Students on a World Leadership School trip work and learn side-by-side with community members and students their own age. They form deep bonds and often experience transformative epiphanies about themselves and the world around them. But not every student has the means to travel, and the broader school community is only marginally enriched by the experiences of a few individuals.

That is why we encourage schools that have completed a trip to make the next step and commit to an educational partnership with their overseas community during the school year. Global partnerships are rich, interactive educational relationships that can impact a wider range of students and can help transform the culture of an entire school. Global Partnerships:

• Extend trip relationships and develops deeper bonds between communities
• Allow the entire school community, both in the U.S. and overseas, to participate in transformative global learning
• Support school-wide global initiatives, shifting the entire school culture
• Enable students to develop collaborative solutions to the world's most pressing problems
• Develop students' leadership skills and cross-cultural competencies
• Embody the principle that true change can only come about through persistence, innovation and collaboration

World Leadership School programs include the following elements:

• Professional development for either a select group of interested faculty or your entire staff. We provide half- or full-day workshops on the foundations of global education, including pedagogy and practical methodologies for mainstreaming global education across the school community.
  
  
• Project design support to ensure quality exchanges, based on the teachers’ existing curriculum and educational goals. We help plan activities which will engender the richest, most meaningful experiences, and we support teachers and students through the challenges of cross-cultural communication.
  
  
• Training in and development of a variety of asynchronous Web 2.0 platforms, including setup and troubleshooting. Interactive technologies include wikis, blogs, voicethread projects, digital movie making, and private, age-appropriate social networks. These “Personal Learning Networks” leverage the interactive qualities of forums like Facebook, but add the privacy and safety which schools require.
  
  
• Training in, and development of, synchronous online video conferences through Skype Video and similar platforms. This allows classes in the U.S. and overseas to share their experiences in a live format that fosters direct cross-cultural dialogue. Alternative synchronous platforms will be used where broadband access is limited.

Examples of Global Partnerships

• An elementary school teacher studying food connects her students with a class in Costa Rica. Students chart and film what they eat, where it comes from, how it’s packaged (if it is), and how it’s prepared, as well as learning to analyze the nutritional value, calories, etc. Films and charts are shared and discussed online, and students connect at the end in a live celebration of each other’s food customs.
  
  
• An elementary school teacher studying poverty connects her students with a class in Zimbabwe. Students in the U.S. visit local shelters and Salvation Army offices, filming their experiences and collecting clothing for the poor. Students in Zimbabwe film poverty in their local community, and films are shared and discussed online. Project culminates in a joint service project that students design together.
  
  
• A middle school social studies teacher connects his class with students in Japan. Students look at the differences in how World War II is presented in their textbooks and popular media, in order to understand the nature of bias. The unit ends with students collaboratively producing a “real guide” to understanding World War II, bringing together a variety of “truths” in order to create a more pluralistic interpretation of this period in history.
  
  
• A middle school teacher connects her class with students in Kenya. Students on both sides produce “a day in my life” podcasts, and collect popular culture artifacts for each other (music, magazines, etc.). Films and artifacts are exchanged, and students interact informally online, sharing about their lives and experiences.
  
  
• A high school theatre teacher connects his students with a class in India. Students on both sides direct and produce the same scene from a Shakespeare play, in their own language and cultural setting, and film their performances for each other. Students engage in online and live discussion about the cultural differences, how the author’s intent was changed or aided by language and cultural nuances, etc.
  
  
• A high school teacher studying the impact of globalization connects his students with a class from Afghanistan. Students in both countries research and film the local impact of globalization in their communities, particularly environmental impacts, and share their findings with each other. Project ends in a live Model UN style debate on nuclear proliferation and the challenges of globalization.
  
  
• A high school art teacher connects her class with students in the West Bank. Students study protest art together, looking at the graffiti on the Separation Wall, as well as historical protest movements such as the Berlin Wall. Graffiti artists from New York City and the West Bank are brought in as speakers for both groups (through video conferencing). The unit ends with students creating an installation piece on campus.