About Us

Our mission is to improve cultural and environmental awareness and cooperation around the world. To this end, we conduct exchange and apprenticeship programs that function to establish an international community of learners.

Peter Lynch

Founder and Executive Director (left)

Xia Tao

Honorary Director (right)

 

 

Our Programs

Green Across the Pacific is unique because our programs are

- True reciprocal exchanges, with visits to China and North America.
- Ones in which students and teachers work and learn together.
- Ones in which cultural exchange is facilitated by focusing on a field of common interest.
- Enhanced by a collaboration of state and private institutions, business groups and concerns in Vermont, and an equivalent collaboration in China.


Our goals are to...

- Develop leadership skills among students through a balanced and detailed study of current environmental topics.

- Create and maintain a community for cultural exchange and understanding among Chinese and American students, teachers, field scientists and business people through study of a common interest.

-Inform public debate about current environmental topics while increasing awareness about the significance of China's development.

- Increase interest in Asia and environmental studies among American students and educators.

- Provide American and Chinese students and educators with

  • an overview of natural history and resource management in China and the United States with a special emphasis on Vermont and South China.
  • an understanding of the methods, interested parties, and politics involved in natural resource management in New England and South China.


Our Educational Partners

Green Across The Pacific The Affiliated High School of South China Normal University (Hua Shi Fu Zhong)

During the summer of 1996, we took our first visit to the Affiliated High School of South China Normal University (Hua Shi Fu Zhong- HSFZ), Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China. Program director Peter Lynch and Principal Wu Yingmin of HSFZ agreed to establish a summer exchange program in field biology and natural resource management

Hua Shi Zu Zhong (HSFZ) is a key provincial high school of South China Normal University. The school’s physical beauty and excellent facilities make it a very pleasant one in which to live and work. HSFZ’s curriculum has brought distinction and HSFZ is known as an innovative high school.

HSFZ boasts an impressive number of faculty who have received provincial and national recognition. HSFZ aims to build and maintain a modern high school well known both in China and worldwide, fostering the talent for China’s socialist construction, who are qualified with active minds, moral integrity and who have a good grasp of the basic courses, innovative and willing to practice, the school is well on its way. Click more to read further.

Champlain College is a private, nonprofit college established in 1878 with a coeducational student body of 1,780 from twenty-six states and twenty-eight countries, Champlain College is located in Burlington, Vermont, and accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Since its founding, Champlain College has celebrated the Vermont ideal of practical, independent thinking by teaching students the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in a variety of professional careers.


Champlain College provides GATP's domestic exchange program with excellent electronic resources on an attractive, centrally located campus in a vibrant small city with access to a host of field sites within several hours drive. Our partnership includes opportunities for college students to develop web and print publications for promotion, reporting and dissemination of high school student work. Champlain College's experience and expertise in recruiting and training students for careers is invaluable to GATP's efforts to improve environmental awareness and leadership in the private sector through education.

 

Our Board of Directors

Peter Lynch, President, Shoreham, VT
Founder and Executive Director, Green Across the Pacific, Inc. Shoreham, VT

David Winer, Chairperson, Shelburne, VT
President, BEDCO, Inc. Shelburne, VT

Alexa Pearson, Vice-Chairperson & Secretary, GATP alumna, South Burlington, VT
Technician, Fletcher Allen Hospital, Burlington, VT.

 

Lyle Jepson, Treasurer, Proctor, VT
Director, Stafford Technical Center, Rutland, VT

Thomas Merkel, parent of two GATP alumni, Fair Haven, VT
Owner, Steiger Supply Co., Rutland, VT

Reiko Kida, parent of a GATP alumnus, Essex Junction, VT
Language Instructor, Affiliated with the Japan-America Society of Vermont, Essex, VT

 

Eric Knudsen, South Burlington, VT
Attorney at Law, Langrock Sperry & Wool, LLP, Burlington, VT

Scott H. Baker, Burlington, VT
Professor of International Business, Champlain College, Burlington, VT

 

Honary Board Members

James Douglas, Governor, State of Vermont

Howard Dean, Former Governor, State of Vermont

James D. Lazell, PhD, Founder and President, The Conservation Agency, Jamestown, RI

Richard Taylor, Mason, TX
Wildlife Management, Texas Rancher

 

Wu Yingmin, Principal, Affiliated High School of South China Normal University (Hua Shi Fu Zhong), Guangzhou, Guandong, PRC

Li Zhenchang, Professor of Zoology, South China Normal University (Hua Shi Fu Zhong), Guangzhou, Guandong, PRC