Experiment shares passion for skateboarding with Chilean host family

Nick Grasso, 2009 Experimenter to Southern Chile, creates a story about making connections across language and culture through skateboarding.

Spread the word about The Experiment, financial aid deadline April 1

Are you a high school student interested in going abroad? Do you know a high school student interested in going abroad?

Help spread the word about The Experiment in International Living before the April 1st financial aid deadline. Financial aid and scholarship opportunities are available for high school students who are interested in going abroad but  lack the resources to do so. More than $1 million in scholarship funding from alumni donors – combined with support from local schools, youth mentoring programs, and civic groups – enable 400 talented and deserving students to become Experimenters annually.

Let us know how you can help spread the word and we’ll provide you with the program information necessary to share with family and friends.

The Experiment in International Living programs are in 30 countries world-wide and challenge you to develop a close connection with the people and culture of another country. Read about the impact of our programs from an Experimenter and her mother.

“I learned about the human bond – one that connects us across race, skin color, religion, and continents. I realized I could cope with squat toilets, being lost in translation, being lost period, and to be comfortable being uncomfortable…I may not have gone where I intended to go, but i ended up where I was supposed to be.”
-Paloma Martinez,
The Experiment in International Living
Biscayne Park, Florida

 “When that girl came home, and walked of that plane, the transformation in her was palpable. Two months later still, we are grateful for all the ways she stayed the same, and continually awed by all the ways she is different. Paloma left for Thailand a wide-eyed kid who was interested in the world, and came back a young woman with arms big enough to let that world in.”
- Elizabeth Martinez,
Parent of Experimenter Paloma Martinez

SIT Study Abroad alum uses engineering skills to fight malnutrition and poverty in Panama

SIT Study Abroad Panama alum Emily Legault with students in Sieykin, Panama

Written by Emily Legault, SIT Study Abroad Panama alum and current member of the Austin, TX chapter of Engineers Without Borders.

When I came to Panama with SIT in the fall of 2007, I had no idea that this initial exposure to poverty would lead to seeing the power that engineering and friendship can have on an impoverished community.

During my semester with SIT, I experienced poverty and its power to destroy lives. In one homestay, we lived with the Ngobe people, an indigenous group in Panama. My host family’s water came from a nearby stream, collected with old, moldy plastic jugs. Their food consisted of mostly boiled bananas and rice. They slept on wooden planks. Children were very malnourished and often sick due to poor water quality. I returned to the US knowing that I could not ignore the injustice and hardship that I had only begun to understand.

Determined to try to change what I saw, my SIT academic advisor and a Panamanian NGO helped

Emily and EWB members explain the new filtration system

 me to make contact with the small indigenous Naso community of Sieykin that had serious water quality, sanitation, and health issues. The community’s drinking water is contaminated with disease-causing pathogens, which cause the majority of the community to suffer from diarrhea and other gastrointestinal health issues.

Since I had been involved in Engineers Without Borders (EWB) for several years prior to my SIT semester in Panama, I worked with my Austin EWB chapter to initiate contact with the community in Sieykin. We quickly discovered that the community was eager to partner with us on a potable water and education project. When I first heard of EWB as a freshman, I was excited to learn that I could use engineering to positively impact people’s lives. I worked on water projects in desert communities of Northern Mexico, where water availability and transport presented significant problems for local farmers. I was eager to use engineering to help improve conditions that I had seen in Panama.

Students at the local school show off their freshly washed hands

After a year of data-gathering and paperwork, a group of eight EWB members traveled to Sieykin in January 2009. We spent seven days in the community meeting with leaders, analyzing water quality, surveying data, and visiting as many community homes as possible.

During the following months, we performed extensive research on appropriate water systems, developed health education strategies to fight sicknesses caused by poor hygiene, and communicated with the community to discuss future project plans.

After much hard work, the first phase of the clean water system will come to fruition in the summer of 2010. Together, the community and the Austin EWB chapter will construct the central portion of the water system for the school, health center, and 25 community homes. Over the next several years, all 500 Sieykin community members will have potable drinking water and safe sanitation conditions. Our aim is to prevent diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pains from affecting the Naso children’s school attendance, or keeping the adults from supporting their families and living their lives to the fullest.

I have been delighted and honored to be able to use engineering to prevent diseases and sickness,

Emily and fellow EWB members teach health education in the local school

restore livelihoods, and provide access to education and a better future. Through teamwork with the Naso community and other partners, we are able to apply our engineering knowledge and turn an idea into a reality.

We hope to leave something lasting and invaluable for the community not just with the potable water project, but by empowering community members to enact positive change in their own homes.

Click here to see more photographs from Emily’s trip to Panama.

Click here to learn more about the Austin, TX chapter of Engineers Without Borders.

SIT Study Abroad Announces New Pell Match Scholarship Program

SIT Study Abroad announces Pell Grant Match Scholarship

Great news for any US college student who wants to see the world, attain an enriched cultural education and explore critical global issues. SIT Study Abroad will begin matching funds for qualified Pell Grant recipients that enroll in a SIT semester abroad program. This is a great opportunity for anyone who is interested in fully immersing themselves in another culture,  but lack the resources to do so.

The announcement follows the Obama administration’s release of its 2011 proposed budget, which calls for increasing the maximum annual Pell Grant from $5,350 to $5,710 to offer educational opportunities for more low- and moderate-income students.  SIT is the only major study abroad program provider to offer these scholarships.

For more information about the scholarships, read the full press release or visit the SIT Study Abroad website to request more information.

Experts Raise Concern about Mideast Youth Unemployment

World Learning hosts discussion on youth unemployment in Middle East

World Learning recently hosted more than 70 development professionals in Washington who gathered to examine the growing problem of youth unemployment in the Middle East. The event on January 20 featured Navtej Dhillon from Middle East Youth Initiative, Nidhi Patel from Education for Employment Foundation and Adaku Uche Ekpo from INJAZ al-Arab. World Learning staff Hiba Khalil and Chris Allio organized the event as part of their involvement with the Society for International Development Middle East Workgroup.

Expert panelists discuss contributing causes to youth unemployment

Dhillon who is the Senior Adviser of International Development Policy at the United States Department of the Treasury and co-author of the recent publication, Generation in Waiting: The Unfulfilled Promise of Young People in the Middle East, gave a broad overview of the political, economic, and social landscape in the Middle East and North Africa where 25 percent of youth between the ages of 15-29 are unemployed – the highest in the world. He highlighted many contributing causes—growing youth population, lack of economic development, lack of workers with appropriate skills, and insufficient measures from the public sector—and he broadly laid out what the growing youth bulge and unemployment could mean to the region. 

Ekpo introduced INJAZ al-Arab, an organization that features a Middle East version of the Junior Achievement Competition, which partners youth with members from business community. Business representatives mentor teams assisting them to develop business or social entrepreneurship plan which are later pitched at a national conference. The process promotes youth leadership and helps builds the entrepreneurial, economic, problem-solving and communication skills needed in the workplace.

Patel rounded off the panel by talking about her organization’s efforts to create job opportunities for unemployed youth in the Middle East by providing technical and soft skills training. The Education for Employment Foundation, or EFE, works directly with local businesses to target the specific job skills they are seeking in new employees, and then through training helps youth develop those skills. Upon completion of their program, EFE places participants in jobs thus fast tracking them into a career. EFE’s program is providing a model that is slowly being picked up by colleges and schools in the region.

Enter World Learning’s 2010 Alumni Photo Contest by June 15

Now is your chance to share the vivid memories of your time abroad. Enter World Learning’s 2010 alumni photo contest and share your story through pictures.

Go through your photos, relive the experience, and pick out the best shots to be entered in our photo contest. We are specifically looking for photos that show interaction with a local culture while on a World Learning program (The Experiment in International Living, SIT Study Abroad, or SIT Graduate practicum.)

Two grand prize winners will receive travel vouchers. Additional winners receive world music CDs and other World Learning goodies.

For inspiration, take a look at the 2009 winners. Then, go through your own photographs of your time with a World Learning program, pick out the best (up to five) and submit them by June 15. Be sure to read the contest rules and fill out an entry form.

2009 Grand Prize Winner

2008 Grand Prize Winner

2007 Grand Prize Winner

World Learning Director Receives Romania’s Top Literary Prize

Dorin Tudoran, World Learning Director Democracy Fellows

Dorin Tudoran, a prominent Romanian author, former dissident and current director of World Learning’s Democracy Fellows Program, has received Romania’s highest literary prize for poetry.

 World Learning is thrilled to have Tudoran as the head of its Democracy Fellows Program which places experienced democracy and governance professionals in positions at the United States Agency for International Development. Tudoran is the author of 15 books and more than a thousand articles. He is considered by many to be one of Romania’s best living writers.

Read the full press release for more information on Tudoran and his literary prize.

Can we (do we) foster civic engagement in program participants?

Written by Adam Weinberg, President/ CEO of World Learning

The New York Times had a fascinating article on Teach For America. The January 3 article quoted a new study by Stanford University researchers that found that Teach For America participants do not develop some of the long term civic commitments that one might expect, at least when compared to a control group.

The study is sure to generate controversy. I don’t want to comment on Teach For America, given my respect for the organization, but it got me thinking about World Learning. I want to toss out some ideas and encourage others to reply.

How do we successfully ignite long term commitment for civic involvement? When I meet our alumni, I am always struck by the long term commitment our participants make to civic engagement. From my perspective based on what our alumni say, the magic to our models seems to be:

• Quality Mentorship: our programs expose students to people who are making a difference in the world, and who believe the world can be a better place.
• Successful Experiences: Too often civic education programs set people up for failure and then wonder why they don’t want to do it again. We do the opposite. We carefully craft experiences that build confidence. 
• Training and Pathways: Too often civic education programs don’t show people the pathways to long term civic involvement. Even if people have a good experience, they don’t know what to do next. Our programs help participants in different ways, as our participants come away with awareness about the pathways and with the skills and knowledge to walk down those pathways.

Beneath it all is something really simple. What I call the “Three Ps.” We have excellent people running our programs. Our staff, faculty and partners are master craftspeople. They know how to construct moments when people come to see themselves, their society, and their place in society in fundamentally different ways. Second, our participants are already well on their way to lifelong commitments to civic involvement. People don’t just “wind up” on a World Learning program. I am often struck by the power of peer-to-peer learning on all of programs, given the nature of our participants. Third, the places we take people provide the kinds of experiences that foster long term civic commitment.

What do others think? Why do our programs seem to do such a good job at fostering long term civic engagement? Do our programs entice the right type of people? People who already have the seed for civic engagement? Do we help foster that seed to its fullest potential? There is a growing dialogue in education around these issues. What does World Learning have to contribute to the conversation? What is your experience?

New York event reconnects alumni to World Learning’s mission to create a more peaceful and just world

A December reception at New York’s Rubin Museum of Art gathered 180 World Learning alumni, friends, supports and staff. The event celebrated World Learning’s global impact and gave President and CEO, Adam Weinberg, an opportunity to share his vision for the future of World Learning. Amidst world class Asian and Himalayan art, World Learning friends reconnected with our mission to bridge cultures and transform lives through education, training and exchange.

The event also introduced keynote speaker Christina Monson, the Associate Dean for Asia and the Pacific and the area Representative for New Initiatives. Monson said that World Learning’s programs offer an important solution to some of America’s most critical challenges. 

“It is time for us to recognize that cultivating internationally engaged and experienced multilingual young people, who are informed and open-minded about the world, is in our own self-interest because they will be our world’s next leaders.”

It was a successful evening gathering alumni from across the country and as far back as a 1950 program participant. Monson vocalized what most guests in the room experienced first-hand when she said, “the places we work and the ways World Learning engages people define what we mean by global citizens.” 

US and Nicaraguan exchange students share their common experiences

Written by Dorothea Antonio, Assistant Director for Academic Programs, World Learning International Development Programs

An evening in Managua, Nicaragua provided the opportunity for students from two World Learning programs to see themselves in the other and share their common experiences. It was yet another cross-cultural exchange in which students discovered the similarities in their time abroad. Eighteen students from the SIT Study Abroad Nicaragua program joined twelve Nicaraguan students who are past, present, and future participants in World Learning’s Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (Global UGRAD) funded by the US State Department.

Speare Hodges, SIT student from Emory University, stated:

It was reassuring and entertaining to listen to their challenges with learning English, as language was an issue for the majority of our group. Through my interactions with Nicaraguan exchange students, I was better able to appreciate my position as a foreign student. Sharing our individual experiences really helped to highlight what it means to study abroad and learn about new cultures and customs. I hope that future students can have the same opportunity.

Enjoying the evening

Deyvon Ordoñez, Global UGRAD 2008 University of Missouri program alum from Nicaragua’s Bluefields Indian and Caribbean University, commented that “it was great to speak about the program which has made such a great change in my life and the way I look at the world.”  He was so impressed with the “awesome group of American students, “who chose to come to Nicaragua and learn about its culture, people, and history.” 

Tramaine De’Argo Brown, SIT student from Wofford College, spoke of his conversation with Cynthia Cordero, Global UGRAD 2009 student currently studying at Jackson State University, who had just arrived in Managua the night before for her winter break:

I had the opportunity to speak with a UGRAD student who studied at a historically black university in the South of the United States. As an African-American male from the South, I really appreciated being able to have an educated discussion about what we considered to be the positive and negative aspects about the African-American culture. Hearing the student talk about my native culture with a sense of appreciation really had a powerful impact on me. Thus, I left the evening with a greater appreciation for cultural exchange. I really do think that such opportunities help us realize our shared humanity and enhance our definition of international solidarity.

Dorothea and Aynn

The event was organized by SIT Nicaragua Academic Director Aynn Setright and WL Assistant Director for Academic Programs, Dorothea Antonio. The dinner was a successful cross institutional endeavor and plans are in place in Nicaragua for future collaboration between the UGRAD students and other SIT students. Both Aynn Setright and Dorothea Antonio hope that this event serves as a model for collaborations in other countries where there are SIT programs so that World Learning continues to be at the forefront of innovation in international student education and exchange.  The potential exists for some fantastic results.