Schools

Whiz Kid: Roeper 5th Grader Studies Fair Trade During England Trip

Mac Lancaster, a 5th grader at the Roeper School, recently returned from a trip to the Lorna Young Foundation where he studied fair trade.

Patch spotlights young people in the Birmingham community who are successful, talented and just plain awesome. Today we introduce the latest Whiz Kid:

Mac Lancaster

  • Age: 11
  • School:
  • Achievement: Lancaster, a 5th-grade student and Bloomfield Hills resident, recently returned from a trip to Manchester, England where he studied fair trade issues at the Lorna Young Foundation, an organization that advocates fair trade. Lancaster has been blogging about his experiences on his blog, http://macrox.tumblr.com.
  • Key to Awesomeness: Lancaster became interested in studying fair trade policies after his mother returned from working with tea farmers in Rwanda, who then taught Lancaster about how fair trade works.

    "Mac is an incredibly bright student (who) is very passionate about causes he believes he may be able to help in some way," said Chris Cigan, Lancaster's teacher at Roeper. "His maturity and understanding of world issues at such a young age is extremely impressive. We are very excited for Mac to have the opportunity to discuss, and learn more about, fair trade."

    During his trip, Lancaster interviewed the director of the Lorna Young Foundation, Christina Longden. Lancaster also arranged a meeting with filmmakers Marc and Nick Francis at their United Kingdom premiere of When China Met Africa. The filmmakers directed the documentary Black Gold, an in-depth look at the world of coffee and global trade.

Do you know a local young person who deserves applause for volunteer work this summer or for challenging how we think about the environment? Maybe academic, artistic or athletic achievements are worth sharing. Everyone deserves attention, and we want to tell these stories. Email any information and photos to Laura.Houser@patch.com.


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