Collège George Sand

Julien Rosset, one of the professors of the Collège George Sand school located in La Motte Servolex near Chambéry, France contacted us and invited us to give a presentation about Pangaea and the Young Explorers. Julien has been a long time follower of Mike Horn and his past and present expeditions.

YEP Valentin Dorsaz quickly and eagerly reacted to our invitation to French speaking YEPs, and on Tuesday November 29, 2011, we drove the two hours car ride to France to meet with some very enthusiastic teachers as well as their excited and interested students.

Valentin gave three 45-minute long presentations about Pangaea and his Expedition to Nunavut, Canada with Mike Horn. His message recalls the different events of the expedition and brings back a solid message about the impact of climate change in the Arctic region. Valentin has a great talent in enthralling his audience and the teachers were all amazed at how he managed to captivate the attention of their students for so long!

The exchange with the students was very interesting as this school presents some fantastic learning opportunities for their students. The first class we had the pleasure to meet had been working for four years on a project to build dry toilets in a school in Ghana, and meet with the locals of three villages. The students, at the age of 14 and after having worked on this project for four years, have just returned from two weeks on site. They worked on the project from A to Z, organising fundraising campaigns, establishing the contacts, and getting the project on its feet. As much as they were interested in hearing about Valentin's exciting and extreme adventures with Mike Horn in the Artic (especially the Big Wall stories), we were very interested to hear about their project.

The last class we met in the afternoon, is preparing another project, aproject and an exchange with a school in Port Elisabeth in South Africa. The class will spend two weeks in South Africa in October 2011. Michael Scholl, Mike Horn team, gave a presentation about his research and conservation work on White Sharks in South Africa, as well as presenting some of the local marine wildlife the students will hopefully see. Great to see that these projects are supported by the school and its administration, and that teachers take the initiative to broaden their students vision of the world from such an early age.

Valentin has been very active in giving interviews to the media, both the printed media and the radio/televion media. He has given many different presentations at various events, schools and different audiences. Valentin and I already visited the Collège de Bois-Murat in Epalinges near Lausanne on October 11, 2011 for Valentin to present Pangaea and his expedition. Despite being very busy with his studies, Valentin has also been very active with the project he initiated before coming to the Selection Camp already. His project 'Je le fais pour mon Valais' has in the meanwhile become an association and his actions will soon become reality. This is a great example of a simple yet great local project! Bravo Valentin and good luck with your endevours! If you are interested in his project, please visit his web site and join his FaceBook page!

YEP Valentin Dorsaz presents Pangaea at the Collège George Sand

School Blog for November 29, 2011