” said Jillian Darwish, President of Mayerson Academy. “There is nothing more important than learning how to help children flourish. As the exclusive early childhood and K-12 education partner of the VIA Institute, Mayerson Academy is so pleased to be a part of this unprecedented opportunity to elevate teaching and learning with the lens of positive character strengths. It is work that is near and dear to all our Thriving Learning Community efforts.”
Visit Vermont Biz to read the local news coverage or the Champlain College website to read the full text press release.
