Exploring Global Issues in Our Backyard
We recently saw the end to one of the most polarizing elections in modern history. It left some of us feeling lost, some feeling optimistic, some feeling scared, and some feeling heard. Once the shock of the results wore off, we were left with a divided country. As we reconcile with what the next four years could look like, we are reminded of the need to connect, listen, and learn. I am reminded of a blog I wrote in January 2015, called Listening, Learning and Collaborating, about how we establish meaningful partnerships with partner schools throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It is a good reminder of the best ways to work with and learn from people who see the world differently from us. We are continuing to learn about our neighbors (near and far), but one thing remains clear: we must listen. We must listen to each other’s needs and concerns, and we must find a way to work together, even when we feel so divided. The world is watching and we must show everyone that even a country that feels so broken can come together. The election is a reminder that schools everywhere need to explore global issues in their own backyard, not just on the other side of the ocean. Empowering students to explore and understand issues within their own country, and giving them leadership skills to have a future impact, is more important now than ever.
Erin Hawk, Executive Director
We often look to far away places when we think about traveling with students to learn about a community that is different from our own. In reality, however, there are many places within North America that can allow students to disconnect from their lives at home, decenter from what they know to be true, and re-envision who they are and their place in this world. Over the past few years, World Leadership School has been cultivating relationships with three unique communities that allow for students to get a glimpse of a life different from their own within the borders of the USA. We have a relationship with a K-8 school in the Cochiti Pueblo in New Mexico; with NGOs doing work on immigration in the border town of El Paso, Texas; and most recently, we started working with leaders on the Eastern Shore of Virginia to explore environmental issues affecting this unique part of the country.
In October 2016, World Leadership School had a chance to spend time on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with middle school faculty from The Berkeley Carroll School. We are working together on a program that will bring 50–70 middle schools students to the Eastern Shore next fall as part of their 8th grade class trip. We spent the week meeting with local leaders who are doing incredible work on the shore. It was a reminder that our own backyard provides new perspectives on the world around us.
We visited Nandua Middle School, where we were welcomed and greeted by incredibly passionate teachers who were excited to collaborate. We met with Sarah Clarke, an extraordinary teacher who spends her free afternoons doing art lessons/therapy for her fellow teachers. We also met Shane Kio, a passionate science teacher who uses 3D printing to inspire students to think about science through a different lens.
After leaving Nandua, we met with Angelica Randall, a local leader who moved to the Eastern Shore from California. She works to connect and empower the Hispanic migrant community in meaningful ways through after-school tutoring, advocacy, and food security through a food pantry. She is working to give a voice to a population that the Eastern Shore depends on so much.
As we explored the Eastern Shore, we had a chance to visit local farmers who are looking to connect traditional food from the shore to the more modern lifestyles of the region. Cherrystone Aqua-Farm was founded in 1895 and provides sustainably farmed clams and oysters up and down the eastern seaboard. Chatham Farm is home to the Chatham Vineyard and has been a working farm for four centuries; the farm provides a fascinating look into the legacy of colonialism. Copper Cricket Farm, a small-scale farm with over 140 different varieties of vegetables, provides over 100 members of the Community Support Agriculture (CSA) program with weekly deliveries of biologically managed and sustainably grown local vegetables.
Wherever your school may be, every community has an opportunity to learn from what the United States is experiencing and problem-solve within their borders as well. Allowing students to gain insights on global issues affecting their own community will better prepare them to lead on global issues affecting people all over the world. Whether students are learning to dance in India, building a classroom in Peru, or discovering sustainable industries on the Eastern Shore of VA, it all comes down to showing students how they can create positive and meaningful change and how they can become advocates for the world they want to live in.
— Erin Hawk, Executive Director, World Leadership School
