As an experiential educator and someone who has always learned best when my whole self is engaged in doing something, I was recently reminded that powerful educational moments come in many forms.
Representing ISEEN at GEBG
Last week, I attended the fifth annual Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG) annual conference hosted by Chadwick School in Los Angeles. It was wonderful to be among longtime friends and make new ones, share stories and program ideas, gather in the sunshine and hear about new GEBG initiatives. Four parts of the conference stand out as particularly inspirational and transformative.
Wade Davis during his keynote
The first two were the keynote speakers, and they reminded me that a powerful lecture can be a life-changing event. Wade Davis, an anthropologist, National Geographic writer and photographer and author of books such as The Serpent and the Rainbow, spoke nonstop for an hour in what I can only describe as pure poetry accompanied by stunning visuals from around the globe to highlight the impact of vanishing languages and cultures on all of our lives. And Sonia Nazario, award-winning journalist and author of Enrique’s Journey, regaled us with the harrowing tales of young people making the perilous journey from Central America to the United States in search of their mothers who left to seek a better life for their families. The fact that she made the journey three times herself in order to understand and document it makes it all the more astounding, and her description of her own transformation from a journalist reporting the stories to actually advocating for change, plus the timeliness of the topic had us all riveted. Both speakers captivated my intellect and my emotions simultaneously and left me inspired to see more, learn more, and do more.
With my Lakeside colleagues
The third Inspiring moment came when I attended a workshop facilitated by two educators from Lakeside School, where I worked before starting Global Weeks. The presentation they gave on the initiatives the school has undertaken since I left broughy me grest happiness. The foundation we built in the Global Service Learning program is still rock solid, and from that foundation, they have forged ahead and created wonderful new projects that are more integrated into the life of the school. It is so exciting to have a Middle School program where global education is expressed locally, as well as yearlong elective courses in the Upper School with an embedded travel component. It was such a joy to see the core elements of the program I designed preserved and learn how they have improved upon them to offer programs that are even more transformative for students and teachers.
The post-conference crew
Finally, GEBG pioneered an optional post-conference activity that I found especially meaningful and enjoyable. Twelve of us set off to explore using Los Angeles as our classroom to learn about issues of immigration, race, and social justice, based on courses that two of our colleagues teach. We spent time in the Japanese American National Museum engrossed in stories of immigration, internment, and influence in Little Tokyo. The stories of Japanese internment were all the more moving since our colleague’s family members had been interned. We had a tour of Koreatown, stopping into restaurants and a grocery store, learning about architecture, history, food culture and growth from “migration to immigration to gentrification” in the area. We spent five hours in a small group, getting to know each other better with the city as our classroom. It was a wonderful way to end the conference, and reminded me once again how global education is everywhere, and we do not need to travel far to be steeped in its mysteries, learning opportunities, and richly rewarding experiences.