9-10AM // Full Group Panel: “Student Travel in a Post-Pandemic World”

To help begin the summit’s primary day of professional learning, we will explore the curricular, risk-management, and ethical implications that the COVID-19 Pandemic has had on the field of overnight student travel.

>>Daniel Emmerson, Director of Global Education, Felsted School, United Kingdom

>>Aric Visser, Head of Secondary, The British School of Navarra/Nafarroa, Spain

>>Marley Matlack, Director of Alvord Center for Global & Environmental Studies, Loomis Chaffee School, USA (sabbatical); Special Assistant to the Head, Atlas American School of Malaga, Spain

10:05-10:50AM // Two Breakout Sessions

>>Room 1: “Putting Biodiversity into Travel”
>>Room 2: “Footprints: One Model and Further Questions of Carbon Offset for School Travel Programs”

10:50-11:10AM // Coffee Break

11:15AM-12PM // Two Breakout Sessions

>>Room 1: “Global Fellows Program: Training Ethical Global Researchers at the High School Level”
>>Room 2: “Building Intercultural Learning Skills at Home and Abroad”

12-2PM // Lunch

2-2:45PM // Full Group Panel: “Global Program Development Journeys”

Hear from three school leaders about their journeys in developing a curricular global program that utilizes purposeful travel and meaningful partnerships to help students develop global competencies–including GSD’s experience developing their longstanding community partnership in Cameroon.

>>GSD International Schools, Cameroon

>>Jonathan Fouser, Founding Deputy Head of School, Brewster Academy in Madrid, Spain

>>Ruxandra Mercea, Executive Director, Transylvania College, Romania

2:55-3:40PM // Two Breakout Sessions

>>Room 1: “Responding to the Pandemic: Positive New Pathways, Partnerships and Possibilities”
>>Room 2: “The World is Our Classroom–Developing Global Citizens Through an Active Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Justice Framework”

3:45-4:30PM // Two Breakout Sessions

>>Room 1: “Preparing Students, Parents and Chaperones for a Successful Cultural Exchange”
>>Room 2:

4:30-5:00PM // Coffee Break

5:00-5:45PM // Two Breakout Sessions

>>Room 1: “BB&N’s Evolving Travel Programs: Fostering Cultural Change Through Competency-Based Curriculum and Cultural Humility”
>>Room 2: “The importance of collaboration and partnership in creating ethical travel programmes for the future”

BB&N’s Evolving Travel Programs: Fostering Cultural Change Through Competency-Based Curriculum and Cultural Humility

 

This presentation will detail BB&N’s shift toward a competency-based curriculum for more meaningful travel programs. Anchored in BB&N’s Global Competency Framework and adaptable to other Global Frameworks, this approach aims to change the culture of travel program design and implementation among trip leaders (and teachers in general) by prioritizing the exploration, appreciation, and understanding of the histories, environment, and peoples in the places trip leaders plan to visit with their students. I will share the specific approaches used to change our trip leader culture, and the planning templates that helped us move towards a more meaningful learning experience for students.

Presented by Karina J Baum, Director of Global Education, Buckingham Browne & Nichols (MA, USA)

 

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Building Intercultural Learning Skills at Home and Abroad

 

How do we at independent schools craft a program in which all of our students have access to experiences that develop intercultural learning skills? The Covid-19 pandemic shone a light on the fact that international travel is sometimes not an option. And there are students who will not or can not travel due to factors outside of pandemic-related restrictions. Furthermore, we know that cross-cultural contact can happen close to home, and we know that contact doesn’t lead automatically to intercultural learning skills development regardless of location. Preparation for cross-cultural contact and linguistic and cultural immersion is therefore paramount, whether students are engaged in a program close to home or abroad. Pulling the threads of intercultural learning through semester-long, year-long, or J-Term courses and programs deepens student ownership and agency.

Presented by Joyce Noelle Lang, Language Department Chair and J-Term Coordinator, Blair Academy (NJ, USA)

 

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Footprints: One Model and Further Questions of Carbon Offset for School Travel Programs

 

Students and faculty in the Environmental Club at Eastside Preparatory School led the effort over the last three years to develop and offer a Carbon Offset Program allowing families to opt-in with a donation to offset carbon footprints during our annual all-school experiential week. Attend this session to hear how students researched this project, calculated offsets for trips ranging from local destinations to extended overseas sites, selected a partner organization in Madagascar and promoted the opportunity to families and parents for our experiential week. Our partner organization in Madagascar also hosted a student trip to learn and help with reforestation efforts. We want to explore with colleagues how to further refine and expand this kind of effort for ethical student travel.

Presented by David A Kelly-Hedrick, Experiential Education Coordinator and English Faculty, and Paul Hagen, Director of Student Well-Being, Eastside Preparatory School (WA, USA)

 

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Global Fellows Program: Training Ethical Global Researchers at the High School Level

 

Our student communities have the power to seek truth to understand and solve local and global challenges. Both inside and outside of the classroom, on their own and collaboratively, our students have passionate ideas to improve our communities and shape the future. At National Cathedral School, the “Global Fellows” program supports students in grades 9-12 to conduct independent summer research + action around the world on a diverse array of topics, including international affairs, environmental sustainability, social justice, world languages, community service, visual arts, and more. Their projects develop core global competencies including understand the world, engage with empathy, collaborate across difference, and self-reflect through independence. A key component of the program is working as a cohort and participating in a short course on Fieldwork Research and Interview Methods. This session will share the NCS program model (materials, timeline, readings, administration) and student project examples, and create a forum for discussing how we support student research for impact through global programming.

Presented by Melody Fox Ahmed, Director of Global Programs, National Cathedral School (D.C., USA)

 

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Preparing Students, Parents and Chaperones for a Successful Cultural Exchange

 

The success of a cultural exchange often depends on the preparation of the participants, including students, parents and chaperones. In this short presentation, we will share specific ways that trip leaders can manage the expectations and behaviors of the participants and stakeholders. We will also discuss how to get ahead of common issues and pitfalls before they arise on exchanges. Finally, we will share our best practices which have helped us at Ursuline Academy of Dallas to maintain successful sister-school partnerships for decades.

Presented by Cecilia Nipp, Director of Global Relationships and Cultural Exchange, and Susan Bauer, Director of Research and Educational Innovation, Ursuline Academy of Dallas (TX, USA)

 

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Responding to the Pandemic: Positive New Pathways, Partnerships and Possibilities

 

The shutdown caused by the pandemic forced global educators to envision our craft through new lenses. Having to turn on a dime, we reinvented our programs while maintaining our core goals and values in the development of global citizens and scholars. In the end, we created new connections and possibilities that reached even more students. This session is a discussion of how one school did it using the existing networks, partnerships and the school community. Following the intro and discussion there will be time for Q&A and time to brainstorm in small groups. Now we need to decide what we keep and change. Travel is back but virtual is here to stay and its potential is still untapped. The question before us now is: How do we keep and develop these separate streams as well as combine them to enhance our returning travel experiences.

Presented by Heather Waters, Global Opportunities Coordinator, Scarsdale High School (NY, USA)

 

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“The World is Our Classroom”–Developing Global Citizens Through an Active Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Justice Framework

 

“The World is Our Classroom” is Gill St. Bernard’s School’s (GSB) motto. In alignment with this philosophy, each upper school student is required to participate in the GSB Spring Unit Global & Experiential Program that centers student learning around topics such as identity, social justice, inclusion, access, and leadership. For two weeks each spring, students choose a mini-course from a catalog of diverse curriculum that are mission-aligned, connected to core academic subjects, and developed by our faculty. These opportunities empower students to build understanding together through a framework of responsible global citizenship and intercultural understanding. While some courses require travel domestically, internationally, or virtually, the overarching program goal is to energize students to harness these experiences to make real change within our school community and in the world. This workshop will explore the design and impact of cultural engagement programs on a local, national, and international scale that effectively fosters global competencies for our students while, at the same time, expands the dimensions of where learning occurs and who is telling the story. It will also explore the challenges to supporting global travel programs through an equity lens.

Presented by Tracey Goodson Barrett—Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and GSB Spring Unit Coordinator—Gill St. Bernard’s School (NJ, USA)

School global administrators,  leaders of travel programs to Spain, and teachers of Spanish should join this post-summit opportunity to travel to the Basque Country to learn about the region’s commitments to cultural and linguistic sustainability, and the complexities therein.

Spain and France are the two most popular destinations for students at GEBG schools participating in travel programs, yet these programs often focus on an oversimplified view of Spanish and French culture that misses the rich and complex diversity of these two nations. 

Educators will have the opportunity to scout this region to develop more intentional learning opportunities in the future. They will bring back to their schools and students a more nuanced understanding of Spain’s linguistic and cultural diversity and resources for using the region as a platform for teaching intercultural competence in the classroom or in the field.

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More details about the program:

 

Starting in the ancient Roman City of Pamplona/Iruña and making our way through the Basque countryside to San Sebastian/Donostia, participants will look at how culture can be deliberately constructed and preserved through day to day life, including the language we speak, the food we eat, and how that food is produced and shared. In our travels we will meet other educators and key players in this cultural preservation and challenge assumptions that we might have about our understanding of Spain and France. Participants will leave with greater opportunities for classroom curriculum connections, travel program ideas, and connections to other educators who want to give greater nuance to their teaching of language, civilization, and identity across departments and divisions.

Basque language and culture can be traced back to pre-Roman times, and over the course of thousands of years, this region in the north of Spain and south of France has retained a unique linguistic and cultural identity. Today, various dialects of Basque and various cultural traditions can be observed in the seven traditional provinces of the Basque Country, which includes the modern autonomous communities of Pais Vasco/Euskadi and Navarra/Nafarroa and three historical provinces north of the Pyrenees in France referred to by southern Basques as “Iparralde” or “the North.”  Known around the world as a place in which identity has both sustained and evolved over time, all the while grappling with complex political, economic, and social considerations at local, national, and global levels, the Basque Country provides a unique opportunity to engage with issues of cultural sustainability and intercultural competence.