FROM TRIP TO PROGRAM

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 wonderful epiphanies about themselves and the world around them. But the bonds and learning from a trip can fade quickly unless students have a way to keep in touch with their peers overseas.

That is why we encourage schools that have completed a trip to make the next step and commit to a long-term program with their overseas community. A program:

• extends and strengthens the bonds and learning experience of a trip.
• allows the entire school community, both in the U.S. and overseas, to participate in the experience.
• enables students to take an intelligent, holistic approach to an issue.
• embodies the principle that true change can only come about through persistence and commitment.

World Leadership School programs include the following elements:

• Five-year development plan that takes an integrated approach to a global issue. These plans are created by teachers and community leaders and driven forward by volunteers. If the issue is climate change, the plan may encompass an entire watershed. If the issue is public health, it may include not only the construction of a clinic but fundraising for medicine and community education.
  
• Skype Video distance learning program that continues through the school year. This allows classes in the U.S. and overseas to share their experiences on a monthly basis and learn together. In communities where broadband is not available, other channels of distance learning can be substituted for Skype Video sessions.
  
• Exchange program where students flow in both directions. So often, only students from the U.S. have the financial resources to travel overseas. But there are creative ways to finance an exchange program that also allows foreign students to experience a school community in the U.S. as well These visits can have a tremendous impact on a U.S. school community.