Events

Leveraging the New World of Work to Provide Opportunity to Rural El Salvador

Having led a school through a pandemic in the USA, Joe realized he could work virtually connecting his love for the community in El Salvador to launching an organization to provide education and economic development.  Now 14 months later, Grande Center has launched a school and an adult training program in rural El Salvador.  Within the next few months, they will also launch a company to employ people from the region to do data labeling, an entry level career in the field of artificial intelligence.  The profit from the company will be turned back over to the educational model to create a self sustaining cycle of opportunity for former refugee communities from the Salvadoran Civil War.

Joe Albers, born and raised in San Jose, has dedicated his career to education for underserved communities in El Salvador and in San Jose.  He is the founding President of Grande Center for Education and Economic opportunity whose mission is to educate rural communities of El Salvador to thrive in the digital global economy.  With an innovative model of school by day and adult training by night, Grande Center is catalyzing economic opportunity in a region that has had all of the cards stacked against it. 

Joe has been visiting and working with the people of Chalatenango, El Salvador since 2000 and founded a scholarship program in 2011 in the town.  Joe previously served as founding Principal at Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School from 2013 to 2021.

Tonya will be speaking about the family letters she recently acquired from the Civil War, the Oregon Trail, and from 1850s California – as well as the books they have inspired her to write, the related research she has been doing, and her two recent trips to Missouri to visit relevant historical sites and meet people who can help her in this exciting historical journey.

Tonya McQuade has been teaching English and serving as the Interact Club Advisor at Los Gatos High School since 1992. She is a member of Poetry Center San Jose, serves on the board for Tabard Theatre, and is a long-time honorary member of Los Gatos Rotary. In her spare time, she enjoys poetry, historical fiction, blogging, playing piano and guitar, travel, hiking, genealogy, scrapbooking, volunteering for local theater and concert productions., and spending time with family and friends.

Campbell Scott is a retired scientist who now volunteers for The Climate Reality Project, Silicon Valley where he is director of the speakers’ bureau .  With a bachelor’s degree from St. Andrews University in Scotland and PhD in physics from the University of Pennsylvania he pursued a career in education and research.  In retirement, he uses his background in physics, chemistry and education to inform the public about the causes, consequences and solutions of climate change.

It is increasingly evident that global climates are changing.  This talk will summarize the cause of climate change and the impacts that it is having, with a focus on the Bay Area.  Since the cause is well understood, the solutions are clear.  Each of us can play a role in contributing to, and benefitting from, these solutions.