Youth Educators

"Young people should be at the forefront of global change and innovation. Empowered, they can be key agents for development and peace."

Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary General 

Welcome students! Broaden your horizons by considering resources and opportunities like those below. Explore, pursue, utilize, apply, share onward. Shape yourself as you help shape the world.
 

  • Carpe Global, international resources and opportunities to empower global citizens. 
  • One Shared World, working across diverse cultures, communities, ethnicities, organizations, entities, interests, generations, and nations to ensure a better future for humankind and the sustainability of our collective home. Note their Global Youth Coalition. 
  • National Security Language Initiative for Youth, scholarships for intensive immersion abroad in languages such as Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. Asheville Sister Cities board member Jay Harris developed the program in Jordan and can provide program details, and tips for applying successfully.
  • Teaching Assistant Program, France, the opportunity (age 20 and above) to spend seven months in France, teaching English to French students.
  • Global Glimpse, empowering secondary students from around the world to develop leadership skills, connect with each other, and engage in life-changing experiences in the developing world.
  • The High North Fellowship, a monthly stipend and travel grant for students from the USA, Canada, Japan, Russia, South Korea who attend an institution in Norway (for free).
  • Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, sign up as a student member and enjoy learning, networking, and career prospects under the broad umbrella of foreign policy. 
  • Future Leaders Connect, a program and leadership network for young people, ages 18-35, interested in addressing today’s global challenges. 

Young Global Citizen Award

Co-Sponsored by:

Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders in a highly interconnected world. We honor and spotlight young people who demonstrate great potential toward that end. Nominations are welcome from educators, community leaders, and Sister City chapters worldwide. Awards will be presented to three (3) young global citizens in sister cities worldwide.

Young global citizens (ages 15-21) should be nominated on the basis of activities and involvements related to the following: 

  • Curricular and extra-curricular events.
  • Community organizations.
  • Community events with local/global emphasis.
  • Attention to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

 

Click here for the nomination form.

2021 Young Artists and Authors Showcase (YASS):

The Showcase gives youth worldwide the opportunity to express their vision for a more unified, peaceful world through original art and literature.

Each category’s Grand Prize Winner will receive $1,000.

Each category’s 2nd Place Winner will receive $250.

Each category’s 3rd Place Winner will receive $100.

Click here to learn more and to enter. 

Youth Leadership Summit

Through the annual Youth Leadership Summit (YLS), Sister Cities International empowers young people to think globally, spurring a new generation of citizen diplomats who become instrumental in promoting peace, mutual respect, and prosperity. Asheville Sister Cities board member Jay Harris will be a speaker on topics of local/global connections and international resources and opportunities for youth.  

Click here to learn more about participating.

“One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.”

― Malala Yousafzai

Welcome educators! Enhance your professional development and teaching by considering resources and opportunities like those below. Explore, pursue, utilize, apply, share onward. Bring the world to others while becoming even more worldly yourself. 

  • Carpe Global, international resources and opportunities to empower global citizens. 
  • One Shared World, working across diverse cultures, communities, ethnicities, organizations, entities, interests, generations, and nations to ensure a better future for humankind and the sustainability of our collective home.
  • Rotary Peace Fellowships for graduate study and community leadership training in one of several countries. 
  • Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Research Program, sending primary and secondary school teachers abroad for three to six months to pursue individual projects, conduct research, enhance professional development, and share expertise with local teachers and students.
  • Professors Without Borders, connecting educators and students worldwide to increase equal access to inspiring learning experiences in higher education
  • UNICEF Kid Power, giving kids the power to save lives by connecting their everyday activity to real-world impact. Through video game play, kids unlock critical support distributed to children in global and local communities.
  • Pulitzer Center Teacher Fellowship, a paid, virtual fellowship to explore how teaching with under-reported global news stories helps educate students and prepares them to engage curiously and critically with the world. 
  • Americas Research Network Transnationalism Fellowship Program, awarded to U.S. graduate students and scholars with doctorates for up to eight weeks of research on U.S.-Mexican Transnationalism and collaboration among U.S. and Mexican scholars.
  • Learn Locally, Think Globally: How Students and Teachers Grow From Cultural Exchange, an article in EducationWeek written by a teacher who spent a year abroad studying culture, globalization, and how to better serve diverse students’ needs.
  • The Choices Program, based at Brown University, creates educational resources that empower students to understand the relationship between history and current issues while developing the analytical skills to become thoughtful global citizens.
  • iEARN, engaging over 30,000 schools and youth organizations in more than 140 countries for collaborative project work.
  • Airpano, featuring panoramic videos (aerial tours) of cities and ecological areas around the world. Imagine this as a value-added teaching tool for global studies, geography, world history, languages, and more. 

Classroom Starters and Sparkers:

  • See the list of local/global connections below, representing opportunities for student research, student internships, guest speakers, and a better understanding of our ongoing, constant interaction with the greater world.  
  • Invite an Asheville Sister Cities board member to do a classroom presentation. We can talk to you about customizing an approach in sync with your curricular needs. 
  • The Global Inventory, an excercise that can be applied and adapted at various levels of education. Have students do an inventory of items in their home. Their clothing is a good place to begin, including shoes, coats, and hats. Ask them to list items made in other countries. Compile a total list of items and places, share a world map with those locations marked, and:  1) help students comprehend the real and unavoidable scope and scale of global connections within our daily lives. “If we are this global in every home, imagine….” Extend their thinking across the community, then across the state and nation. 2) work with colleagues for an interdisciplinary exploration of the web of global issues inextricably connected to this reality – issues of international trade and transportation, environment, international development, human rights – and the much longer list beyond those. 

Educator Advisory Group

We are looking for teachers and professors in the Asheville area who are interested in contributing to the global perspectives and education of students. Help us create a shared space of examples and ideas – from syllabi and lesson plans to school activities and guest speakers. Let’s raise bars together for informed global perspectives among our young citizens and future leaders. If interested, contact ashevillesistercities@gmail.com

Asheville Area
Local/Global Connections

Real-world ties to the rest of the world, right here in our own back yard. Help students understand and value that connectivity, in part because they will live and work within it for the rest of their lives. 

  • Africa Healing Exchange, provides resilience training to caregivers in post-conflict communities, enabling them to pass along the skills to youth and families who are suffering from trauma-related illnesses, helping to end the cycle of trauma.

  • Altrusa International, District Three, a global volunteer service organization whose purpose is to promote better communities through service by an international network of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. 

  • Dining for Women, a global giving circle that supports women and girls in developing countries by funding grants that foster leadership, education, healthcare, economic and environmental sustainability, safety and security. Chapter members meet and share a potluck dinner each month.

  • RESULTS Asheville, Asheville branch of a movement to influence political decisions that will bring an end to poverty worldwide.

  • Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of WNC, our former development assistance volunteers abroad do a weekly “beer and cheer” and occasional events.

  • Safe Water Now, a non-profit providing expertise, services, and resources to solve the problem of unsafe drinking water in Tanzania.

  • Seed Programs International, provides good quality seed, expertise, and training materials to humanitarian organizations working around the world to alleviate hunger and poverty.

  • Folkmoot, an international folk festival, over three decades of bringing culture and music together in WNC from around the world.

  • Friendship Force WNC, more than 3,000 people in WNC have participated in exchanges either as hosts for foreign guests or as citizen ambassadors overseas experiencing other cultures and countries.

  • LEAF Community Arts, a non-profit organization, building community, connecting cultures and enriching lives through the arts – locally and globally.