Global Voices
Global Voices is an international cultural exchange that harnesses the power of art and language as a bridge to understanding and goodwill between American high school students and their peers around the world. It offers our secondary schools a unique opportunity to open American schools to genuine interaction with a larger world. Curricula, methods and operating structures developed through the program may also be adapted for use in other study areas. As such, the program becomes a catalyst in the application of the latest Internet communications technologies as students from all over the world collaborate on specific projects. The reach of Global Voices is limited only by the imagination of the participants, and offers a much-needed way to begin to broaden the range and depth of studies available to the students. It offers our secondary schools a unique opportunity to open American schools to genuine interaction with a larger world. Curricula, methods and operating structures developed through the program may also be adapted for use in other study areas. As such, the program becomes a catalyst in the application of the latest Internet communications technologies as students from all over the world collaborate on specific projects. The reach of Global Voices is limited only by the imagination of the participants, and offers a much-needed way to begin to broaden the range and depth of studies available to the students. Global Voices matches American high school language classes with English classes in countries whose native languages are being taught in the American classes. So a Mandarin class in America may be partnered with an English class in Beijing, an English class in Casablanca with a French class in Chicago, and so on, using Internet technology that allows students to interact with native speakers in other countries. The vehicle for this interaction is the performing arts, through the development and performance of plays in the languages being studied. The students exchange their plays and perform them for each other over an Internet video connection. working in five countries on three continents, and in five languages – Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Spanish, in addition to English as a Second Language (ESL). Every partnership sets up a Yahoo Group to facilitate communications throughout the process – and continue into the future, long after the school year has ended. In essence, Global Voices gives participants a shared purpose that becomes a vehicle for a dialogue with peers around the world that can last a lifetime. working in five countries on three continents, and in five languages – Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Spanish, in addition to English as a Second Language (ESL). Every partnership sets up a Yahoo Group to facilitate communications throughout the process – and continue into the future, long after the school year has ended. In essence, Global Voices gives participants a shared purpose that becomes a vehicle for a dialogue with peers around the world that can last a lifetime.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Lycée Ben Msik , Bd Alwahda Alifriquia and Lycée Mohamed VI, Bd Aladarissa, Sidi Moumen
Project City
Casablanca, Morocco
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Morocco
Your idea
Country your work focuses on:
Morocco
Website URL
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1-5 years
YouTube Upload
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
<$100
Name Your Project
Global Voices
Describe Your Idea
Global Voices is an international cultural exchange that harnesses the power of art and language as a bridge to understanding and goodwill between American high school students and their peers around the world. It offers our secondary schools a unique opportunity to open American schools to genuine interaction with a larger world. Curricula, methods and operating structures developed through the program may also be adapted for use in other study areas. As such, the program becomes a catalyst in the application of the latest Internet communications technologies as students from all over the world collaborate on specific projects. The reach of Global Voices is limited only by the imagination of the participants, and offers a much-needed way to begin to broaden the range and depth of studies available to the students. It offers our secondary schools a unique opportunity to open American schools to genuine interaction with a larger world. Curricula, methods and operating structures developed through the program may also be adapted for use in other study areas. As such, the program becomes a catalyst in the application of the latest Internet communications technologies as students from all over the world collaborate on specific projects. The reach of Global Voices is limited only by the imagination of the participants, and offers a much-needed way to begin to broaden the range and depth of studies available to the students. Global Voices matches American high school language classes with English classes in countries whose native languages are being taught in the American classes. So a Mandarin class in America may be partnered with an English class in Beijing, an English class in Casablanca with a French class in Chicago, and so on, using Internet technology that allows students to interact with native speakers in other countries. The vehicle for this interaction is the performing arts, through the development and performance of plays in the languages being studied. The students exchange their plays and perform them for each other over an Internet video connection. working in five countries on three continents, and in five languages – Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Spanish, in addition to English as a Second Language (ESL). Every partnership sets up a Yahoo Group to facilitate communications throughout the process – and continue into the future, long after the school year has ended. In essence, Global Voices gives participants a shared purpose that becomes a vehicle for a dialogue with peers around the world that can last a lifetime. working in five countries on three continents, and in five languages – Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Spanish, in addition to English as a Second Language (ESL). Every partnership sets up a Yahoo Group to facilitate communications throughout the process – and continue into the future, long after the school year has ended. In essence, Global Voices gives participants a shared purpose that becomes a vehicle for a dialogue with peers around the world that can last a lifetime.
Innovation
Describe your idea in fewer than 50 words.
Global Voices is an international cultural exchange that harnesses the power of art and language as a bridge to understanding and goodwill between American high school students and their peers around the world. It offers our secondary schools a unique opportunity to open American schools to genuine interaction with a larger world.
What makes your idea unique?
There is nothing else like it happening at this level any where else.
What is your area of work? (Please check as many as apply.)
Children & Youth , At risk youth , Education , Mentorship , Youth development , Youth leadership , Communications , Information technology , Mentorship , Technology , Urban , Tolerance , Arts and culture , Mentoring , Volunteerism , Youth leadership.
What impact have you had?
Global Voices has changed lives of the youth it works with in five countries on three continents. The program helps students become more proficient in languages, more connected to the world, more skilled in technology, and more self-confident and creative.
Describe the primary problem(s) that your project is addressing.
Global Voices offers schools a unique opportunity to open to genuine interaction with a larger world. As such, the program becomes a catalyst in the application of the latest Internet communications technologies as students from all over the world collaborate on specific projects. The reach of Global Voices is limited only by the imagination of the participants, and offers a much-needed way to begin to broaden the range and depth of studies available to the students.
There is a strong demand for schools to transform themselves in order to educate students to succeed in a rapidly globalizing economy. Emerging technology is changing the way information is received and used, and it follows that it should also be applied to the way schools teach and students learn.
However, most schools currently offer almost nothing in the way of international programming, and virtually no systematic opportunities for students to interact with peers from around the world. Still, there is nearly universal agreement that today’s school children must have skills to function and survive in an environment far more diverse and complex than that of a generation ago.
Aside from traditional student foreign exchange programs -- in which only one percent of high school students participate – the current regimen of language classes and international studies really do not engage students beyond the walls of the classroom.
Global Voices changes that.
Describe the steps that your organization is taking to make your project successful.
Global Voices matches American high school language classes with English classes in countries whose native languages are being taught in the American classes. So a Mandarin class in America may be partnered with an English class in Beijing, an English class in Casablanca with a French class in Chicago, and so on, using Internet technology that allows students to interact with native speakers in other countries.
The vehicle for this interaction is the performing arts, through the development and performance of plays in the languages being studied.
By design, theater demands cooperation, both within the classes and between the collaborating schools. First, students are taught the basics of playwriting, including an introduction to the elements of drama: setting, character, plot, conflict, dialogue, and theme. Next, they develop a storyline and compose a play in the language being studied. It can be (and has been) about anything. During the composition stage, the partnered classes exchange their work, helping each other with proper language usage.
Finally, the students exchange their plays and perform them for each other over an Internet video connection. With major support from the U.S. Department of State and a grant from the Chicago Public Schools, we already are working in five countries on three continents, and in five languages – Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Spanish, in addition to English as a Second Language (ESL).
Every partnership sets up a Yahoo Group to facilitate communications throughout the process – and continue into the future, long after the school year has ended.
Impact
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Success in Year 1:
Morocco: GV will continue to grow. GV has recently increased the number of participating schools in Casablanca from two to eight; there are now eleven classes in the program with more than 400 students. GV will begin a new component, an alumni branch. Students who successfully complete GV will be eligible to become artist/teachers working with classroom teachers. There will be five alumni in five schools working in seven classes. The alumni will work in primary schools that feed the secondary schools partnered with GV. Thus students entering the higher level school already willl have a history with GV.
What it will take to make this happen is additional funding and adding new teachers, schools and students to the program. Global Voices will add two new schools. Lycée Lalla, a public school in Rabat will partner with Lindblom High School a Chicago public high school in Arabic (the first time GV has operated in Arabic in Morocco) and Ecole Riad in Casablanca, the first private school in Morocco in GV will partner with a new school in Chicago. .
Success in Year 2:
GV will select students in Morocco to double the number of alumni working as artist/teachers. The concept of an alumni program was developed by the GV students themselves. They found the GV experience so rewarding that when they graduated from the program, they voluntarily returned to help young GV students. They found the GV experience so rewarding that when they graduated from the program, they voluntarily returned to help young GV students. These alumni are all from poor neighborhoods with few opportunities.
To make this happen, GV will again need to expand thenumber of schools, teachers, and students involved in the program.
Success in Year 3:
Recently, GV met with the Delegation heads of each of the schools’ regions and the Director of the Casablanca Regional Academy for Education to discuss enlarging the program and to explore the creation of a Casablanca Young Playwrights Festival. GV also began a partnership with AlAkhawayne University, Ifrane, and GV is using their video conference center in Casablanca Technopark for the conference exchange of this year’s plays.
Succes will involve establishing the Casablanca Young Playwrights Festival and partnering with the University to institutionalizing this program.
Do you have a business plan or strategic plan? (yes/no)
Yes
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 1:
Expanding the network of teachers involved in GV in Morocco and partnering with other organizations to help make this happen. GV has a partnership with the Moroccan/Chicago Sister Cities Committee and GV will pursue the other Sister Cities Committees operating in Morocco as well as the Fulbright teacher exchange program in Morocco.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 2:
Developing a system to handle the larger number of schools in GV to insure easy and constant communication with all the increased numbers of teachers and students.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 3:
Establishing a framework with the Director of the Casablanca Regional Academy for Education to create and implement a Casablanca Young Playwrights Festival.
Describe the expected results of these actions.
Thousand more students will be involves in the GV program and the Moroccan Young Playwrights Festival will be a reality.
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
In 1993, while I was Executive Director of Pegasus Players, the theatre was chosen by the United States government to represent the United States culture through a tour of The Songs of Bubblin’ Brown Sugar through six countries in northern Africa. This tour galvanized an idea that had been part of my thinking since two years earlier.
Pegasus had already established the Chicago Young Playwrights Festival (YPF) 1984. The YPF is an innovative, school-oriented writing program that encourages the development of independent, high-level thinking and strong personal values, and culminates in a professional presentation of four original one-act plays, chosen from hundreds submitted by students every year. In 1991 as a result of a Chicago Community Trust grant, I had traveled to Japan and brought back a play written by a young Japanese student to be included in the Festival.
This play was a resounding success with students throughout Chicago who saw their own dreams and hopes reflected in its message. The North African tour cemented the belief that young people sharing their ideas through play writing was an immediate way to foster friendship, respect and understand among people.
Through these experiences, the idea for a new global program began to take shape – one that would have an international span, combining the methods of the Young Playwrights’ Festival with language instruction which, like art, can transcend borders and cultures. This became Global Voices.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Dr. Arlene Crewdson is he founder of Pegasus Players a theatre in Chicago. She initiated, managed and developed the Pegasus Players Theatre, committed to a dual mission of artistic excellence and social outreach.
• Grew the theatre from a low budget ($200), student faculty project, located on the second floor of a church to a nationally recognized theatre with a $.5 million budget; winner of 79 Joseph Jefferson Citation Awards for theatre excellence, and producer of 201 plays during 30 years, including 60 world premieres. Pegasus is known for its social commitment. Created Global Voices, now in five languages on three continents, in 2004.
Led Pegasus Players on USA tour of seven countries when theatre was chosen by the government to be the first U.S. theatre to bring musical theatre to North Africa, where theatre's work was seen by more than one million people.
Worked with the United States Government to create Pegasus Players tours to the Middle East to Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, and Morocco, 2000 to 2006 and India in 2007.
Reached out to more than 130,000 high school students through the strong educational component in the Pegasus Players. Honored twice by the Chicago Tribune as one of only 20 Chicagoans yearly to make lasting and memorable contributions to the arts. Awarded $70,000 Fellowship by the Chicago Community Trust in 1990 to travel throughout the United States and abroad, studying arts funding specifically geared for youth and the elderly; research on these innovative funding initiatives was published through the Illinois Arts Alliance.
Awarded Lifelong Achievement Award in Theatre by the Joseph Jefferson Committee (Chicago’s equivalent of the Tonys) in 2009.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
The Foundation Center's on line bulletin.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Nothing. GV keeps expanding with comparativly little finacial supprot because students and teachers find it so important.
Financing source
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
Pegasus Players
How long has this organization been operating? (i.e. less than a year; 1-5 years; more than 5 years)
Thirty years.
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs? (yes/no)
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses? (yes/no)
Yes
The Story
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government? (yes/no)
No
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
Without the partnerships of schools and teachers this program would not be possible.
How many people will your project serve annually?
The program already reaches close to 1000 students between Morocco and Chiago and it will continue to grow.
What is the total number of employees and total number of volunteers at your organization?
15 employees and 20 volunteers
What is your organization's business classification?
Non-profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Have you received funding from any of the following groups? (Please check as many as apply.)
Kellogg Foundation , MacArthur Foundation/Grant .
 | 140 weeks agoJenna Lawrence updated this Competition Entry. |
| 155 weeks agoArlene Crewdson submitted this idea. |
