The Global Youth Leaders program went virtual this summer, providing a brand new curriculum designed to effectively engage students online while also imparting the core concepts of our service-learning and civic participation model. Twenty three students in two cohorts graduated from the new program which taught students about the importance of cultural understanding and communication, global citizenship and 21st century learning.  Over the week long course, students worked in small groups that interviewed individuals about their culture, volunteered at the Village Exchange Center and Food Kitchen Collective food drives and created social media campaigns that spread awareness about a community issue close to their hearts. The week long course culminated in a series of small group presentations sharing the students experiences.

Students expressed their creativity and passion through their presentations and one student stated the program was “was engaging and fun while being informative and very useful, which is everything a class needs. Even though we did the class over Zoom, I still felt like I was connecting to everyone and bonding with them through this class, which is hard even in an in-person class. I definitely gained lots of useful knowledge from this class that I’m going to carry with me and put into action in the real world, so thank you.” Another student stated that it was a “chance to meet new people with diverse backgrounds and have a chance to volunteer in my community.”

Students’ presentations covered a wide range of topics including police brutality and Black Lives Matter; the value of individual culture; and unique service projects aimed at helping the community during the COVID-19 crisis.

Below are examples of the students’ social media campaigns, culture and citizenship projects!