Wednesday, September 30, 2009

NAIS Challenge 20/20 reflection

Casady Challenge 20/20 was a roller coaster ride, worth the price of admission, of youth voice, choice, and process from its inception.

Our Challenge 20/20 exploration started when Andrew Griffin’07 was a freshman. His idea was to import children’s art from remote villages, sell it and use the proceeds to meet educational needs. NAIS paired Andrew with a Ugandan high school and a museum youth board in Ollantaytambo, Peru. The relationship with the school was short, but the high school’s Headmaster has visited Oklahoma City and our campus several times. Our community has supported his school’s needs for several years. Andrew’s search for a local partner culminated with World Neighbors (WN). Andrew discovered that a relative of his was the founder of WN. WorldFest, their yearly fundraiser, sold imported goods from villages with proceeds supporting projects in those villages. This made World Neighbors a perfect Challenge 20/20 project for Andrew. He became a founding member of the WN Youth Board. In the two years that Andrew led the Board, they raised $20,000. Casady students still participate in World Neighbors WorldFest activities.

Andrew found fertile ground for his vision in two younger creative students, Leann Farha’08 and Ankita Prasad’08. Leann organized a grassroots Walk the World OKC’05 benefiting the United Nations World Food Programme, School Feeding. She participated in Walk the World 2005 debriefing in Rome, Italy. Upon her return from Italy, Leann led Walk the World OKC’2006-2008 raising $25,000. Leann’s efforts led to an increased number of walkers every year and became a citywide outreach. She was also an active WN Youth Board member. Her work continued in June 2009 when a group of freshmen boys led by Graham Bennett’12 had their first Walk the World OKC 2009. Leann believes that four years with the project enabled her to overcome insecurities and transformed a shy girl, terrified of public speaking into a confident leader, an effective communicator, and organizer. She stated, “I received more than I gave fighting to eradicate childhood hunger.”

Our relationship with the museum youth board in Peru started very simply with their bilingual exposure to the book High Noon. The museum’s youth board sought collaboration with a local elementary school of Ollantaytambo, Peru. They joined Leann to raise awareness of global hunger. They hosted a Walk the World,Ollantaytambo’06. Manco Inca Elementary School became our Global Service-Learning Education partner after the walk. In June 2008, the first group of Casady Service-learning students arrived in Ollantaytambo. In June 2009, the second group followed. Fifteen Casady students and three faculty members traveled to Peru to participate in a combined service, language immersion, and homestay experience managed by World Leadership School. In collaboration with other independent schools such as Lakeside of Seattle (in its 8th year in Ollantaytambo) and Groton School of Boston, Casady students are transforming a pile of rubble into the ecological playground –“LAND OF CHILDREN”- designed and maintained by the children. The children with guidance from US teens have also developed a full recycling program for their school and are expanding the program to their homes and town. The teens from the United States have gained knowledge of the Quechua language, enhanced understanding of fair trade practices, and an appreciation of a slow pace of life that reverances nature. The Ollantaytambo “Land of Children” is being documented via donated digital cameras and blogs. In June 2009, Casady students presented their experience in Ollantaytambo at the Second International Service-Learning Conference in Teacher Education in Galway, Ireland. Casady students will return to Ollantaytambo in June, 2010 when they will promote the creation of a trilingual picture book of the Ollantaytambo, Land of Children experience. The faculty leader of the second Ollantaytambo trip, Kari Bornhoft, stated, “When asked to take a group of students to Peru, I had mixed emotions. I would have the chance to see one of the great wonders of the world (Machu Picchu), to experience another Latin culture, to spend time with a group of students in a way no other educator can in normal conditions… The two weeks I spent in Peru were exhausting. It was an incredible learning experience for both the students and faculty. We grew as a team and did equally as individuals. All of us had our highs and lows and as we were stretched found our capabilities mentally, physically, and emotionally.”
During her freshman year, Ankita Prasad’08 wore a “can costume” to motivate lower division students to donate for our canned food drive. As Ankita learned about related global issues of poverty and the problems with consistent communication with our partners, she realized that perhaps the best focus was the creation of global issues youth councils following the guidelines for Global Issues Networks described in High Noon. She promoted the idea with our partners in Uganda and Peru without success. Ankita attended the Challenge 20/20 leaders’ conference in Boston and became a member of the Students against Hunger Youth Board at the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and of the World Neighbors Youth Board. She was also a “priceless” summer intern at World Neighbors and she became the preferred youth advisor when organizations explored youth board possibilities for their institutions. As the leader of Challenge 20/20, the canned food drive became the Casady Cans Do Project. Casady Cans Do quadrupled our whole school contribution to the Food Bank during Ankita’s tenure. She added learning components such as categorization games and canned sculpture competitions. She promoted “Food Bank Lunches” to raise awareness of what meals the Food Bank provides from donations and inspired ceramics classes to make bowls for auction during the Food Bank lunch as a reminder of the kids whose bowls would be empty in the evening. Proceeds of the Empty Bowls Silent Auction went to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma Food-4-Kids Program. She was also part of Walk the World, but her goal was to seek funding and awareness of the hunger problem in Oklahoma City. Ankita presented Casady's NAIS Challenge 20/20 at the First International Service-Learning Conference in Teacher Education in Brussels and developed an informal partnership with one of the conference participants, a history teacher, from the American School in Brussels. She also presented the NAIS Challenge 20/20 opportunity at the Department of Environmental Quality-Earth Day 2008 Celebration at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Ankita stated, “Service Learning is a great way for Casady students to give back to their community. I believe that participating in service learning not only benefits our community but also broadens student’s outlook on life. Service Learning has given me so many opportunities to change my school, my community and finally my world. Projects like Challenge 20/20 help Casady students become connected to schools across the world and discuss local problems in a global setting. The Casady Cans Do project has raised awareness and collected funds to help eradicate hunger in Oklahoma. No matter what your passion is, you can find a service learning project that is right for you.”

During Ankita’s senior year, members of the Class of 2011 shifted the focus of the Challenge 20/20 project to awareness of the human print in global warming and climate change. Rebecca Roach’11 and Josh Ou’11 are the current Challenge 20/20 leaders at Casady School. In the past two years, they have read High Noon, have seen The Inconvenient Truth, contacted Sierra Club representatives and Casady faculty to raise awareness and help promote recycling in our school. Josh and Rebecca wrote and were awarded a Facing the Future grant to provide cameras to document climate change in OKC and Peru. Our international discussion collaborators in the area of Global Warming/Climate Change challenge were the school in Brussels, Mount Saint Mary School of Pennsylvania, and the Cloud Forest School in Costa Rica. These efforts were not very successful, yet Josh created a website and we learned how to have SKYPE teleconferences with Costa Rican students.

Rebecca and Josh have focused on recyling and awareness and reduction of carbon footprint and water conservation. One of the adult sponsors of this project is also interested in awareness of ecological footprint and energy conservation. Thanks to an "informal partnership" with the Oklahoma Green Schools Pilot Program, Josh has obtained recycling bins to promote recycling of cans and plastic and he is in the process of developing a stronger collaboration with the Casady Environmental Club and the Casady administrative efforts in turning our school greener. Josh stated, When I first joined the Challenge 20/20 group my freshmen year, I was completely oblivious that I would become the president of this group my junior year. During the early stages, we would have only dreamt of having a cans and plastic recycling on a regular bases; we are also in the process of constructing two new LEED buildings on our campus.”
Our new partners this year are a school in China and a school in New York. We board our new ride thrilled about the possibilities.


Carmen Clay
Rainbolt Family Service-Learning Chair
Casady School
9500 North Pennsylvania, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73120
www.casady.org
405-749-3103
clayc@casady.org

Sunday, September 20, 2009

New Partners

2009-2010 NAIS CHALLENGE 20/20 NEW PARTNERSHIPS
Dear Challenge 20/20 Team
,

The NAIS Global Initiatives team would like to thank you for your interest in participating in the 2009-2010 Challenge 20/20 program. This is a program that is being received with great interest and commitment by schools from many countries. We have received approximately 400 applications from schools from 56 countries and many states in the US, and we have been able to partner many schools. Our hope is that the Challenge 20/20 partnerships among schools across the globe will provide an excellent foundation for meaningful problem-solving and cross continent relationships that lead to a more promising global future for our students and our schools.

Here is some information about your team.

Number of schools in team: 3
Global problem assigned: Global warming
Grade level of team: 9-12 (upper school)
Term: 2009-2010: Term One - Sep-Feb - Report due Feb 1
Your team's primary contact is:
Carmen Clay
Casady School
clayc@casady.org
(NAIS selects the team's primary contact when the partnerships are first created.)

Below, please find the contact information for all of the schools on your team:

School
Casady School
9500 North Pennsylvania
Oklahoma, OK, USA
www.casady.org
School type: Independent/Private
School size: large (701+)
Participating students' grade level: 9-12 (upper school)

Teacher Leader
Carmen Clay, Rainbolt Family Service-Learning Chair
clayc@casady.org
Phone: 405-749-3103
Fax: 405-749-3223
School Contact
Carmen Clay, Rainbolt Family Service-Learning Chair
clayc@casady.org
Phone: 405-749-3103
Fax: 405-749-3223

School
Millbrook School
131 Millbrook School Road
Millbrook, NY, USA
www.millbrook.org
School type: Independent/Private
School size: medium (201-700)
Participating students' grade level: 9-12 (upper school)

Teacher Leader
Pascale Musto, History Teacher
pmusto@millbrook.org
Phone: 845-677-8261
School Contact
Pascale Musto, History Teacher
pmusto@millbrook.org
Phone: 845-677-8261

School
Concordia International School Shanghai
999 Mingyue Rd
Shanghai, Jiangsu, China
www.ciss.com.cn
School type: Parochial
School size: medium (201-700)
Participating students' grade level: 9-12 (upper school)

Teacher Leader
Chris Carter, Teacher
chris.carter@ciss.com.cn
Phone: 15001936994
School Contact
Chris Carter, Teacher
chris.carter@ciss.com.cn
Phone: 15001936994

Please proceed by contacting your partner school/s and making all the necessary arrangements to begin your collaborative work on Challenge 20/20. The program is very flexible and we allow you as a team to create your own curriculum, design the program and schedule time for students and teachers to communicate.

Many schools selected up to five global problems of interest and we worked hard to identify partners for schools with similar interests and grade levels of students. Our preference is that you work on your assigned global problem. However, if your team wishes to work on a global problem that is different than the one you have been assigned, please communicate with your assigned partner school/s and decide on the final global problem within the partnership. If all schools agree, please send me a message at suciu@nais.org and I will change the topic in our database. Your final global problem must be highlighted in each school's Agreement Form that is due back to NAIS on September 30, 2009. However, if your team needs more time to decide on the final global problem, you may have an extension of a week or so to complete the Agreement Forms.

Challenge 20/20 is an annual NAIS initiative, and schools are encouraged to participate every year to continue their work on solving global problems. More information on next year's program will be available online. Also, we will provide you with updates throughout the year at http://www.nais.org/go/challenge2020.

NEXT STEPS
1. Proceed by contacting your partner school/s and if you wish to work on a different global problem than the one assigned by NAIS, work that out within your partnership. You may communicate with each other by: email, phone, regular mail, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, listserves, and blogging. You will find more information on listserves and blogging below.

2. You have been assigned the Term for your partnership's participation based on your selection in the application form. Check with your partner school/s to make sure you're all still interested in working during that Term.

3. Fill out the Agreement Form signed by the Head of School (to be mailed or faxed back to NAIS by September 30, 2009). You may download a copy of the form at: http://www.nais.org/go/challenge2020.

The signed Agreement Form from the Head of School should be forwarded to Ioana Suciu no later than September 30, 2009. If you're a school working on Challenge 20/20 during Term Two, you may choose to submit your Agreement for Participation after September 30th as you will not begin to work on your projects until January 2010.

By e-mail: suciu@nais.org

By mail: Challenge 20/20
National Association of Independent Schools
1620 L Street, NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20036-5695

By fax: (202) 247-9694

Each signed agreement should also include the name of the global problem your partnership will be addressing. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at (202) 973-9755 or by e-mail at suciu@nais.org.

4. Read the details and guidelines for the Challenge 20/20 program online at http://www.nais.org/go/challenge2020.

5. Read and advise your students to also read the book: High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them. This book is available at your library or for purchase for $16.95 US dollars at your local bookstore or on our website at http://www.nais.org under Our Publications and NAIS Bookstore, or directly at http://www.nais.org/transact/ProductDetail.cfm?product_code=B91.

6. Begin your work on identifying local solutions to global problems as a team.

7. Term One participants submit any photographs and supplemental materials you would like us to have from November to January and Term Two participants make their submissions from April to May. You may send them by email to suciu@nais.org or by mail at the address listed above. We will use some of these for promotional purposes, display and marketing only.

8. Term One participants submit the team's online report on your progress in January 2010 while Term Two participants submit the report in May 2010. This report will be available at http://www.nais.org/go/challenge2020 as we get closer to that date. Once you submit your report, you can continue your work together for the remainder of the school year and we encourage you to do so.

PROGRAM CHANGES AND UPDATES:
1. Challenge 20/20 Listserve: The Teacher Leader and Contact Person at each participating school will be automatically added to the Challenge 20/20 listserve which we will use to send out updates and you can also use to communicate with each other. You may send messages to the listserve for every participant to see at challenge_20_20@lists.nais.org. If you do not wish to be included in this listserve, simply send a message to suciu@nais.org with the Subject Line: Unsubscribe from the Challenge 20/20 Listserve.

3. Blogs: In addition to the listserve, we encourage you to use blogging as a way of communicating with your team. You may use your own school's blogging system or one that you create for the Challenge 20/20 partnership. NAIS recommends the Ning social networking system, a free, safe, secure and user-friendly system available at: http://www.ning.com for schools that have participating students over the age of 13. You can create your own private web page accessible only to members of the partnered schools. Here is how to set it up:

- Decide as a team on who will be the person from your partnership to create this webpage. Only one person per partnership can create it and assign permissions for different people/schools to have access to it.
- Go to http://www.ning.com/.
- Create account - email address and password.
- Name your social network and pick your web address (make sure to include your name: challenge 2020 and initials of your school, i.e. for Potomac School, you can name it challenge2020ps. If more than one project team from your school participates, add a unique word or letter to the site name.)
- Create your site settings. IMPORTANT: Make it private, not public and check the box "just my friends" can view the site or comment. This ensures that invitees only have access.
- Send invitations to join to your students and the faculty representatives from all schools in your partnership only.
- You can post blogs, comments, photos, videos, etc. on your page - which is the collaborative site for your work.
- NOTE: This site is free but there are ads by Google on it. Just don't click on them. If you're interested in having them removed from your page, please send me your page's URL.

The Challenge 20/20 website is a great resource that you can use throughout the program. We will post periodic updates and we encourage you to visit the website regularly at http://www.nais.org/go/challenge2020.

If you want to post photos and materials to the NAIS-created Ning website, we encourage you to do so. Everyone will be able to view what you post. To request an invitation to join this public Challenge 20/20 networking site, go to http://2009challenge2020.ning.com and type in your name, email and short message. These instructions will also be available on the NAIS website at http://www.nais.org/go/challenge2020 soon.

IMPORTANT:
: If for any reason, a school on your team can no longer participate in Challenge 20/20 this year and wishes to withdraw from the program, please inform us as soon as possible so we can re-match your partner school/s. Contact me by sending an email to suciu@nais.org.

Once again, congratulations! We wish for you a fruitful and productive experience through Challenge 20/20 that leads to the development of informed and capable global leaders and global citizens.

Best regards,

Ioana Suciu
Associate Director of Global Initiatives
suciu@nais.org

Casady Challenge 20/20 History

HISTORY OF NAIS CHALLENGE 20/20 AT CASADY SCHOOL

NAIS arrived to Casady via e-mail request for participation. Students undertook the challenge of a Massive Step Against Poverty first. Then they added Global Warming-Climate Change. Our first interaction with NAIS was informal. Mrs. Williams from the Primary Division empowered a partnership with Bishop McAllister College in Uganda where she had been doing missionary work for years. At the NAIS Conference in Boston, Mrs. Clay met Mrs. Vickie Weeks, Global Education Service-Learning Director from Lakeside School in Seattle. Mrs. Weeks had a program with the Catcco Museum, Youth Board in Ollantaytambo, Peru. The youth leaders of Challenge 20/20 from the Class of 2007 and 2008 started a collaboration with the Youth Board of the Museum and the Uganda school.

Youth Leaders of Challenge 20/20, Poverty/Hunger Challenge

Andrew G: Attending Harvard University. Projects: Awareness of global hunger through World Neighbors (WN) Hunger Banquet Fundraisers ($20,000 in two years), WN World Fest Involvement: Promote remote villages' art and send proceeds back to the villages for immediate needs. Lack of electricity and Internet challenges did not allow the partnership with Uganda to flourish. We continue to work with World Neighbors. Mrs. Williams from the Primary Division continues her work with Bishop McAllister College.

Leann F.: Attending Rhodes College. Project: Walk the World (WtW) 2005-2008: $30,0000 for United Nations World Food Program-School Meals. Leann was a guest of the United Nations 2005 WtW debriefing meeting in Rome, Italy. Leann was the first youth to undertake a youth-led grassroots walk. Graham B. did the WtW'2009 and raised $2,000+

The Catcco Museum Youth board had a Walk around Ollantaytambo, Peru to raise awareness of childhood hunger in their city. The Casady service-learning program developed a summer global education service-learning program with an elementary school in Ollantaytambo, Peru after that walk. 18 Cyclones in collaboration with World Leadership School, Lakeside School of Seattle, and Groton School of Boston are transforming a pile of rubble into an ecological playground designed and maintained by the children of Ollantaytambo, Peru. Members of Land of Children Project, Jake P., Kendall H, and Mackenzie W., presented their project at the Second International Service-Learning Conference in Teacher Education in Galway, Ireland.

Ankita P.: Attending Berkeley University. Project: Awareness of childhood hunger in OKC. Member of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma Youth Board and a Summer Intern at World Neighbors. Fundraisers: Student Against Hunger: Casady Cans Do, Canned Food Drive (4,500 tons of food, $1,500+); Walk the World 2007-2008: Food-4-Kids Program of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma ($1,000). Ankita presented Casady's NAIS Challenge 20/20 at the First International Service-Learning Conference in Teacher Education in Brussels and developed a partnership with one of the conference participants, a history teacher from the International School in Brussels. She also presented the NAIS Challenge 20/20 opportunity at the Department of Environmental Quality-Earth Day 2008 Celebration at the Oklahoma City Zoo.

Youth Leaders of Challenge 20/20: Global Warming, Climate Change Challenge
Rebecca R in collaboration with Josh O led the Global Warming Challenge last year. In the past two years, they have read portions of the book High Noon, seing parts of the documentary The Inconvenient Truth, contacted Sierra Club representatives and Casady faculty to raise their own awareness and helped promote recycling in our school. Josh and Rebecca wrote grants to provide cameras to document climate change in OKC and Peru. They received cameras and materials from Facing the Future.org.

Our international discussion collaborators in the area of Global Warming/Climate Change challenge were the International School in Brussels, Mount Saint Mary School of Pennsylvania, and the Cloud Forest School in Costa Rica. The collaborations did not go far. We met each other and shared what we were doing, but we did not start something together. Teacher sponsors left the schools and the collaborations stopped. Josh created a website and had one skype teleconference with the school in Costa Rica.

Rebecca and Josh were interested in awareness and reduction of carbon footprint and water conservation. One of the adult sponsors of this project was interested in awareness of ecological footprint and energy conservation. Rebecca led the efforts last year and Josh will lead the efforts this year. Thanks to an "informal partnership" with the Oklahoma Green School Pilot Program, Josh has obtained recycling bins to promote recycling of cans and plastic and he is in the process of developing a stronger collaboration with the Casady Environmental Club and the Casady administrative efforts in turning our school greener. Challenge 20.20 is exciting about breaking ground of our first LEED building soon.