We are pleased to share iEARN-USA's Impact Update for Spring 2020, which shares highlights from our recent activities, programming and partnerships. Read on or view the printable PDF version of the Impact Update.

iEARN Global Projects and Program Highlights

iEARN Featured in World Economic Forum’s Report on Innovative Education Models

iEARN was featured as one of the top 16 innovative models of education in the World Economic Forum’s January 2020 “Schools of the Future: Defining New Models of Education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution” Report. The report is part of the Forum’s Education 4.0 Initiative. It is a great honor for iEARN to be featured as a school model that can form transformational change in education. Learn more here.

International Dinner Party Project Showcase 

Participants of the International Dinner Party project created paintings showcasing a typical dinner place-setting from their cultures, in addition to researching and writing about these special dishes. Participating countries included Brazil, Georgia, Germany, India, Moldova, Nigeria, South Africa, Taiwan, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States. On February 15, a display showcasing many of these beautiful pieces of artwork and their accompanying descriptions was featured at the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York City.

iEARN-USA Welcomes New Team Members

iEARN-USA is delighted to announce the addition of five new members to our organization. These newly created positions will help iEARN-USA advance our goals and strategic priorities in order to provide impactful global education programs to K-12 youth, to support and train educators and youth workers, and to improve the quality of life on the planet. Learn more about our new team members here.

Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program

YES Team News 

This spring the YES team at iEARN-USA led a series of social media campaigns on Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), the largest youth service event in the world that celebrates and builds the capacity of all youth. The team created the GYSD campaign, just after the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak as a global pandemic, to guide YES Alumni to develop virtual projects and become community leaders during COVID19. The campaign reached more than 1,400 individuals from over 30 countries.

YES Students Impacting Home Communities

173 students from eight countries (Bangladesh, Cameroon, Israel (Arab Communities), Mali, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Suriname, and Liberia) participated through iEARN YES programs in the U.S. during the 2019-2020 school year. Upon returning home, YES alumni expand on and practice what they learned as exchange students. Many YES alumni engage in volunteerism, community service, and citizen responsibility in their home countries. YES alumni in Bangladesh have been developing a series of media literacy workshops in middle schools in Dhaka to teach young teenagers strategies to identify false information in media. YES alumni lead interactive sessions that guide students to think critically about media messages, and their own roles as media consumers. YES alumni hope their workshops will teach the next generation to think critically, recognize different points of views, be a wise consumer of information, and create their own media responsibly.

National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) Program

NSLI-Y Team News 

The NSLI-Y team at iEARN-USA supported 24 students who were on-program in Taiwan and Korea for the 2019-2020 academic year NSLI-Y program. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the programs ended early and the students were repatriated. iEARN-USA coordinated the students’ return flights and ensured all the students were reunited with their families in the United States. In addition, the NSLI-Y team began preparing for 2020- 2021 summer and academic year programs.

NSLI-Y Korea Students Present in “Han-mi Intensive Cultural Project” Exhibition 

On February 15, NSLI-Y students commemorated the completion of their “Han-mi Intensive Cultural Project” with a project exhibition and celebration. This project paired NSLI-Y students with Korean college students to research topics of interest to them about Korean culture and society. Students worked in intercultural peer teams to design and implement a research plan, which included site visits and interviews with Korean experts. Students then prepared a presentation to share their findings. Some of the topics included an exploration of a new religious movement, the Sewol-Ferry tragedy, LGBTQ rights, the role of the U.S. military presence in Korea, and the subculture of blind marathon runners. 

Support iEARN-USA

Make a difference for youth by supporting collaborative projects and programs designed to provide learning opportunities for K-12 students around the world to connect with their international peers, develop global competencies, and become successful global citizens. Make a gift today here.