Who are you trying to help? What issue are you trying to address?

My name is Mark Zorrilla II and I am this year’s co-chair of the 19th annual Building Bridges Diversity Conference, which takes place at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, MN. Each year the conference captures the attention of up to 1200 people on the issues of diversity, human rights, and action. Past topics of the conference have included human trafficking, immigration, mass incarceration, and genocide awareness.

We are currently choosing the topics about our education system and bullying awareness/ prevention as the potential topics for the 2014 conference.

What is your project and how will it help?

Building bridges, a student led organization on campus, which chooses a topic to educate Gustavus and the surrounding communities about. This year there are many potential topics but we are currently focusing on the failing education system of the USA and bullying prevention/ awareness.

Through our efforts our organization has only one interest which is to create a more competent, understanding and safe community.

How can other people partner with you on your project?

Other organizations willing to help our organization are welcomed to donate anything they are able to, whether that be monetary contributions or donated services such as a speaker or materials needed for the conference/ topic year.

Please detail the resources that you need.

I am reaching out with hopes that you all will be willing to provide us with any resources that you think would benefit the conference. Information such as contacts to speakers/educators who are experts on education about bullying and relevant topics should be addressed at the conference such as bullying in LGBTQ or greek communities, higher vs lower education or even sources of information that could be used for gaining knowledge and raising awareness around campus would be greatly appreciated.