Penn State Brandywine to host fair trade workshop April 6

Penn State Brandywine will host the Fair Trade Colleges and Universities Mid-Atlantic Fair Trade Student Training workshop on Saturday, April 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to help students, faculty, administration and others organize their campaigns to become the next fair trade college or university.

Sessions will include goal setting, strategies for maintaining participation in fair trade activities through the summer and into the upcoming fall semester, as well as addressing issues like student recruitment and sustainability. There will also be sessions on working with campus food vendors, going through the application process for schools interested in becoming designated Fair Trade Colleges or Universities and a keynote speaker. Lunch will be provided.

Brandywine Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Laura Guertin, founder of the campus' Fair Trade Trailblazers, will serve as a guide during the workshop. She helped the group of students on campus in their successful pursuit to become the eighth fair trade university in the nation.

Sarah DeMartino, who led the Brandywine TrailBlazers during her sophomore year on campus and has since transitioned to University Park, where she is the student leader of the Fair Trade Penn State movement, will join Guertin.

National Coordinator of Fair Trade Campaigns Billy Linstead Goldsmith will also serve as a guide.

Those interested in attending the training can sign up on the Eventbright page. To learn more about Penn State Brandywine's fair trade efforts, visit http://tinyurl.com/fairtradepsubw.

The mission of Fair Trade Colleges and Universities is to inspire institutions of higher learning to support the Fair Trade movement in its efforts to seek equity in trade and promote sustainable development. Fair Trade Colleges and Universities harness the power of higher education in the United States to both raise awareness among students, faculty, and staff about the benefits of Fair Trade, and leverage the significant institutional buying power to purchase Fair Trade products. Achieving Fair Trade status means securing institutional commitment to embed Fair Trade principles and practices within administrative/ procurement policy and the social and intellectual fabric of academic communities.