MEDIA ADVISORY
April 29, 2024
San Diego Unified Students' Collaboration with Aspen Institute and Bezos Family Foundation Reaches Culmination in Innovative Solutions Showcase
Top Student-Led Solution to Community Issues Earns Spotlight at Aspen Ideas Festival
WHAT: The Aspen Challenge, a program of the Aspen Institute, founded with the Bezos Family Foundation, is returning to San Diego for the Solution Showcase. Presented in partnership with San Diego Unified School District, teams of students from nineteen area high schools will present their proposed innovative solutions to issues students chose and were challenged to help solve at the Challenge Forum in February. All teams will present to a panel of judges and their peers. Three winning teams will be chosen as the Grand Prize winners and will fly to Aspen, Colorado to present their community solution at the Aspen Ideas Festival in June.
WHEN: May 1, 2024, 8:45 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. See the full agenda for a breakdown of the day.
WHERE: The Prado at Balboa Park, 1549 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101
WHO: Teams of high school students from nineteen San Diego Unified School District schools. See a full list of participating schools here. Superintendent Lamont Jackson will be in attendance. The Solution Showcase judges are:
- Debbie Chen, Founder, Hydrostasis
- Danielle Goldberg, Managing Director, Community Alliance for Child Rights, UNICEF
- Jim Rawlins, Associate Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Management, University of California, San Diego
- Alexis Villanueva, Executive Director, City Heights Community Development (CHCDC)
- Sidd Vivek, President and CEO, Junior Achievement of San Diego
- Alex Waters, Director of Economic Development, Jacob’s Center
BROLL/VIDEO: Video and broll of the students in action and the launch event are available for download here.
COVERAGE CONFIRMATION: All members of the media wishing to attend are required to notify the Aspen Institute Media Relations Manager Eric Baker in advance. Members of the media are encouraged to attend and shoot footage and photographs of the teams at both the Challenge Forum and Solution Showcase. If space is required for set up, please inform Eric Baker.
MEDIA CONTACT: Eric Baker, Aspen Institute, eric.baker@aspeninstitute.org, 913.626.8081, Isabella McNeil, San Diego Unified School District, imcneil@sandi.net, 619.341.2343
Learn more about this year’s Aspen Challenge Brooklyn Solution Showcase and the grand prize winner, Multicultural High School’s project “Immigr8,” which hosted events and created spaces for students and their families to honor the diversity of their majority-immigrant school community and to access the rights and opportunities available to them as residents of New York City.
The Aspen Challenge provides inspiration, tools, and a platform for young people to design solutions to some of the most critical problems humanity faces. For more information on Aspen Challenge, please visit www.aspenchallenge.org.
The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization whose purpose is to ignite human potential to build understanding and create new possibilities for a better world. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve society’s greatest challenges. It is headquartered in Washington, DC and has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, as well as an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.
San Diego Unified School District: With nearly 100,000 students enrolled in Universal Transitional Kindergarten through high school, more than 13,000 employees, and 226 educational facilities, San Diego Unified is California’s second-largest school district. San Diego Unified serves a diverse student population representing more than 163 countries, and 60 languages and dialects. Learn more at sandiegounified.org.
The Bezos Family Foundation envisions a world in which all young people reach their full potential and meaningfully contribute to society. The Foundation pursues that vision by making grants and by operating their own programs, with the aim of fueling the science of learning and enabling its application in a variety of settings. The Foundation’s mission is to invest in the science of learning and the experiences that youth need from birth to high school to pursue their own path for success. For more information, visit www.bezosfamilyfoundation.org.
###
Posts
