Bernard Hirsch Herman Memorial Lecture: Mark Plotkin ’73

[FULL STORY]

 

On Friday, November 22, 2013, Newman’s upper school students assembled in the Henson Auditorium for the 7th Annual Bernard Hirsch Herman Memorial Lecture. This year’s speaker was Dr. Mark Plotkin ’73, author, activist, and ethnobotanist. Plotkin is the president of the Amazon Conservation Team, a non-profit organization dedicated to mapping, managing, and protecting South American rainforests for the indigenous people who call them home. To date he has helped safeguard more than 70 million acres of this ancestral forest. He spoke with Newman students about the importance the rainforests and ecological stewardship.

 

 

Plotkin was introduced by Head of School Dale M. Smith and Adam Herman ’00, brother of Bernard ’04 and son of Mollie Solomon Herman ’71. Several members of the Herman family were in attendance as well as a trio of teachers who worked at Newman along with Helene Plotkin, a beloved teacher and mother of the speaker. Connections like these are what make Newman such a close-knit community, and the strength of these connections fosters the desire to return to the School and share our stories, as Dr. Plotkin did for the Herman Lecture.

 

 

Plotkin spoke about his three decades of work among the indigenous tribes of South America and the struggle to protect them and their rainforests from development. He stressed that rainforests are vital not only for their inhabitants, but for the whole world. To illustrate this point he listed common yet important foods and products such as coffee, tomatoes, corn, bananas, citrus fruits, and chili peppers that evolved in the rainforest. He also mentioned the potential treasure chest of medicines that await discovery beneath its canopy.

 

 

A theme of David and Goliath emerged in his storytelling. Plotkin’s decades of activism required much hard work to bring about each success. It is not easy vying against companies, prospectors, and developers with conflicting plans for the land and its resources, said Plotkin, but it is a fight worth fighting. While success is hard to come by, it does occasionally happen. “Smart and dedicated can beat big and brutish,” he said, and added that if you “play harder and smarter, you sometimes win.”

 

 

Plotkin also devoted a good portion of the day to speaking with upper school classes in AP Environmental Science and Global Studies: Latin America. His visit allowed students to dig deeper into the history and politics of the region and see how someone can make a career based on philanthropy, activism, and even adventure. The classroom visits helped reinforce the idea that a Newman education equips its students with the tools they need to achieve, no matter what the goal may be. With the strong foundation of a Newman education and the confidence that its community engenders, there really are no limits to success.

 

Mark Plotkin was born and raised in New Orleans and was educated at Harvard, Yale, and Tufts – and in the Amazon and the French Quarter. He is the son of the late George Plotkin ’31 and Helene Plotkin, a beloved teacher at Newman for many years. An ethnobotanist by training, Mark serves as President of the Amazon Conservation Team. In the last six months, he has published articles in Harvard Magazine, Forbes, and the Huffington Post and was featured in a cover story in Smithsonian Magazine. His next publication – due out in January – is “The Ethnobotany of Warfare.” Mark was also recognized as Newman’s Distinguished Alumnus in 2006.

 

The Bernard Hirsch Herman Memorial Lecture honors a thirteen-year Greenie and distinguished member of Newman’s Class of 2004, celebrating his unique talents, his intellectual insights both spoken and written, and his sharp sense of humor. Bernard viewed writing as an essential means of expressing himself and affirming the dignity of all. Son of Mollie Solomon Herman ’71 and the late Avram C. Herman, and brother of Adam J. Herman ’00, Bernard was a regular contributor to The Pioneer at Newman and was selected by his classmates as their commencement speaker. He went on to study creative writing at Brandeis University, where he was also a senior writer and photographer for the independent student newspaper, the Justice.

View a photo album and slideshow from Dr. Plotkin's visit.