Last year 15 schools from 9 countries - Georgia, USA, Tanzania, Czech Republic, Finland, India, Ghana, Wallis & Futuna Islands, and Egypt - participated in the Virtual Exchange Program. About 80% of the schools needed full sponsorship and 20% needed partial sponsorship.
The Program had over 85% satisfaction rate for participants in the Program. Teachers reported that the Program helped promote positive dialogues and understanding across cultural and national boundaries; thus, providing a unique opportunity for students to explore topics related to issues such as climate change, human rights, poverty, education, global health, conflict resolution, peacebuilding, diplomacy, and intercultural mediation, and the Sustainable Development Goals. The program ignited students’ curiosity to explore cultural differences and broaden their global understanding. The Program also increased participants' skills in cross-cultural communication and digital literacy.
“A little nudge is all students need. They already have a lot of knowledge, of which they themselves are unaware. As a teacher, I only need to help them discover what is inherent in them. … During the programme, my students found their flair for creative writing,” reports, Ms. Jalpa, English Teacher from India.
We are preparing for the 2024-2025 program year. For this coming year, we have received interest from over 30 new schools from 15 countries that would like to join the Program. About 90% of those schools, mostly equity-deserving schools, are in need of funding (full or partial) to help cover their participation fee. The below challenges highlighted in the video below from Karen, a language teacher in Waterford, Wisconsin, are what we are hearing from many of the schools interested in joining the Program.
A language teacher from Wisconsin calls for scholarship support:
Watch Video
Our goal is to make the Program accessible to all equity-deserving schools and call for your continued support in providing them with scholarships to help cover the participation fee.
Impact Story from Students in Greentown, IN
At United All Schools, we are all about sharing, learning, and collaborating to help address shared challenges locally and abroad. Imagine the pride and warm feeling a middle school student gets from being able to help uplift a local family from poverty! Yes, that’s what our participants from Eastern Middle school in Greentown, IN, accomplished in Spring 2024. Through their project, students raised funds through innovative activities with their teacher to buy a cow, a goat and chickens for food and income-generation source for a family in the community. Our Virtual Exchange model is weaved in to not only bring cultural awareness and appreciation to students around the world, but also develop their leadership skills through place-based projects. As they identify, research, and implement these projects, they become more aware of the challenges, opportunities, and resources available in their communities, locally and internationally as they share and discuss together.
