Presenting to Experts: Authenticity when Crafting Fictional Worlds

This week, the middle schoolers had the chance to present their prototype societies to a panel of experts. This process of presenting their ideas and receiving in-person feedback on those ideas is a little nerve-wracking, but the middle schoolers were brave and thoughtful. They confidently presented their societies and fielded a wide range of questions.

We were so lucky to have so many thoughtful and interesting experts volunteer their time on our two days of panels.

Here are the expert's bios:

January 21st

Sandi Wollum

Dr. David Muller

I graduated in 1988 from Stanford University with a bachelors in sociology and honors in humanities.  For my undergraduate studies, I had specialized in organizational behavior, thinking that I would go into the business world as a management consultant or advertising executive.  However, my plans were waylaid by an opportunities to milk dairy cows in Belgium and to teach beginning piano in Seattle. Both experiences led me to think that perhaps teaching would be a better profession for me, and so I attended the University of Washington for a few years to earn minors in both mathematics and English, as well as a teaching certificate in both subjects for grades 4 thru 12.  I took some more time off to bicycle tour California, Arizona, New Mexico, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, and Alaska. Promptly after returning, I moved to Colorado, where I taught high school mathematics for 1 year, then 1 year in New Mexico at a Preparatory School for Native American Students, 1 year in Arizona on the Hopi Indian Reservation, and then for six years in Tucson, AZ, also at a high school for Native American students.  While teaching in Tucson, I earned a masters and then a doctorate in math education, and married a math post-doctoral assitant (not necessarily in that order). I moved back to Washington in 2008, where my wife began her professorship at Pacific Lutheran University. For the past ten years I have had a practice in house-husbandry, as well as mathematics tutoring. I bring to this panel my expertise in having pursued for the past 30 years my own imagined Utopia.

Cameron Seib District Scheduler for Representative Kilmer 

(he/him)

I went to the University of Washington and graduated in 2015 with an English degree. A few months after graduation, I moved to DC for an internship in Rep. Denny Heck’s office, where I eventually came on as a full-time Staff Assistant. After about a year, I moved back to Seattle and began working at the UW, helping with career services for information science students.

I was there for three years before joining Rep. Kilmer’s office in July 2019. As his District Scheduler, I help plan and implement the Congressman’s schedule when he’s back in the state. This involves liaising with community members and constituents to set up speaking engagements, roundtable discussions, town halls, school visits, etc.

Peter Plastrik (Skype) 

he/him

Peter Plastrik, an educational and environmental consultant and former speech writer for the Governor of Michigan, has written several books. He studied journalism at the University of Michigan and completed graduate students in Education at Michigan State University before pursuing other fields of work. He as written several books: Banishing Bureaucracy, Life after Carbon, and Connecting to Change the World: Harnessing the Power of Networks for Social Impact. In addition, he has helped start and run University Prep, a charter school in Detroit, MI. Peter has traveled the world and seen many different societies. He also works with groups and organizations to help people work together better and more efficiently.

Robert Zwirner

he/him

Robert earned his B.A. in English from the University of Michigan. He is a world traveler and a soccer fan. He is an avid table top gamer and a student of the world. Robert has written travel narratives and has done literature graduate work at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Vicki Pastore

she/her

Vicki’s areas of expertise are managing a workforce of 70, marketing, event planning, interviewing, with some expertise in music. Vicki attended Eckerd College, where she earned her B.A. in Humanities; Literature, Philosophy, and Theater. She is one of the associate directors of admissions at the University of Puget Sound. She is also Isaac’s mom and the owner of two dogs.

Dr. Jessica Lensch Falk

she/her

Jessica Lensch-Falk is a scientist and educator who teaches hands-on science and engineering to K-8 students. She believes that all students are naturally scientists and are capable of  amazing and difficult accomplishments when given the opportunity and resources. Her previous work includes research on nanomaterials for energy applications at Sandia National Laboratories. She has also been involved in non-profit management as a current board member at her synagogue and former president of her children's PTO. Jessica holds a PhD in Materials Science & Engineering from Northwestern University and a BS in Materials Science & Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.  In her free time Jessica loves spending time with her husband and two children, playing board games, reading, and baking.

January 22nd, 8:45-9:45

Tiffany Price

Jenn Parker

I graduated from the Univ. of Massachusetts at Dartmouth with a BFA in Art Education in 1994.  Upon graduation I was an art teacher at St. Mary’s Catholic School (a private school in Melrose, MA- a town outside of Boston).  During my summer breaks I did a little traveling -I rode a motorcycle across the country going East to West one summer and then rode my bicycle across the country going West to East the following summer.  So, to make a little extra “travel cash” I started working part time at a Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop on Newbury Street in Boston scooping ice cream after school. During this time the owner of that scoop shop asked me if I would consider managing a new scoop shop that he was opening.  After much consideration I chose to leave teaching and jump into business management. Over the course of 6 years at Ben & Jerry’s I won the “Best Promotions Ever” contest, was awarded the “BIG-O” award for having the best franchise in the world, trained several perspective franchise owners from around the world, taught workshops at corporate meetings, and was promoted to the highest honor, which was to manage the corporate Ben & Jerry’s “Flagship” store in Burlington, VT (home of Ben & Jerry!) 

Over the years I traveled a bit more, managed a few other high profiled VT businesses, and participated and graduated from a continuing education program called, “The Women’s Small Business Program” at Trinity College in VT. This is where and when I wrote a couple of business plans.  One plan was to open my own bakery café which is what I did in 2005. In 2010 I hung up my apron and sold my shares of the bakery to my business co-owners and became a full time Mom. In the summer of 2016, my family moved from Vermont to Washington. That fall I began to work as a substitute teacher at Seabury and in the Tacoma School Systems.  In 2017 I started to work full time at Seabury doing what I am currently doing.

Dr. Toska Olson

she/her

Toska (Sulli's mom) is a social scientist who teaches at The Evergreen State College in Olympia. She studied anthropology in college and earned a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Washington. Toska teaches about a variety of topics, including criminology and criminal profiling, gender and sexuality, privilege and oppression, and health and well-being. She and her students have explored dystopias and utopias in many classes, especially as they relate to gender, race, and the body. Her students have researched, designed, and built 3-D models of their utopian visions in the forms of games, playgrounds, toys, and museum exhibits. 

Dr. Diane Bartels

she/her

My name is Diane Bartels and I’m a pediatrician In Gig Harbor, Washington (and Marc’s mom).  I grew up in Austin, Texas. I attended Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas for my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. I then attended UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and completed a Pediatric Residency at Dell Childrens Hospital in Austin, Texas. After completing training, my family moved to Gig Harbor. We live on a 10 acre farm and have dabbled in homesteading including vegetable gardens (unsuccessfully), beekeeping (successful until they attacked me and I got stung 100 times), and (successfully) raising meat and egg chickens and turkeys and larger livestock (goats, sheep and now horses). We love to travel especially by boat and I love to read. I will be most helpful to your Utopia project with advice in public health and agriculture. 

Mark Friedman

he/him

EDUCATION

Oberlin College, B.A. 1975

Georgetown University Law School, J.D. cum laude 1980

Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, MSFS, 1980 (Joint Degree Program)

Columbia University School of Business, MBA, 1986

PROFESSIONAL AND OTHERWISE

I am a retired attorney whose twenty years of practice encompassed a variety of legal specialties and practice areas, mostly in greater Los Angeles. These included commercial litigation; negotiating and papering transactions for corporate clients at a major law firm; acting as regional counsel to Mitsui (U.S.A.), the subsidiary of a gigantic Japanese trading company; and serving as the general counsel of Core-Vent Bioengineering, one of the nation’s leading dental implant manufacturers. I have lived in Port Orchard with my wonderful Aracelly since 2004, and we now have two Seabury kids, Judah and younger brother Asher.

Steve Plastrik

he/him

Steve grew up in Michigan, but lived in Japan, Switzerland, and Vermont before settling in Seattle. He studied Political Science and Japanese at the University of Michigan as an undergraduate and then went back to Michigan to obtain a law degree. Steve has worked in immigration law as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a Project Specialist for Amazon, and in private practice. In his free time, Steve loves to travel (which led him to a career in immigration law), go hiking in National Parks (he's looking forward to Joshua Tree in a few weeks), and play Nintendo Switch (Mario Maker 2 right now).

One of the most powerful aspects of having experts ask questions in person is the way that the students refined their ideas in advance of the presentations. I saw some students pacing in circles, talking to themselves about their utopias, some students gathering with others to hash out their ideas, and some students digging into resource and reference material. One student wrote all over the white board walls, and another filled pages of a journal. Students had a chance to develop their ideas in ways that felt natural and useful to them. They also refined them mid-presentation, adjusting language and wording as they fielded questions.

Hearing their presentations one after the other also helps me, as their teacher, notice trends across their societies and target particular instructional needs. After their presentations, the students are focusing more on using the language of the discipline to be more precise with their terminology.