Fallon Casper-Koubi is the Deputy to the Chair of Sage Leadership Partners. In this capacity she provides direct organizational support and strategic leadership on behalf of the Founder & Chairman. Fallon graduated summa cum laude, earning a Bachors of Arts in "The Political Economy of International Organization" from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University. In the Summer of 2006, Fallon served as a Public Policy & International Affairs Fellow at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan. She is a graduate of the first program in the United States to implement an Early College program for high school students, earning simultaneously an Associate of Arts degree in the Liberal Arts and High School diploma. Fallon has served as an Assistant Program Manager for the Global Alliance for Women's Health, completed a fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship through StartingBloc - an innovative program seeking to bring together the private and non-profit sector, and participated in community service projects within the countries of Argentina and Uruguay. Fallon is fluent in Spanish and possesses intermediate language proficiency in French. Her future aspirations include additional graduate study leading towards an MBA and Masters in International Affairs, undergirding her role as a key contributor to Sage Leadership Partners.
Fallon Casper-Koubi, Deputy to the Chair Public Policy International Affairs Fellow, Gerold R. Ford School of Public Policy (Summer 2006) Political Economy of International Organization Gallatin School of Individualized Study B.A. summa cum laude Languages: Spanish (advanced), French (intermediate), Hebrew (conversational) New York University http://www.nyu.edu/gallatin fallon@sageleadership.org
My Pathway to Open Source Teaching By Fallon Casper-Koubi
The keyword phrase of my generation is “I want to change the world.” It seems almost a paradox, as we have been called the most apathetic generation since the peace loving hippies of the 60s. To say that we are lazy however, is a misdiagnosis. We are not apathetic, we are bored. Tired of following traditions that don’t work for us and tired of having to settle for the same types of lives that may have pleased a world previously unconnected to itself. And yet, the more connected we get to each other, the more we seem to get lost in a web of multiple meanings, expectations, environmental warnings, and dichotomies.
My own life has been shaped by two, very different geographies: I grew up in Colombia, one of the poorest countries of the world, and moved to New York City, one of the richest, when I was entering my teens. During every period of my life, I've been acutely aware of the contradictions inherent to growing up with a family who was both extremely poor on one side, and relatively affluent on the other. But my life is the story of most people – we have our share of opportune relationships, troubled family members, lucky breaks, heartbreaking moments, and those token random decisions that seem to change our entire life in what seems like a fraction of a second. I came to Open Source Teaching because I refuse to be limited by the constraints of past generations. I refuse to comply with standards, rules and regulations meant to engender order and measurability in a neatly arranged mosaic of historical tradition. I do want to change the world. I want to change it because I don’t like what I see. I see poverty in the world and wonder about its systemic reinforcements. I see international institutions making a difference, yet having a limited impact on addressing causes. We live in a world that likes to treat the symptoms of a problem rather than the cause. Above all, we have bureaucratic and structured systems that are slow to adjust and even slower to evolve with rapidly moving innovation and entrepreneurship.
I believe in the mission of Sage Leadership Partners because it places power in the hands of those who most crave running with it. Sage is not constrained by hierarchies, nor is it bound by a prescribed logistic. It does have a model, and it certainly has a plan. But it goes further: it is designed to empower, to inspire, and to transcend boundaries – of education, office standards, and the status quo. Is it vague? That’s because as its root mission, Sage aims to transform learning for the standards of every single person it touches. It’s personalized and directly applicable to the individual. How can you standardize something that will mean something different for every person?
