This article was edited for accuracy at 12:09 March 5, 2011.
British anthropologist and primatologist Jane Goodall will be featured at the Roots & Shoots exhibit on Monday, John Trybus, manager of tour outreach and public relations at the Jane Goodall Institute, said.
As part of the event, which is co-sponsored by TCU and Fort Worth Country Day School, Goodall will advocate for listeners to identify problems and plan projects to make positive changes in their communities, he said. Admission toGoodall’s lecture will be by invitation only.
“The lecture is going above and beyond the next 50 years,” Trybus said. “It will be giving a reflection of her past and current work, and how each and every one of us can play a role in securing the future of the planet.”
Goodall, known for her landmark study of chimpanzees for more than 50 years, tries to make it a point to visit local Roots & Shoots programs when she is on tour, he said.
“She can kill herself speaking and raising awareness about chimps and animals, but if you don’t inspire the next generation to be proper stewards of the environment, then the work is not complete,” Trybus said.
Goodall considers Roots & Shoots her legacy, Trybus said.
“This year is extremely exciting because it is the 50th anniversary of Goodall’s pioneering chimpanzee research in Africa, as well as the 20th anniversary of Roots & Shoots,” Trybus said.
Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Carol Thompson said everyone has been impacted by Goodall even if they don’t realize it.
“She is one of the most important scientists in history,” Thompson said. “She became part of the global community to try and change the environmental future.”
The program is the Jane Goodall Institute’s way of reaching out to children by showing them how to be more conscious and preserve the environment, she said.
“She’s an inspiration to me,” Thompson said “She’s a complete visionary. It comes through loud and clear that she doesn’t think like other people.”
Trybus said the program is a service for people, animals and the environment and that it has a large following in Texas. The Roots & Shoots program is also on many campuses throughout the United States and the world, he said.
Thompson said, “Sometimes students are interested in environmental issues, but they don’t have opportunities to act on it. One of the things Roots & Shoots enables youth to do is to create their own projects and exercise their abilities to change the world positively.”
According to Newswise, the nation’s first college Roots & Shoots environmental summit was organized by students at TCU in 1997. Fifty delegates from colleges and universities around the nation came to learn more about environmental issues and how to start chapters on their own campuses.
Roots & Shoots 8212; A program of the Jane Goodall Institute
When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday
Where: Brown-Lupton University Union Ballroom
Admission to the lecture is by invitation only.
