Theme: Fail Forward

How can we learn to treat failure as an opportunity for growth rather than a stumbling bock?

Daniel Patton
Route de Prelan 1
CP 108
Leysin, Vaud (fr), 1854
Switzerland

Benoit D

Benoit is 17 and he has been a student at LAS for the past 5 years. When he was only 11 months old, he was diagnosed with many incurable genetic disorders. 16 years later, after over 39 surgeries, 1600 days at the hospital and thousands of injections, he could not be happier. Remarkably, he’s never let adversities prevent him from attaining his goals – quite the opposite actually. The obstacles he had to face throughout the years made him stronger; he even states that he would not change his life for any other in the world. His passion for life is most inspiring. Additional information: – 39 surgeries – 3 genetic disorders and 7 different diseases overall – Previously seen on Suisse television and newspapers (Canal 9, La tele, RTS 1, Le vendredi, le 24h) – A book was written on that story “Les Maux Globines” – Hobbies: golf and rowing

Benoit Dubosson

Benoit is 17 and he has been a student at LAS for the past 5 years. When he was only 11 months old, he was diagnosed with many incurable genetic disorders. 16 years later, after over 39 surgeries, 1600 days at the hospital and thousands of injections, he could not be happier. Remarkably, he’s never let adversities prevent him from attaining his goals – quite the opposite actually. The obstacles he had to face throughout the years made him stronger; he even states that he would not change his life for any other in the world. His passion for life is most inspiring. Additional information for the speech: – 39 surgeries – 3 genetic disorders and 7 different diseases overall – Previously seen on Suisse television and newspapers (Canal 9, La tele, RTS 1, Le vendredi, le 24h) – A book was written on that story “Les Maux Globines” – Hobbies: golf and rowing

Katrine Villumsen

Katrine is a Danish trail, sky, and mountain runner. She is the Danish national champion in trail running in 2017 and 2018. In 2018 she ran the best Danish performance ever at the World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships in Poland, finishing fifteenth overall. She is also the only Danish athlete who has qualified and competed in the World Short Distance World Mountain Running Championships. In 2016 Katrine won the Italian Skyrunning series and she’s currently president of the Nordic Skyrunning Federation.

Larry Ware

Larry Ware was born in Boston, USA, in 1942. He has lived and worked in Europe most of his adult life. He attended the American College of Switzerland in the early 1960s, which was then an affiliate of the Leysin American School. He finished his university studies at the University of Grenoble. He first “roped up” in 1964 and fell in with the hardcore climbing community of that era, which, at the time, was centered in Leysin. After working a few years as a mountain guide, Larry was hired as a French teacher cum sports instructor at LAS in the early 1970’s before moving on to the A.C.S as a teacher of English and Professor of Comparative Literature. He retired in 2004

Laura Mpofu

Laura Mpofu is a young lady aged 17 who is currently pursuing her IB studies at the prestigious Leysin American School in Switzerland. She has been playing basketball for the past seven years and is a very passionate player who as her current coach Mr Shafiq recently stated is a ” strong player who knows how to get into good spaces during a game in order to give that perfect shot”. Her love for the sport was first ignited when she watched the movie “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” at the tender age of five. She lives for basketball training sessions/ games and basically feels alive when she’s on the court.

Nicolas Vaudroz

I am an artist in residence on planet Earth, living from my passions—art and sliding on snow. Born in 1976, I grew up in Leysin, Switzerland, in constant exchange with nature. I followed my artistic maturity in Geneva and left before to graduate, feeling that only my brain was asked to work and my soul was left aside. Snowboarding is a way for me to explore the law of cause and effects and became my dance to honor life and its perpetual movement. It led me to participate in the Freeride World Tour and to help design and develop a snowboard brand. I also designed snowboard and ski-cross courses for World Cups in several countries and two Olympic games. As for my art, I traveled the world several times, ending always wherever the intuition brought me. The representation of the origin of all things is one of my main quests. Hidden in nature or amongst the ancestral peoples, the symbols that represent this origin are shown in ways so diverse and yet so similar. One of my ways of working is to invoke the positive force, the source and let it speak through me, leaving my mind’ aside. My work is a tribute to life and its mysteries.

Robert Barnett

Robert Barnett is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of The Modern Classrooms Project. He has taught math, entrepreneurship, computer science, and IB Theory of Knowledge at Maret School and Eastern High School in Washington, DC, and Leysin American School in Leysin, Switzerland. He previously founded Eastern SERVE and has written about education for Education Week, The Washington Post, and Washington City Paper. A native of Washington, DC, he is a former City Year corps member and holds degrees cum laude from both Princeton University (A.B.) and Harvard Law School (J.D.).