Scott Silverman is the Coordinator of Orientation Programs in the Office of Student Life at the University of California Riverside. He also served as Special Editor for the 4th edition of How to Survive Your Freshman Year (ISBN: 978-1933512-31-0). In this episode of Renegade Campus, Scott and I will talk about how students can become empowered on college campus and take full advantage of all the programs available to them. Also, there are some tips on how to orient your university into a community.

Carlos Rios is a high school teacher and blogger for MoreThanGrades.com. In this episode of Renegade Campus, we learn about the challenges most students face when it comes to college, such as standardized and AP tests, and how MoreThanGrades.com is here to help.

Robin Culler has worked in the Speech Department at Green Chimneys School in Brewster, NY for 12 years. This school is world renowned for its animal-assisted therapy and for restoring hope to children with emotional, behavioral, social, and learning challenges. The staff at Green Chimneys strives to develop a harmonious relationship between people, animals, plants, nature and the environment through an array of educational, recreational, vocational and mental health services. Culler is the founder of Shark Finatics!, a group of very dedicated students who were horrified at the brutality of finning and vowed to teach as many people as they could about this cruel practice. Here is their story.

You can find more information about the Shark Finatics! on Facebook, and Green Chimneys School at greenchimneys.org

Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. The author of eleven books and scores of articles, he lectures at education conferences and universities as well as to parent groups and corporations. Kohn's criticisms of competition and rewards have been widely discussed and debated, and he has been described in Time magazine as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades [and] test scores."

More info available at: http://www.alfiekohn.org

Peter Gray is Research Professor of Psychology at Boston College and author of Psychology, one of the main introductory textbooks, currently in its 5th edition. His textbook is one of the first to approach psychology as a whole from an evolutionary perspective. His past research concerned the nature of mammalian motivational mechanisms and his current research on childhood education and play was initially motivated by his son’s unsatisfactory public school experience, which, as you'll hear, caused him to investigate alternative schooling practices modeled after traditional societies and evolutionary theory.

Dr. Gray writes a weekly blog on the Psychology Today site, which can be found at http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn.

One of his lectures comparing hunting-gathering societies to Sudbury schools can be found here: http://evolution.binghamton.edu/evos/projects/early-childhood-education-workshop/

Erica Goldson shocked her school and then the internet by criticizing our education system in her valedictorian speech. Click the play button above or download the interview below to hear about Erica's experiences as a student and her unconventional ideas on improving education.

UPDATE: Since the interview, Erica and I discovered that we share a deep love of learning through discussion and open-minded debate, so we've joined forces in bringing more voices and ears to the conversation about education.

We will now be taking turns posting interviews with passionate educators, parents, and students, so be sure to subscribe for updates and join us on Facebook to follow the bouncing around of ideas that will ensue on a weekly basis.