Programs
Nobelity in Schools
Nobelity in Schools brings the films of the Nobelity Project to classrooms across the U.S. and abroad, to inform students about problems faced by the world and motivate them to become involved, through the words of Nobel laureates in the films. DVDs of the films are available to any teacher that requests one. [1]
Kenyan Water Project
Seeing the stark poverty of a village in Kenya was a primary motivator behind the formation of the Nobelity Project. Students at the St Joseph's Mahiga Primary School had to walk for an hour to reach a stream to get drinking water and suffered illnesses from the unpurified water. The Kenyan Water Project was able to build a pump and provide running water to the school, and provide the classroom with supplies including some computers.
Mahiga Hope High School
In 2009, The Nobelity Project began construction on Mahiga Hope High School in rural Kenya. It is the first high school in the area of Mahiga near Nyeri. The school held its grand opening on October 1, 2010. The Nobelity Project is also building a science building for the school along with organic gardens to be completed in fall 2010. Construction of the school earned the Nobelity Project a nomination for Architecture for Humanity's book, Design Like You Give a Damn 2, a collection of writings about projects designed to benefit humanity.
Mahiga Rainwater Court
In 2009, Nike, Inc. awarded The Nobelity Project, in partnership with Architecture for Humanity, a "Game Changers Award", an architectural grant to build a multiple purpose game, performance and rain water collection facility. It is an athletic facility for Mahiga Hope High, as well as providing a community center for Mahiga. It also provides the schools only source of drinking water. The Mahiga Rainwater Court held was opened in conjunction with the school's grand opening.
Mahiga Hope Library
In 2010, construction began on the Mahiga Hope Library. This library will provide books to the whole community of Mahiga. This unique library consists of books donated by individuals along with personal inscriptions in each book, part of their book drive 1,000 Books for Hope. The book drive received contributions from individuals and school groups and the library will also provide text books and reference books in English and Swahili.
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) is a major library and cultural center on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria, Egypt. It is a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria, once one of the largest libraries worldwide, which was lost in antiquity. The idea of reviving the old library dates back to 1974 when a committee set up by Alexandria University selected a plot of land for its new library. Construction work began in 1995, and after some US$220 million had been spent, the complex was officially inaugurated on 16 October 2002. In 2009, the library received a donation of 500,000 books from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). The gift makes the Bibliotheca Alexandrina the sixth-largest Francophone library in the world.
Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is the collection and storage of rain, rather than allowing it to run off. Rainwater is collected from a roof like surface and redirected to a tank, cistern, deep pit, aquifer, or a reservoir with percolation, so that it seeps down and restores the ground water. Dew and fog can also be collected with nets or other tools. Rainwater harvesting differs from stormwater harvesting as the runoff is typically collected from roofs and other area surfaces for storage and subsequent reuse. Its uses include watering gardens, livestock, irrigation, domestic use with proper treatment, and domestic heating. The harvested water can also be committed to longer-term storage or groundwater recharge.
Wangarĩ Muta Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Oakton College is a public community college with campuses in Des Plaines, Illinois and Skokie, Illinois. It was established in 1969 in Morton Grove, Illinois and moved to its current locations in 1980.
John R. Rogers High School is a four-year public secondary school in Bemiss, Spokane, Washington, part of Spokane Public Schools. Opened in 1932 in northeast Spokane, the school is named after John Rankin Rogers, the third governor of the State of Washington.
The Hanford Joint Union High School District (HJUHSD) serves the northwestern portion of Kings County, California. The schools are located in Hanford, the county seat. HJUHSD in Hanford consists of a total of 3,522 students from Hanford High School, Hanford West High School, Earl F. Johnson Continuation School, and Hanford Adult School. An arts high school, Sierra Pacific High School, opened on August 13, 2009 with 217 freshman.
Cameron Sinclair is a designer, writer and one of the pioneers in socially responsive architecture. He is founder of the Worldchanging Institute, a research institute focused on innovative solutions to social and humanitarian crises and serves as pro bono designer of Armory of Harmony, a US-based organization focused on smelting down decommissioned weapons into musical instruments. He is a third generation gin maker and is co-founder of Half Kingdom Gin based in Jerome, Arizona.
Citadel High School is a high school in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Studio 804 is a graduate level architecture design studio developed by Professor Dan Rockhill at the University of Kansas. The course is distinguished from typical architecture studios in that it is a design-build studio in which the students work collaboratively to not only design a project but to actually construct it. Studio 804 is a two-semester, 9 month commitment. During the first semester students work collectively to determine a client for the next project. Once a client is established, students usually have 2 months to design the project beginning with the Schematic Design phase and seeing it through to Construction Documents. The second semester usually begins in early January to start off the building process. One home is built by Studio 804 annually.
Urbana High School is the only public high school in Urbana, Illinois and was established in 1872.
Nobelity is a feature documentary which looks at the world's most pressing problems through the eyes of Nobel laureates, including Desmond Tutu, Sir Joseph Rotblat, Ahmed Zewail and Wangari Maathai.
The International Book Project (IBP) is a registered 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization, founded by Harriet Van Meter in 1966, which has sent more than 7 million books abroad. Its mission is to promote education and literacy while broadening Americans' understanding of their neighbors, which it achieves by annually sending more than 300,000 books to schools, libraries, churches, and Peace Corps volunteers throughout the developing world and in the United States. The project is based in Lexington, Kentucky, in a warehouse it has owned since 1983.
One Peace at a Time is a film by Turk and Christy Pipkin. It was produced by The Nobelity Project and was premiered at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, USA, on April 14, 2009. It is the sequel to the film Nobelity. It has been shown in various countries.
Diébédo Francis Kéré is a Burkinabé-German architect, recognized for creating innovative works that are often sustainable and collaborative in nature. In 2022, he became the first African to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Educated at the Technical University of Berlin, he has lived in Berlin since 1985. Parallel to his studies, he established the Kéré Foundation, and in 2005 he founded Kéré Architecture. His architectural practice has been recognized internationally with awards including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2004) for his first building, the Gando Primary School in Burkina Faso, and the Global Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction.
The Baitul Hameed Mosque is the largest Ahmadiyya Muslim mosque in the Western United States with an area of 19,000 square feet (1,800 m2) sitting on nearly 5 acres (20,000 m2). Initially built in 1989 at a cost of $2.5 million, entirely from donations of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, it is located east of Los Angeles in Chino, California, just inside San Bernardino County. The San Gabriel Mountains provide a beautiful backdrop to this Spanish-inspired mosque with modern amenities. In 2003, an electrical fire caused heavy damage to the front building which was used for library and office space, as well as a kitchen. The affected areas were demolished, and rebuilt with a second story. In addition, a separate auxiliary hall was built adjacent to the existing Tahir Hall, for the exclusive use of Lajna Imaillah. The reconstructed mosque opened again for full use in August, 2009. A separate commercial kitchen and missionary residence/guest house are also on site. Plans are now underway for the construction of an NCAA sized basketball court with space allocated in the back lot.
Turk Pipkin is an author, actor, comedian and director. He is the co-founder of The Nobelity Project, a non-profit organization which seeks to find solutions to global problems, and which advocates for basic rights for children. He was a lifelong friend of Harry Anderson up until Anderson's death in 2018.
Building Hope is a film by Turk and Christy Pipkin. It was produced by The Nobelity Project and premiered on March 12 at the 2011 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. It is the sequel to the film One Peace at a Time.
Dan Phillips was an American designer and builder from Texas. He was the founder and face of Phoenix Commotion, a construction company established in 1997. Phoenix Commotion focuses on designing Eco-friendly homes for low-income individuals and families such as struggling artists and single mothers. The company’s goals include reducing landfill burdens through the use of excess and recyclable materials; providing low-income housing through selection of cheap materials and labor; and allowing opportunities for the unemployed by training unskilled workers.
The Mathare Football for Hope Centre is located on Kangundo Road, in Komarock, Nairobi, Kenya. Its host organisation is Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA).
Khayelitsha Football for Hope Centre is the first Football for Hope project and was launched on 28 July 2008. The centre opened on 5 December 2009 in the Harare neighbourhood. It cost approximately US$256,000 and spans about 220 square meters. Khayelitsha is a township in the Western Cape of South Africa in Cape Town.
