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TALATERRAAuthor: Tania Marien
Environmental interpretation happens everywhere. On this podcast, you'll hear conversations with independent professionals who facilitate connections between people and the outdoors. Our guests work in diverse fields and take their own approach to environmental awareness and education. What they share in common is their commitment to nurturing the public's relationship with the outdoors and their status as independent professionals. Who are these professionals? What do they do? How do they contribute to lifelong learning in communities? Let's find out. Language: en Genres: Business, Careers, Education Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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Matthew Paneitz, Long Way Home
Episode 138
Friday, 28 November, 2025
Today, we get to learn from Matthew Paneitz, founder and executive director of Long Way Home. This organization built Hero School, a student-built and community-built campus in San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala.Built from recycled tires and trash, the campus took 16 years to build and serves 178 students enrolled in PreK through High School. The school campus is almost complete.Matthew is also the recipient of the 2020 Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service for his work in Guatemala. This award, presented annually by the National Peace Corps Association, honors Peace Corps volunteers who continue to contribute to humanitarian causes.Long before this award and the existence of Hero School, Matthew had an idea.An idea that needed funding, direction, and partners.How did Matthew obtain funding when he started this project?How did he develop a strategy sustaining him and the school he built with the residents of Comalapa?What is the school's curriculum, and how does it change the conversation around poverty?Let's find out. LINKSLong Way Home - Turn Trash Into SchoolsLong Way Home Sustainability Projects (https://www.lwhomegreen.org)Help School Fight Climate Change with Green Building (Global Giving) - Giving Tuesday is December 2, 2025Watch timelapse video of recent classroom construction (Fall 2025)2020 Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian ServiceEcoHab.orgLong Way Home on YouTubeLong Way Home on FacebookLong Way Home on InstagramLong Way Home on LinkedIn _______________CREDITS:Producer: Tania MarienMusic: So Far So Close by Jahzzar is licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike License;SOLO ACOUSTIC GUITAR by Jason Shaw is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License.Subscribe to Transferable Solutions, a newsletter about reimagining environmental skillsContact Us© 2019 - 2025 Talaterra Inc ABOUT:TALATERRA combines "tala" (Icelandic for "to speak" and "to talk") with "terra" (Earth)—because speaking for our planet and telling its stories is what environmental educators do.TALATERRA: to speak Earth. * TALATERRA is an affiliate of Bookshop.org.






