KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Mackenzie Green of Southwick recently returned from Washington, DC equipped with a better understanding of global barriers to education, and how they might contribute to making education a reality for every child, both in their communities and in the world. One of more than 100 students from around the globe attending People to People International’s (PTPI) twelfth annual Global Youth Forum (GYF), Green spent four days exploring the conference topic of Global Education: Providing a Vision for the Future.
Within small delegation groups, students completed several hours of curriculum designed to broaden their knowledge of the conference topic. Ultimately, each group selected three global and local actions they felt they could take on in order to help remove barriers to education, and created presentations to share with all of the delegates at the end of the conference.
The students’ learning experience was enhanced by a trio of speakers. Keynote speaker Dr. Tererai Trent was uneducated, married, and had three children by the age of 18 in her native country of Zimbabwe. She went on to earn a doctorate degree later in her life, and talked to the students about the role education plays in helping to break cycles of poverty. Ms. Carol Bellamy, former Executive Director of UNICEF and the Peace Corps, discussed the many global efforts related to education that are currently underway, and how students could best make an impact. Mr. Raul Magdaleno, a member of the U.S. Congressional National Board of Directors and Founder of The Magdaleno Leadership Institute, shared his story about how his pursuit of an education transformed his life and led him down a far different path than that of his siblings, all high school dropouts.
Three international GYF delegates, from Egypt, Ukraine, and Yemen, shared their perspectives as well, and the students had an opportunity to ask questions and learn firsthand about similarities and differences.
The delegates also took part in a hands-on service project to promote education, visiting United Way Worldwide and creating literacy kits for children. Each kit contained a book, and the delegates designed creative objects to be used to make the reading experience interactive and fun.
“The Global Youth Forum is a great way to see how you can impact education by working with others from around the world,” Green said. “I attended People to People’s Leadership Summit at Yale this past summer. I’m now looking forward to going to Costa Rica this coming summer with People to People to help work with the local schools and orphanages, plus assist scientists in preserving the rainforest. It’s wonderful to be able to give back to the community.”
