Theme: The Great Exploration

..... join us in this Great Exploration: a journey marked by uncertainty, (and it is this uncertainty rather than one's destination that often provides the breakthrough, a journey of ups and downs, of success and failure. Life is a journey that never ends.
With wanderers and travelers, entrepreneurs and scientists, we will take you on a tour of the world and the self, sharing our passions for exploring new fields, areas and entities both within ourselves and beyond.

Leysin American School
Ch. de la Source 3
CP-108
Leysin, Vaud (fr), 1854
Switzerland

Bracken Darrell

Chief Executive Officer of Logitech

Bracken P. Darrell is the current CEO of Logitech. He holds an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School and a B.A. degree in English from Hendrix College in Arkansas. Before joining Logitech, he lived in Germany and Switzerland for eight years. Prior his CEO position, he was the President of the Europe, Middle East and African division as well as President of Whirlpool and held a management position with PepsiCo. Mr. Darrells hobbies include, participating in triathlons, playing basketball, he is interested in art and design.

Chantal Kelly

Student at LAS

Chantal is a 16 year old student at Leysin American School in Switzerland. She came to LAS in 2015. Her idea is self-exploration of one's personal sexuality. She put an emphasis on asexuality, and her own story of her self-exploration.

Chris Stakich

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Rustic Pathways

Chris Stakich serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Rustic Pathways. He has worked at the intersection of education, community service and student travel his entire career. With operations in more than 20 countries around the world, and recruiting students from 60 plus countries, Rustic Pathways is widely viewed as the global leader in community service and education-based travel for students. Chris Stakich is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Thinking Beyond Borders, an educational organization that takes graduating high school seniors around the world for eight months to study global development issues from social, political and economic perspectives. Stakich is a 2001 graduate of Harvard University. He now lives in San Francisco with his wife and three young sons, and is committed to developing future leaders who embody compassion and global understanding.

Franz Stefan Gady

Reporter, Associate Editor with The Diplomat, Senior Fellow at the EastWest Institute

Franz-Stefan Gady is an Associate Editor with The Diplomat. He also is a Senior Fellow with the EastWest Institute. Franz-Stefan has reported from a wide range of countries and conflict zones including Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. His writing and photos have appeared in The International New York Times, BBC News, Foreign Affairs Magazine, Foreign Policy Magazine, The National Interest, Vice News, The Middle East Eye, The Christian Science Monitor, Profil, Der Standard, and Die Presse among other publications. He has worked previously as an adjunct research assistant at the Institute for National Strategies Studies of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., focusing on regional security issues. He was also an analyst for the Project on National Security Reform, a congressionally funded nonprofit organization founded to reform the national security structure of the United States. He holds an M.A. in Strategic Studies/International Economics from Johns Hopkins Univ.

Jack Andraka

Investor, scientists and cancer researcher

Jack Andraka is an American investor, scientist and cancer researcher. He is known for his new, rapid, inexpensive and patent pending method to detect presence of pancreatic, lung and ovarian cancer. The idea to find the pancreatic cancer test came to him in a biology class when he was studying antibodies and carbon nanotubes. He then did some research about cancer biochemistry and decided to contact the 200 professors at John Hopkins University and National Institutes of health with a plan and a budget. Only after 199 rejections he a positive reply from Anirban Maitra. Jack Andraka’s hobbies include: white-water kayaking, folding origami, and watching Glee and Bones.

Jenna Skove

Student at LAS

Jenna has been at LAS since 2013. She has prepared a talk examining the situation of girls in orphanages in India, including why there are so many girls for adoption and how this shows insight into the role of women in contemporary Indian society and how this is beginning to change.

John Harlin

Climber, mountaineer, adventurer, writer and film maker

John Harlin III is a renowned mountaineer, prize winning author, and speaker. He is the son of the acclaimed alpinist and founder of the International School of Mountaineering, John Elvis Harlin II. He is the author of several books including The Climber’s Guide to North America and The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain that Killed my Father. He has also worked in editorial positions of numerous mountain magazines including Backpacker, Summit, and The American Alpine Journal. He is the subject of the IMAX film The Alps which centers on his ascent of the north face of the Eiger where he retraces the route that killed his father. He graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a degree in Environmental Biology where he was elected “Outstanding Graduating Senior in Biological Sciences.” He is now the Director of the LAS Alpine Institute, a new center for mountain science, sport, environment, and culture at the Leysin American School.

Sara Alavi

Artist

Sara Alavi (b.1979, Tehran) is an Iranian artist based in Milan. She studied painting at the Art Department of Alzahra University in Tehran, concluding her studies in 2002. She moved to Rome in 2006 to continue her studies in multimedia projects at La Sapienza University, which she completed in 2010. Since 2011 she lives and works in Milan where she received her second level Degree in Painting at Accademia Di Belle Arti di Brera. She has participated in group exhibitions and she had several solo exhibitions. She won Terna prize in 2015 in Italy. In most of her works she tries to face the status of precariousness as a possible value.

Stephan K. Thieringer

Entrepreneur, Innovator

Stephan K. Thieringer is a serial entrepreneur that has founded over the past decade a number of successful companies and organizations. He focuses mainly on The Human Innovation Garage, particularly on executive, entrepreneurs’ and teams’ Radical Self-Awareness Transformation. He was also co-founder of AcrossWorld Education, a company dedicated to making education available to all online, where he worked as the President, CEO and Director. In 2012 he won the prestigious World Education Award for “Visionary Leadership in Impacting Economic Development”. Stephan is a strong and public voice for innovative thinking about the nexus of business, strategy and education. Stephan has also been featured in business and education publications such as EduTech, Business week, the Financial Express, the Hindu Times, NYT, Boston Globe, Times of India, the WSJ and the BBJ.

Theodore Lasry

Student at LAS

Theo will talk about how his experiences with humor writing have shown its ability to alter the nature of a community, specifically a school community.