Caroline Gao participated in NSLI-Y’s summer program in South Korea in 2021, as the world was slowly emerging from isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic . Her cohort was one of the first to return to in-person exchanges, though it required an extensive period of quarantining alone in a hotel room before stepping foot outside into Korean society. She spoke about how the program has impacted her life, helped shape her values, and develop important interpersonal skills. She shared how the program has opened doors to new relationships and opportunities that would have been otherwise unattainable, such as connecting with other young people outside her small Oregon town who shared her passion for diplomacy and international relations, having deep and enriching discussions with them, forming lasting friendships, and learning more about Korean culture.
Caroline credits her host family for being the most impactful part of her experience abroad. She said they helped her realize the importance of prioritizing relationships, mutual understanding, and care for each other. She said, “One of the most significant things I learned in Korea was the importance of making space for every type of communication style to have a chance, inviting people who haven’t been heard from as much to step forward, and really making space for everyone to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts.” This was highlighted by the cultural differences she noticed between Korean and American communication styles and having a collective versus-individualist point of view. Also lifeÂchanging for her was learning the significance of laying a foundation of friendship, mutual understanding, and care for each other – even in the professional or academic setting – to facilitate productive relationships.
Caroline said the program has helped her improve her Korean language skills, taking her from a novice level when she first arrived in Korea, to being proficient enough now to have in-depth conversations. She spoke about how those skills and experiences will serve her well in the future, both academically and interpersonally, and credits the program for helping her realize and define her core values and making life more meaningful to her. She said she was so thankful that NSLI-Y’s fully funded program made it possible for those like her to have such a rich and defining experience in another country.
Next fall, Caroline will attend Harvard University, majoring in government and minoring in East Asian studies, economics, or creative literature, focusing on diplomacy and international relations within the political science field. Having autonomy over her academic journey has become very important to her, while still exploring resources to learn about anything she wants to, and being challenged by perspectives that are different from her own in class and by her peers. One of the reasons she chose to attend Harvard is because she believes that they cultivate that kind of learning environment, just like NSLI-Y did for her last year.
Finally, Caroline also stressed the importance of challenging yourself to get out of your comfort zone to experience a different environment, immersed with new people, languages, and cultures, because it’s in those situations that you learn what makes life meaningful, regardless of where you happen to be.
Caroline’s experience with NSLI-Y is a testament to the transformative power of international programs and the importance of being open to new experiences, people, and cultures. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, learning 21st century skills such as cross-cultural communication, adaptability, and empathy is more important than ever. International programs like NSLI-Y provide young people with the opportunity to gain these skills and become better global citizens, contributing to a more peaceful and connected world.
”Just being able to talk to my host parents about how they felt about being parents, how they felt about their kids, and what kind of a future they wanted them to have, it opened my eyes to the feelings that my parents might have that I honestly hadn’t ever thought about before. I put so much effort into getting to know my host family in order to bond with them I realized that in my normal life, I oftentimes think that the best way to give back to my parents is to work really hard in school to the point where I’m not putting in that same time and effort towards my relationships with my family and the people around me. That was a really big revelation to me. ” – Caroline Gao
Each year during the week before Thanksgiving, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education jointly host International Education Week (IEW), a national effort to promote programs that prepare youth with 21st century skills in today’s globalized world and to attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange life experiences with Americans.
In honor of International Education Week this year (November 16-20), the YES program hosted a Digital Storytelling Webinar on November 9 at 9am ET, facilitated by award-winning film experts Wendy Jacques and Austin Haeberle. During this 90-minute webinar, participants learned about creating impact videos and telling their own impact story about cultural exchange to an international audience. Watch the recording of the Digital Storytelling Webinar here!
Following the webinar, YES alumni had the chance to share their impact videos with the world by participating in the Video Your World Challenge! Using the skills they learned from the Digital Storytelling Webinar, YES alumni created and submitted their own impact videos about cultural exchange, to be shared out on the YES program website and social media platforms during International Education Week.
Take a look at Jarin Tasnim Raisa‘s submission (iEARN Student & YES Alumna)!
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But wait, there’s more! On November 24th at 10 a.m. ET, the YES Program will be hosting an IEW Film Festival, where YES alumni producers from Bangladesh, Mali, India, Indonesia, Ghana and Nigeria will attend to share their filmmaking process.
Register for Film Festival
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_syLvpQh-SvCjnKIQQPcD-g
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The following reflection was written by Flynn and Alayna, sixth-grade students in iEARN-USA Educator Greg Reiva’s Earth Science class at St. Thomas the Apostle School in Illinois, U.S. In it, they reflect on their class’s participation in the iEARN Earth Stewardship and Water is Life projects, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on them and their communities.
Hello! Our names are Flynn and Alayna. We are in Mr. Reiva’s sixth grade Earth Science class at St. Thomas the Apostle School in Illinois, in the U.S. We are participating in the iEARN Earth Stewardship Project this year. The Earth Stewardship Project is an interactive project for students around the world to communicate with each other and connect through the importance of our planet. The goal of the project is to spread awareness and to encourage other students and their teachers to respect the Earth and help the environment.
As members of the Earth Stewardship Project, we are doing our part to make the planet a healthier and safer place to live. We are doing this in multiple ways. Some of these are through research, experimentation, and observation. For example, to research, we have gone on websites that monitor the stability of climate and other important factors that make the Earth a better place to live. Some experiments we have done include testing the force of erosion, soil compositions, and particulates found in wind. The main experiment we have done for the Earth Stewardship Project has been to observe the growth of basil plants in our science lab. All these factors mentioned above have expanded our knowledge of the Earth’s ecosystem and the environment.
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Our main goal is to study and help prevent the damage humans have done to Earth’s soil. This may not seem like an important topic, but the effects are greater than they appear to most people. For example, most agricultural farmers use a method of growing plants called till farming. During the winter, till farmers mow down and plow through the extra plant stalks that cover their fields. Once they have done this, the wind carries the loose soil from the top layer of the ground and deposits it elsewhere, leaving behind the hard, rocky soil that is not good for growing plants. When the land becomes unable to raise crops, more woodland becomes deforested to make room for more farmland. This reduces the number of wild ecosystems left on Earth. Although this is a shocking realization, there are many paths we could take to find solutions to this problem.
One solution is no-till farming. It may seem self-explanatory, but no-till farming is when agricultural farmers leave the extra stalks in the ground so that the roots of the dead plants keep the top layer of soil in place. This method not only benefits us, but also many different species of wildlife all over the world. For a more decorative solution, farmers can grow cover crops during the winter, such as clovers, so that the plant roots hold the soil in place.
There are also other problems occurring around the world that are affecting the environment, yet there are many possible solutions for them. We, along with many of our classmates, created a group to discuss and solve these issues. Team Green was created by and is for students. As members of Team Green, we attempt to solve problems that are affecting the ecosystems around our community. Although it is currently for students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade, we hope to expand not only to other ages, but also to other communities around the world. We highly encourage you to create a Team Green at your schools as well. Team Green is not defined by any specific criteria, but rather, by its common goal. We hope that we can all be connected through our objective: to help make the environment around the world a better place for all of us.
Since October, our sixth-grade class and we in the Earth Stewardship Project have been in communication with teachers and students in Australia through the iEARN Water is Life project. We had the opportunity to share our experiences, view the results of community actions taken by students around the world, and share our experimental discoveries on the production of organic fertilizers. We also read postings on the iEARN discussion forums in iEARN’s Collaboration Centre about Australia’s struggle with fires this year, and we offered our support and prayers. With the coronavirus currently gripping the world, it is now more important than ever to rally support for each other to foster fortitude and solutions to global problems.
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Flynn’s and Alayna’s teacher, Greg Reiva, recently gave their class an assignment to share and engage with their global peers in the iEARN Youth Forum about how COVID-19 is impacting their families and communities. Alayna and Flynn shared their reflections below:
Sometimes in learning there are obstacles that we’ve all faced. Right now, we are confronting a new obstacle, the coronavirus (COVID-19). This situation is most likely hard for all of you, just as it is for us. We would like to share our personal experiences of the pandemic with you.
Hello! I’m Alayna. I am part of a family of five, and my mom is a doctor (physician). She has two patients with COVID-19. As a result of this, she always wears a medical mask and works late because she must test all her patients for the illness as a safety precaution. I am grateful for all the doctors, first responders, grocery and postal workers, and all those who are trying their best to work their way through this pandemic.
I’m Flynn. I’m from a family of seven and I have four siblings. When my mom goes to the grocery store, many of the items my family needs are rationed. This means that the number of things that my family can purchase is limited. As a result, we can only supply ourselves for a shortened amount of time, so in order to supply what we need, my family members go to the store more often, raising the chances that someone will get infected with COVID-19. Fortunately, because all of this, we get extra time to recognize what is occurring around us and connect virtually with others who are experiencing this around the world.
To join the conversation about the impact of COVID-19 on your community, sign into your iEARN account, and visit the iEARN Teachers Forum or iEARN Youth Forum.
Imagine having the opportunity to travel to Morocco as a high school senior, along with your fellow students and teachers, to meet your Moroccan peers with whom you had talked with on video conference every two weeks for the past year and shared with each other about such topics as important holidays, local landmarks, and food in your countries and cultures. In the spring of 2019, 24 high school seniors accompanied by four of their teachers from Ithaca High School in Ithaca, NY, a small city in upstate New York, took such a trip as a culminating event following their virtual exchange experience participating in iEARN’s “My Identity, Your Identity†project, which you can visit in the iEARN Collaboration Centre here.
During the Ithaca High School students’ physical exchange experience in Morocco, they stayed with local host families and visited local landmarks in Rabat, the capital, with their Moroccan peers, shared meals and engaged in meaningful conversations with each other about a whole range of topics. Below, students Elena Cheung and Pamela Verret share in their own words what the experience was like, iEARN educator Steve Weissburg shares about the impact of iEARN projects on his students, and a video captures the blended virtual and physical exchange that students in the U.S. and Morocco took part in through iEARN.
Pamela Verret, Ithaca High School Student
“My name is Pamela Verret and I became aware of iEARN in my junior year under Steve Weissburg, a lead teacher in the exchange. I was active in “My Identity, Your Identity,” the online exchange between the students of my high school’s Morocco Club and the students of schools in Beni Mellal and Meknes.
This online exchange functioned as a pre-meeting, so when the actual encounter came we were well prepared. We knew names, interests, and had already “broken the ice,” which made touring, dining, and the final goodbyes much more impactful.
For me, meeting people goes hand in hand with learning; this trip was no different. I learned more about Islam as a way of life; about education and politics in a Muslim country; and about food, language, and everyday life. I am so incredibly grateful to the students and my host family for their patience; no matter how many times I mispronounced a word or asked an arbitrary question, they smiled and helped me along.
This was my first time ever traveling internationally and thanks to the hospitality of the students and host families, I feel encouraged and even excited to travel and learn more about the world outside of my normal day to day routine.â€
Elena Cheung, Ithaca High School Student
“My name is Elena Cheung, and I was first involved with iEARN projects in freshman year when my Algebra 1 teacher, Todd Noyes, created Morocco Club. He asked us to communicate with Moroccan students over iEARN during class. Fast forward to senior year, I participated in the “My Identity Your Identity†project.
I envisioned Morocco to be a conservative country, so I was surprised to meet Faiza. She was incredibly passionate about social justice issues. Talking to Faiza made me stop and think about my privilege. I have the freedom to say what I want, love who I want, and have control over my own body where I live.
During our exchange, I lived with a host family and experienced the daily life of a Moroccan teenager. I knew walking down the streets, I was clearly different from my Moroccan friends, but I felt deeply connected and similar to them. Geographically, we are distant, but we will forever cherish the memories we created. I urge all students interested in learning more about a culture to participate in both an online and in-person exchange; there is so much in this world that we have yet to discover, and understanding other people is crucial in having empathy towards others.â€
Steve Weissburg, Ithaca High School Teacher and iEARN Educator
The greatest impact has been to enable my students, many of whom have very limited cultural experience, to interact with students from all over the world. I always find it interesting that many of my struggling students develop a greater motivation when they have an opportunity to interact with students from other countries. I am often surprised by what I learn from my students through these opportunities.â€
Video of iEARN 2018-2019 Blended Exchange between Ithaca High School, U.S.; Victor Hugh School & Language Academy Center, Beni Mellal, Morocco; Le Portail du Savoir School, Meknes, Morocco and International School, Qatar.
iEARN-USA works with various partners and programs to build a network of opportunities for young people to work together. One of those programs is the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program (YES). The YES program, funded by the U.S. Department of State, provides scholarships for secondary school students from countries with significant Muslim populations to spend one academic year in the United States. Students live with host families, attend high schools, engage in activities to learn about American society and values, acquire leadership skills, and help educate Americans about their countries and cultures.
From October 2 to October 7, 2018 iEARN-USA and iEARN-BD YES teams hosted a YES Program Digital Storytelling Workshop (DSW) for 18 YES alumni from 11 different countries. In today’s multimedia environment, activism and community service require a range of communication and media skills, which is why iEARN found it imperative to provide such a workshop for YES alumni.
At the beginning of the workshop YES alumni were asked: What was something that changed your perspective on your YES year? DSW participants didn’t simply answer the question, but responded by creating a digital story that dove into their personal narratives. In four days, YES alumni pitched stories, wrote scripts, interviewed, filmed, and produced short digital stories about four of the DSW participants and how something on their YES year shifted their perspectives.
The alumni didn’t do this alone, three professional videographers taught YES alumni a range of contemporary multimedia and videography skills and mentored them throughout the production process. YES alumni attended sessions on conducting interviews, capturing a story, telling visual stories, the art of photography, developing photo essays, creating a story arc, writing a script, the elements of production, and the post production process, which included advanced editing techniques. With this new knowledge, DSW participants produced four beautiful short films, which you can watch at the bottom of this story or on the YES YouTube page.
Throughout the workshop, YES alumni were challenged to practice their videography and photography skills through photo essay challenges, photo walks, and capturing portrait and documentary images. You can see some of their images in a Flickr album and on their Digital Storytelling blog.
With their new skills, YES alumni will be able to further engage their commitment to service projects and bettering their communities with multimedia and digital initiatives. The YES alumni who attended DSW now have the skillset to present their work beyond documentation, and share their work and impact with peers, community leaders, and decision makers to build awareness and continue to better our societies. Be on the lookout for some incredible new digital stories to surface from YES alumni!
The highly successful Chris Stevens Morocco-USA Youth Media Exchange Program, which culminated in December, is now featured in a new film available for viewing. The film offers behind the scenes access to the exciting digital media storytelling process of 32 high school students from Morocco, the Bronx, New York, and Chicago, Illinois.
For these students, the adventure started through a series of online, collaborative activities and media projects related to the One Day in the Life iEARN project. Following a series of online activities and videoconferences, several participants from Morocco traveled to the U.S. in September, 2015 to meet their new friends in the U.S. and gain new skills in media, technology, and intercultural collaboration.
This video features the student’s experience in their Digital Storytelling Workshop, facilitated by Digital Canopy, Inc. In the workshop, students learned how to use multimedia tools to tell their stories and present their work to their peers and community. Youth from Morocco and the U.S. worked together in groups to produce short films featuring one of their group members. Click here to check out the videos from the groups.
A special thanks to the U.S. Embassy in Morocco, the Moroccan Education and Resource Network (MEARN), DreamYard, Digital Youth Network, and The Digital Canopy for the great collaboration that led to this incredible exchange experience for the Moroccan and American youth.
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