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Nadine El-hadad from Alexandria, EGYPT writes...
My hero is SLATER. Although she is young, I did learn from her a lot. She taught me that from just a SMILE you can do everything. She's an angel, MY ANGEL!! SHE INSPIRES ME IN LOTS OF WAYS!!
Slater and Nadine met at the iEARN Conference held this summer in Kosice, Slovakia. Slater took part in this International Youth Summit and helped demonstrate the MY HERO website to children all over the world. With her violin, a big smile, and a great ability to listen, admire and respect people from different cultures, Slater worked her way into the hearts of all she met at this global event.
Whether she was playing music for the kitchen staff at the dorm, dancing with the Egyptians or the Russians, singing with Rashid from Sierra Leone or showing teachers how to use MY HERO, she was AMAZING.
Nadine is so right, it is all her ability to look into you and smile and let you know that there is goodness and peace and hope in the world in that smile, in the glimmer of her twinkling brown eyes, and her inner calm and sense of purpose...she is here for a reason and the world will be better because of Slater. This much I already know. I am so proud to nominate SLATER as a hero!
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Slater is concerned about the environment, she really loves nature. Slater has been homeschooled this past year and MY HERO has been an important part of her education. Slater decided she would research and write a story about Jean-Michel Cousteau for MY HERO...As a former Californian, Slater felt a strong affinity for the sea. Her environmental concerns reach from the farm in Canada back to the sea....
Slater was able to reach one of her dreams and that was to snorkel with her hero, Jean-Michel Cousteau. You can view a short film she created about this adventure in the MY HERO screening room.
In 2005 Slater spent an afternoon with the MY HERO team creating an instructional video. She patiently went step-by-step to demonstrate for the camera crew how she developed and built her MY HERO story about Jean-Michel Cousteau.
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| Slater and her friend from Egypt, Nadine. |
Slater was chosen to be one of the MY HERO youth summit representatives to the iEARN Conference in Slovakia in 2004 and in the Netherlands in 2006. There are hundreds of teachers and students from 55 nations that attend this global educational workshop. At these conferences she played the violin, danced, painted murals for peace, covered workshops about Solar Cooking ovens and most of all made friends with people of all ages from around the world. Nadine and I both realize that Slater has a gift for opening up our hearts with her wonderful optimism and beautiful smile. The world is a better place because of SLATER.
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Slater first took part in MY HERO when she signed the GUESTBOOK with an entry about her mom and her dad.
Slater from ca - 27-Feb-00 at 11:32 AM.
My hero is: Mom and Dad. They are my heroes because they are kind and smart and funny and have grace.
love, Slater.
Slater also read what her mom had written about her in the MY HERO Guestbook.
Mom from Encino, CA USA - 27-Feb-00 at 11:14 AM.
My hero is: SLATER. She is my hero because she is kind and honest and funny and smart and always understands how other people are feeling. She is my best friend and I love her more than the sky, the moon and the stars.
With respect and much love.
her Mom.
Slater has been all over the world representing and reporting for MY HERO.
She began her career as a MY HERO Reporter while at a picnic with heroes RON KOVIC and KATHY ELDON. Slater used a video camera to interview these heroes. When I asked her why she thought they were being celebrated as heroes, she spoke about their work for peace and their dedication to making the planet a better place.
Slater and her mom and dad talked about heroes and how maybe they could share The MY HERO Project with her class at Dixie Canyon Elementary School. Slater's teacher, Karen Winston, was interested in using their new computer lab with this interactive project and to have the help of Slater and her mom and dad to introduce MY HERO to the class.
Together, as a family, they brought MY HERO to the 3rd/4th grade combined class so that each child would have a chance to publish comments about their heroes in the GUESTBOOK.
Slater first went around the room with a tape recorder and asked each child who was their hero--documenting on audiotape each student's response. Then her mom (Wendy) typed a transcript of the audiotape, and the next time they met, the kids spent time reading out loud what they each had to say about their hero....They created art, brought in photographs and then signed the MY HERO Guestbook. The result was this Dixie Canyon School web page.
The next fall Slater moved to Canada, to a farm and a new school. Again Slater and her parents helped to introduce MY HERO to the children and teachers at the Bethany Hills School. The emphasis this time was to look for women who were making an important contribution in the field of science. Slater decided to write about IRENE AYAKO UCHIDA.
Slater and Wendy and David (her mom and dad) have highlighted many wonderful heroes on this website: Kathy Eldon, Jason Crowe , Robert Kennedy, Jr., Ilse Bing , Peter Jackson, and Dr. Michael DeBakey, to name just a few.
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Slater wrote this email to MY HERO staff to thank them for the opportunity to join the iEARN Youth Summit:
The iEARN Conference in Slovakia was awesome. We made many friends. Kids from Thailand, Romania, Russia, Lebanon, Trinidad and Tobago, Spain and Puerto Rico and the United States and Slovakia and many more. It was like befriending the world. I loved dancing with the Egyptians: Nadine, Eman, Rasha, Rehab, the "Two Nadas," Heba and Mai and all the guys; learning origami from my Japanese friends, Hoshino and Ayako Weki and Jeckey and all the kids from Taiwan, and of course, my wonderful new friends from Africa: Cheikh, Tommie, Gordon and Ludo, and who could forget "T-Bone" Mendoza and Jeanne Meyers from MY HERO.I'll never forget the night of the Gala dinner and dance. Rashid was on stage and singing about Sierra Leone not wanting war. The place was jamming. We all danced and were connected. It was an incredible sight: Oxana and Sonya and Nastia from Russia dancing without caring and Melissa showing that girls from the US rule on the dance floor and Nadine and the Egyptians teaching everyone to dance like an Egyptian and the boys from Spain dipping the girls and Anika dancing with a lot of soul and Jeckey jamming and everyone dancing and feeling like there was hope for peace in the world. The next day we all met in the State Theatre of Slovakia for the closing ceremonies and watched different performances and then my name was called, "SLATER! Is Slater in the house?" "YES," I yelled and ran down four stories of stairs and went on stage.
When I arrived, the whole theatre was clapping... for ME to play my fiddle! So I took out my new seventy-year-old violin and played some bluegrass! When everything was done, we said our good-byes. The next day, we were leaving. The day came to say our final good-byes. Everyone was crying and exchanging emails and addresses and saying that they will write everyday and that they will miss you.
Until the next iEARN Conference, I thought!
Page created on 8/4/2014 3:31:09 PM
Last edited 11/10/2017 12:33:41 AM
Slater - 04-Nov-04 at 08:16 AM. The iEARN teachers are my heroes.
I'd like to talk about some heroes of mine: iEARN teachers. I may not know them all by name, but I know this much about them. iEARN teachers want kids from around the world to exchange ideas. My biggest experience with iEARN teachers was at the annual conference in Slovakia. Every day I heard and saw teachers from every corner of the earth presenting projects and ideas for young people to exchange. Before this year, I didn't even know what an iEARN teacher was. Now I know a lot about them. For example.
- They're always on the move. We were in the courtyard of a school in Slovakia and suddenly music was blaring and the Egyptian teachers and students were dancing in a big circle. The energy was just so happy, it pulled me in. Nadine, Iman, Ahmed and all the others whirling around in joy - I will remember that happy feeling for the rest of my life.
- They like to laugh. I remember Jeanne, my mom, my dad and I were roaming around the streets of Kosice when we bumped into Gordon from Kenya and Tommie from Botswana. They joined us for refreshments at a small outdoor café. We shared stories and jokes and laughter. What a beautiful afternoon.
- They're like family. I remember my dad and I went to the booth set up by the delegation from Iran. We were instantly surrounded by smiles. The women of the delegation, who had always been so kind to us, were like Aunties at Thanksgiving holiday, offering us sweets and gifts and making us feel welcome. Whenever I think of Iran I think of their welcoming faces and generosity.
- They're like great big blue clouds. The first time I ever saw Cheikh from Senegal, he was wearing beautiful, flowing robes of royal blue. I couldn't see his feet so he seemed to be floating above the ground, a friendly smile drifting by. I met many people from many different cultures and countries and I always felt happy being among them. The iEARN conference made me look at the world with new eyes. I see now that it doesn't matter if you're from Taiwan or Egypt or Russia, Japan, Sierra Leone, Spain or New York or anywhere else in the world. Thanks to iEARN teachers, we're all a little bit closer.
