• Our New Year’s Resolution

      Over 120,000,000 people voted in last year’s Presidential election. 96% of the individuals who voted did so in person. Our guess is that if you consider the commute to the polling location, standing in line and the act of voting itself, it likely took an average of an hour and a half to get the job done. We wanted to share a few thoughts regarding this reality. 1.) Voting is the lowest common denominator of true engagement. While voting is important, true responsibility of citizenship requires engagement beyond an hour and a half commitment. The very nature of voting implies asking someone else to do something for you, rather than figuring out what you can do for yourself and/or others. 2.)  If those 120,000,000 voters mentioned above offered an…

  • From Anger to Clarity

    From Anger to Clarity: Transforming Frustrations into Effective Actions This past week offered many in our country a true opportunity for reflection. The atmosphere felt ripe with heightened emotions. Limiting my interactions in this atmosphere felt like a smart move. The temptation to blame anyone, everyone, someone for my internal sense of rumbling emotions felt overwhelming at times. And, so I slept. I meditated. I listened to music. Fuming internally is no fun. I actually woke in the middle of the night to the smell of burning embers. It took me a minute to realize it was my own emotional stew pot simmering on a low boil. Experience offered me the comfort of knowing that this too shall pass. We have all heard the expression anger begets anger. Which leads…

  • Sit, Meditate, Vote

      I have been seeing quite a few posts about meditating for peace lately. Several of them encourage meditating this weekend with the hopes of influencing a positive outcome for our national elections. Frankly, I think it is a good idea. Neurology has confirmed that the individual human brain is actually hard wired to influence other people within our social circle. In fact, there is a body of scientific evidence that personal thoughts have an infectious nature. Karl Mannheim, the father of the sociology of knowledge, wrote about his sense of this phenomenon in his famous book, Ideology and Utopia. It was his belief that the social emergence of collective thoughts are a reproduction of feelings, understandings and perceptions of individuals living together in society. The ultimate chicken and egg…

  • Social Impact Media Awards

      We are thrilled to announce that the Tuning the Student Mind documentary has been selected as a finalist in the 2016 Social Impact Media Awards Short DOC category! We are honored to be in the lineup with some of the most powerful documentaries of our time. Someone pinch us!

  • The Empowerment Plan

    “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” ― Rumi, The Essential Rumi If there is one thing that I am a stickler on, it is class attendance. A few years ago, a former student, signed up to take a second class with me. When she missed the first two weeks, I was surprised. A good student, Veronika, knew about my “skipping class” pet peeve. Toward the end of the second week of the semester, I received a rather breathless apology email from a very obviously busy young woman. Veronika, it seems, had been otherwise occupied. She had been invited to speak at the UN regarding her burgeoning non-profit “The Empowerment Plan”. The Empowerment Plan is a Detroit based organization dedicated to serving…

  • Is it Worth Fighting in a Generation War?

    You’ve seen these two articles circulating social media. You know, this one and then in response, this one. Here’s my million dollar question: Are we really fighting a generation war? As someone who has been deeply interested in education and often inspired by the ever-changing educational paradigm, in my opinion, the dynamic of both articles is a step in the wrong direction. That is, if the right direction is toward creating meaningful and engaging learning experiences for young people to help them transition into happy and healthy adults. I have spent the last three years talking, blogging and filming about the importance of bridging the gap between my generation and the one before me. Bridging this gap is an authentic teaching method. It comes down to this, you have to…

  • Lean, Mean & Green Trailer

    When College for Creative Studies film student Kaylee Johnson posted this on her Facebook, we just had to know more about it. Turns out, she actually plays a significant role in the making of this film. She became an intern after pre-production was completed. Her job is to organize footage and have it ready for the editor. She is also making an ibook that contains the used and un-used interviews from the film. Her main role is to help complete the final stages of the film by meeting deadlines, having a smooth distribution process and helping to bring revenue to complete the film. This trailer features three of the profiles from the film, including Youngstown, Ohio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Detroit, Michigan. Click here to see Kaylee’s guest blog post, The Effortless Ease…

  • Start Small, Think Big: Building a Foundation for the Future

    I’m a dreamer. I have a huge imagination and a tendency to idealize the way things should be. But sometimes these high ideals cause me to become impatient because I’m not always able to get to where I want to be fast enough. ‘Start small, think big’ is an aphorism I’ve found comfort in reminding myself over the years, and one I’ve largely benefited from. I’ve been blogging continuously for about 14 months now, and around the time of my initial blog launch anniversary in October, I realized it was time for a serious blog makeover. I took the best parts of my old blog and transformed it into something bigger and better—Sustainalizer. This transformation made me realize just how far I’d come in a relatively short period of time;…

  • Murder Mouth: Life, Death and Dinner

    This past weekend I saw Murder Mouth at the Adventure Film Festival here in Boulder. I have to say it was the adventure that resonated with me the most. Follow the wildly endearing and expressive, Madeleine Parry (21 year old Writer and Director!) as she challenges herself to fathom the taste murder… ~Chelsea   “You can’t eat a steak without killing the cow. Madeleine loves her Greek family’s traditional lamb souvlaki but her friends claim that meat is murder. Well, Maddie’s never killed anything bigger than a spider, so she decides to reconnect the animal and the meal or never eat meat again. After talking to the people who slaughter animals for their livelihood Maddie is encouraged to do it herself, but, even if she can kill an animal, will…

  • Democracy or Corporatocracy? Why History Proves Protesting Works

    As regular readers already know, I’m the food contributor for Tuning the Student Mind. Most of my posts involve tasty recipes that fill the mind, body and soul with delight and nourishment. Today I’m going to come at you from another maybe unexpected angle. Let’s talk politics for a few, because you should all know about this! About a week ago I read President Obama’s commencement speech given to the women of Barnard College, class of 2012. In his commencement address, Obama urged women graduates to look to the history of social struggle in the United States for inspiration. Obama recalled pivotal protesting moments in history, and how they positively changed life for present and future generations. He said: [Watch here – start at 28:37] “The trajectory of this country should…