By Nicholas Allen | November 5, 2020
“UNC World View resources are the foundation of our Global Studies Program. Each month we focus on one of the Sustainable Development Goals and provide students with opportunities to explore the goal and participate in activities that work towards achieving the goal.”
Emily Williams is the Director of the Global Studies Program at Independence High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. Independence’s population of comprises 2200 students from all over the world. The Global Studies Program was instituted in 2006.
An attendee of the 2019 Global Education Leaders Program (GELP) and the 2019 Global Education Symposium on the Sustainable Development Goals, Williams was planning to attend the 2020 Global Conflict and Peacebuilding Seminar until COVID caused sweeping cancellations of in-person conferences. Since then, she participated in UNC World View’s summer series of Twitter Chats. “UNC World View resources are the foundation of our Global Studies Program,” Williams elaborated on her involvement, “Each month we focus on one of the Sustainable Development Goals and provide students with opportunities to explore the goal and participate in activities that work towards achieving the goal.” In addition to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Global Studies Program at Independence employs UNESCO intercultural competency training in their curriculum. “One of my favorite activities I learned from World View is Story Circles, developed by Dr. Darla Deardorff,” noted Williams, “It’s a student favorite as well!” Dr. Deardorff’s training manual for Story Circles is available here, and community college educators who register for Global Health: The Changing Prognosis will participate in an intercultural competency training with Dr. Deardorff on the second day of the program.
At Independence High School, global learning has taken hold and inspired students to push further into the content. “Our students have told us that while they feel they are learning the importance of global competence, they want more opportunities to put their learning into action. They want to take action to start making an impact on the world,” said Williams. The students spoke, and instructors took note.
To help them do this, we have instituted Global Experiences as a requirement of our program. Global Experiences is an opportunity for students to develop an understanding of and appreciation for other cultures that goes beyond what can be learned in a classroom. The goal of Global Experience Hours is to increase student engagement with the service learning opportunities they choose by encouraging service learning that allows students to experience cultures different from their own and examine global issues from multiple perspectives.
Rather than creating a quantitative metric for completing the hours requirement, the Global Experiences piece of the program looks at the quality of the experience. To tie it all together, Global Experience Hours connect to one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals or to one of the four domains of global competence.
Williams and the Global Studies Team at Independence High are using technology to open doors and connect, finding the silver lining during the pandemic.
In November our freshmen will be taking a virtual field trip through a program at the Levine Museum of the New South. We are also connecting students with virtual cultural festivals, such as the Virtual Festival of India. In the spring, we are offering a book study which will include an author visit via Zoom.
It’s an impressive slate of virtual global activities, but it’s Williams’ positive outlook in a trying environment that makes us so proud to feature her in November’s Educator Spotlight. “One consequence of the pandemic is museums, cultural centers, and organizations are putting everything online, so in a way our students have more access than they would have normally.” Thank you for all you do, Emily!