This presentation is specifically designed for educational environments. In today's fast paced world, both teachers and students are bombarded with enormous amounts of pressures and demands to excel academically. Test scores and academic performance are crucial and important pieces of the educational puzzle. Often comical, moving and deeply thought provoking, "Awakening Voices In The Classroom" offers educators insight and inspiration as to how to balance the outer world of tests and performance standards, with the inner world of passion, purpose, wisdom and deep learning.

Rebekah Carpenter -Motivational Speaker, Playwright and Actress has been traveling across the nation and abroad, t helping thousands of people and organizations. Each of her keynote presentations and workshops are built from the foundational belief that everyone already has within them a unique sense of purpose and an abundance of greatness. She believes that her job is simply to help the audience begin the process of uncovering the layers that have accumulated around their true selves, so they can "wake up" to their own unique voice, unleash their potential, and live with absolute authentic power.

Mary Gordon

Roots of Empathy is a program that fosters the development of empathy through finding a connection to the humanity of a baby. This presentation will share the six strands of connection employed in the program. The voice of the children will be represented in their stories and art, and the concepts of teaching through temperament and attachment will be described. The authentic dialogue and emotional literacy which are cornerstones of the program will be shared through the lens of the child. 

Mary Gordon, President/Founder – Roots of Empathy
has created award-winning programs that have been informed by the power of the loving relationships of families. Roots of Empathy is a not-for-profit, evidence-based classroom program that has shown dramatic effect in reducing levels of aggression and violence among schoolchildren while raising social emotional competence and increasing empathy. Ms. Gordon is also the founder of Canada’s first and largest school-based parenting and family literacy program, which she initiated in 1981. This program has been used as a best practice model throughout North America 
 

We live in troubled times.  Yet each of us carries in our hearts a vision of how this world could be.  Ocean's presentation starts from the premise that part of the reason we are alive in these times is to bridge the gap between the painful realities of our times and the potential that lives in us. Through stories, statistics, experiential exercises, and speaking from the heart, renowned facilitator, Ocean Robbins will entertain, inform and empower attendees with support and inspiration to take positive action on behalf of our deepest values. 

Ocean Robbins founded YES! in 1990 at the age of 16, and has served as its guiding light since then.  He and his life partner, Michele Robbins, are YES!’s co-presidents. He is co-author of Choices for Our Future, has been a keynote speaker for conferences, school assemblies, and has facilitated camps for young activists and leaders from 55 nations, workshops and retreats helping to inspire the  formation of non-profit clubs and organizations working for  positive change. He has served as a board member for Friends of the Earth, The Tide Turning Coalition, The Omni Center, Creating Our Future, and EarthSave International.