We wish to draw your attention to this year’s Clifford Symposium titled Fully Present: The Art and Science of Mindful Engagement. The event begins on Thursday, September 22 and runs through Noon on Saturday, September 23.

Our keynote speaker, Amishi Jha, will speak Thursday evening at 7:30 in the MCA on Strengthening the Brain’s Attention System with Mindfulness Training.  Also on Thursday, eco-poet Tim Lilburn will talk on A Discipline of Looking at the Woodin Colloquium. Saturday morning offers an interactive session, titled Nurturing Well-Being While Working with Underserved Communities: Designing Mindfulness-Based Programs for K–12 Students, with members from the Baltimore-based Holistic Life Foundation.

In addition to outside speakers, Middlebury staff, faculty, and students will lead events on Friday and Saturday, including practice sampler opportunities, a screening of The Fire Inside (a short, contemplative, ecological documentary), a movement-based participatory opportunity called Movement Matters, a student poster session, and panels on mindfulness and performance, leadership, student life, engaged teaching, and studying mindfulness.

We are optimistic that everyone will find something of interest over the three days! We hope that this event will be the beginning of a year of conversations—formal and informal—around mindfulness at Middlebury and what it means to be Fully Present.

Please take a few moments to peruse the full schedule on the Clifford Symposium website.

And do join us for a great celebration of mindful enquiry!

The Clifford Organizing committee:

Michelle McCauley, Erin Quinn, Melissa Hammerle