Reading, Pa. -- Matt Peters will lead a discussion on living in Guatemala and preserving the rainforest on Monday, Nov. 9, 2009, at 4 p.m. The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place in Albright College’s Klein Lecture Hall.

Peters will discuss the history and current condition of the Central American rainforest.  Part of his discussion will focus on how governmental and international aid is unable to fully assist the communities of Central America or conserve the rainforest. Peters will also discuss how developed countries need to take a more active role in the development of countries such as Guatemala, because their ecosystem affects ours, too. 

Peters is the founder and director of Volunteer Petén, a not-for-profit charitable organization working in the northern rainforest regions of Guatemala. He is an honors graduate of Penn State University with a bachelor’s degree in forest science, and he received a Morris K. Udall Scholarship and a Scott Eckert Conservation Scholarship. Peters spent two years as a Peace Corp volunteer in Guatemala before creating his own international volunteer organization, Volunteer Petén. He is a full-time school teacher running his own high school program that focuses on natural resource management.  This three-year program is designed to train future leaders to carry on the social and environmental work needed in Guatemala to solve the many social problems that plague Guatemala by providing a decent and proper education to those who have had no access to a formal education. 

For more information about the event or disabled assistance, please contact David Osgood of Albright College at 610-921-7726. Klein Lecture Hall is located on the Albright College campus at 13th & Bern Streets, Reading, Pa.

Founded in 1856, Albright College is a nationally ranked, private college with a rigorous liberal arts curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus. The College’s hallmarks are connecting fields of learning, collaborative teaching and learning, and a flexible curriculum that allows students to create an individualized education. Two-thirds of students graduate with dual/individualized majors in more than 200 different combinations. Albright enrolls about 1,625 undergraduates in traditional programs, another 500 adult students in accelerated degree programs, and 100 students in the master’s program in education. Albright College is located in Reading, Pennsylvania, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.