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Civitas Welcomes Jesse Lawder this Saturday to share his journey from Performing in Plays to Playing in Politics
“I may be the only person in the current Biden administration with a BFA in Musical Theatre,” Jesse Lawder shared recently, reflecting on his years leading up to his new job. After working a while as an actor, Jesse joined the Obama campaign in the spring of 2008, which landed him a job with the Obama administration for the following eight years. With Trump’s election, he returned to St. Louis where he worked as the vice president at Planned Parenthood, learning a lot about Missouri voters, some of which may surprise you. When Joe Biden was elected president, Jesse was offered another opportunity to work for the new administration in Washington D.C. in the Department of Labor.
Join us this Saturday, April 17th from 11:00 am until 12:00 pm to hear more about Jesse’s journey. He also wants to hear from YOU, so it will be an hour of mostly dialogue about the politics in our state and country.
Click here to sign up!
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This Saturday, April 17; 11:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
Jesse Lawder; working in U.S. Department of Labor for President Biden
Click here to register
Tuesday, April 20; 6:30 - 7:30 PM
Hear from the STL Moms Who Awakened the United Nations Commission on Human Rights About the Westlake Landfill in nearby Bridgeton
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Saturday, April 24, 11:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
Christine Nobbe, aka “Space Girl,” talks about Mars, Artemis program, and more!
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Last SATURDAY: Terrific Civitas Conversation on LGBTQ issues with Karis Agnew of PROMO
 With contagious enthusiasm and great knowledge, Karis Agnew of PROMO presented to an engaged Civitas audience this past Saturday morning. The event included an activity to prioritize 25 life experiences that LGBTQ+ members are often denied. It was an eye-opening discussion for many in attendance. Karis then shared laws and policy affecting those in the LGBT+ community from the top down, beginning with international recognition by the United Nations, the lack of explicit federal protections, state variations, and all the way down to school policies. Many students had questions about how to best advocate for themselves and/or their LGBTQ+ peers in their schools. Karis had several suggestions. The first was to encourage teachers to include LGBTQ+ people in curriculum, especially when studying history. For example, Karis asked, does anyone know anything about Bayard Rustin? After no definitive responses, Karis shared that Bayard was an openly gay, Black man who was an influential organizer of the Civil Rights Movement as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s main advisor and close friend. Other important actions students can take in support of LGBTQ+ rights is to speak up against homophobic comments, which over 74% of students in a recent survey say they have heard at school. A strong, concluding message Karis made was to continue normalizing and talking about LGBTQ+ issues in all settings.
If you have questions you would like to ask you can email Karis at Karis@PROMOonline.org. Also, you can view a PDF of Karis' slide show by clicking here.
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More Middle School Model UN General Assemblies this week!
This week middle schoolers from Hoech Middle, Grand Center Arts Academy, and Ritenour Middle will participate in a General Assembly Session. The delegates have researched and written resolutions on a number of important topics including clean water access, wildfires, and countries suffering from low literacy rates. It's sure to be a dynamic session and we cannot wait to see what ideas the students come up with!
The resolutions for all General Assembly Sessions are posted on the Middle School Hub.
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How is the United Nations Involved with the toxic landfill in nearby Bridgeton, MO?
 In March of 2013 Dawn Chapman and Karen Nickel founded JustMomsSTL, a non-profit organization that educates the community about the hazards and health risks surrounding the West Lake Landfill, a site used to dump radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project in Bridgeton, MO. The toxic area is adjacent to the Bridgeton Landfill where a subsurface smoldering fire burns. In fact that fire is dangerously close; only about 1,000 feet separate the two areas.
Join Civitas and UNA-STL via Zoom on Tuesday, April 20 from 6:30 pm-7:30 pm for an update from Dawn and Karen about the issue. Ongoing goals include advocating to relocate people in homes near the landfills, continuing outreach to inform and educate others, addressing the odor issues, getting assistance from the EPA, and more. There will also be a connection made to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and how we can all advocate for supporting these goals by reaching out to elected officials.
Click here to sign up for the event.
For more information, here’s a YouTube link to the Atomic Homefront Documentary that explains the history of the waste dumping and its lingering effects:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duEMr4VbqbM
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Scheduling wrapping up for Pulitzer journalists to ZOOM into high school classrooms to discuss "Profits Before People? COVID-19 and the Meatpacking Industry"
Chadde and Bagenstose work respectively for The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and USA TODAY. They are excited about the prospect of ZOOMing into St. Louis area classrooms to meet with teachers and students. We are currently wrapping up scheduling for classroom visits.
Photo above: Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Waterloo, IA, on Sept. 17, 2020. Image by Kelly Wenzel / The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. United States, 2020.
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Christine Nobbe Returns to talk about SPACE!
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Exploring Moon, Mars and Beyond
Christine Nobbe, aka “Space Girl,” but also an educator and director of gifted Education for DESE, will be joining us again at Civitas on Saturday, April 24 from 11:00 am-12:00 pm to provide a space progress update. She will share the latest on the Mars Perseverance rover, the Artemis project, the Moon Village, #dearMoon, the search for life, and the importance of space settlement. Whew! That’s a lot of information, but Christine will touch on basics and provide plenty of time for questions and discussion during the hour timeslot that will “Zoom” by. Since we’ll be virtual she won’t be able to pass around her incredible collection of space objects, but she’ll provide plenty of visuals.
Here is a terrific piece from last Sunday's 60 Minutes on the new race to the Moon and beyond, with major leadership from women.
Click here to register.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson eats ice cream during a visit to the Haven Perran Sands Holiday Park in Perranporth, England, on Wednesday, April 7. Johnson was visiting businesses to see how they were preparing to reopen. Tom Nicholson/WPA/Getty Images
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This past week at the United Nations
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