Hey all! I'm new to this group. My name is Bryan Sebesta. A little bit of background: I'm a User Experience Designer right now at a digital agency in Utah, and JUST graduated college in April. So I'm not in academia, but I'm a passionate lover of the sciences, history, and the humanities. And I just recently came across Big History. I've read several books on it, listened to spades of YouTube videos on it and the Anthropocene, and have only recently come to terms (or begun to come with terms) with how complex the world is. So that's me. It's good to meet you all and be a part of an association like this.

My big question is: how do I raise interest in, and awareness of, Big History where I am? And with my background?

My motivations in asking this are personal, social, and activist. I want to raise awareness of Big History because it's proven so transformative for me personally, so I want to share that. I want to discuss these ideas with other people because hey, who doesn't want to talk about something they love? And I want to raise awareness of what's happening to this planet, and the need to change. I was very moved (and slightly worried?) by Will Steffen's talk on the Anthropocene from a past Big History/Anthropocene conference. But I felt like it had even more meaning to me, because of the context of Big History that I had.

All of these motivations, and this interest, I want to channel now into some good direction: forming a chapter of the IBHA out here, trying to persuade school boards to adopt it for classes, organizing an event, or even a Big History book club. I have lots of ideas, but mostly want to help make real change.

So again, my question: How do I raise interest in and awareness of Big History where I am in Utah? With my background? What have you seen work in your locales? What would be neat to see?

P.S. Since many of you are academically based, I should mention that I am very close to BYU, the University of Utah, UVU, etc. And I have ties to almost each university, especially BYU (my alma mater), including some science professors. So that's a resource, and suggestions for starting there are also welcome.

Welcome! I think your post hits the nail on the head. I have also thought that this topic deserves increased public awareness but I hadn't articulated that clearly in my mind before. But you're right, that's exactly what we need.

Thinking about it now, I can envision a public service campaign somewhere on social media funded by Bill Gates extolling the virtues of the Big History world view and directing interested public to online resources, perhaps the online course of Christian's or the Big History Project's website. 

I would say we should encourage community colleges and universities to offer Big History courses, but would there be anybody ready to teach it? Maybe IBHA should put together a workshop to train teachers how to teach Big History, and market the workshop around a bit. I would definitely take that workshop. I'd love to teach Big History at a community college, but I don't have any teaching experience or credentials in history. If I had some sort of certification saying that I was trained by the IBHA, that might work. 

What other ideas do you all have?

Hi everyone, I am also new to the IBHA and I love the idea of a Big History teacher certificate.

It was in October 2016 that I stumbled upon Big History via David Christians Edge Conversation and I have been studying it ever since … The Teaching Company course, Coursera, books.

 For 10 years now I have been teaching English to adults as a freelance teacher at an adult education centre in Germany. So, I already have some teaching experience and an adult education qualification too - Germans love certificates ;-). Right now I am translating what I have learnt and still learn about Big History into German because I would like to offer classes in German - it will reach a wider audience that way. Besides, translating helps me to understand.

This way I also hope to raise awareness for Big History, even if in a non-academic setting. These adult education centres (another name is folk high school, German: Volkshochschule, and there is an article on wikipedia about it) are organised in an association on the level of German states and there is an umbrella organisation at the national level.

A Big History teacher certificate would be very helpful even though I already have the coursera certificates.

Finally, if there are fellow members from Germany, feel free to contact me.

Thank you Karen, that might indeed be an option.