This is the first in a series of spotlights on our spring 2018 student interns. Learning Life’s students this spring are assisting with research, outreach, fundraising, and international family-to-family projects focused on community photography and food culture as part of our Citizen Diplomacy Initiative (CDI). Arielle Mobayen, interviewed below, is helping with outreach to international organizations, fundraising, food culture research transcriptions into French and English, and the family food culture project.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Scottsdale, Arizona of Iranian parents, but I was raised mainly in Paris. Most of my family lives in California, so we visited them during the summers, but otherwise I lived in Paris with my family until age 16. Then at 16 onward, I lived mostly in California until college.
What school do you attend, and what is your year and major there?
I attended the American University of Paris for my freshman year of college. I transferred to George Washington University in my sophomore year, and will be graduating in 2020 with a major in International Affairs and Criminal Justice.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I spend most of my free time reading, especially during the summer. I love reading different kind of fiction and non-fiction books that help me learn new things. I also enjoy playing the piano and improving my piano skills.
Is there a life experience you have had that has particularly shaped you thus far? If so, what is it, and how has it shaped you?
One life experience which has shaped me thus far is the move my family and I made from Paris, France to Orange County, California when I was 16 years old. Living in a European country is very different from living in southern California. Most of my friends were in Paris and as I was used to the French education system, so a lot changed when my family moved to California. Still it was an amazing experience which made the multi-cultural person I am today. If I did not move to California, I probably would not be at George Washington University now, so I am very thankful for this cross-cultural opportunity.
What are your career plans?
My professional goal is in the long run is to work with the U.S. Government or with any international government agency to expand my experience and skills in International Affairs and Criminal Justice. A dream of mine would be to use my language skills (I speak Farsi/Persian, English and French fluently) to work with the FBI or the CIA.
Why did you choose to intern with Learning Life?
I chose to intern at Learning Life as a way for me to expand my global experiences. I do this by working with different Learning Life families in Washington DC and Dakar, Senegal. I am able to help spread learning with children and work on international projects, which I love.
What is the most beautiful place you have seen on Earth, and why is it so beautiful?
The most beautiful place I have seen on earth is the Amalfi Coast of Italy. The landscape is just amazing — sandy beaches, clear blue sea water, homes of different colors, mountains, etc. It looks like the beautiful photos one sees on tourist postcards. There are a few islands where you can spend a day touring if you take a boat. On top of that, the Italian people and their food are incredible!
Let’s Build a DC World Affairs Pipeline
Learning Life is now seeking individuals and organizations interested in helping to build a “World Affairs Pipeline” connecting lower-income metro DC children to opportunities and careers in international relations.
The Challenge
Washington DC is a world city divided. On one hand, DC is home to thousands of individuals and organizations daily engaged in international affairs. On the other hand, DC is also home to thousands of lower-income youth that have traveled little if at all outside DC, and are largely disconnected from the wider world as well as their own community. These two groups are in some ways worlds apart, yet often live just blocks apart, and may cross paths daily, strangers to each other. Nonetheless, both groups are inescapably part of a wider world increasingly connected in at once exciting and frightful ways. Those disengaged from an early age may not only be left behind, but become the resentful rather than caring global citizens we need.
The Proposed Pipeline
There is much that caring individuals and organizations in metro DC can do to help bridge the divide between these two groups, but it takes vision, collaborative planning, and follow-through. It also takes a pipeline. Committed groups already build steel and plastic pipelines to deliver oil and gas to homes and businesses across the world. So can they build social pipelines that nurture, in coordinating ways, caring global citizens from kindergarten to after-school, weekend and summer youth and family programs, to internships and volunteer opportunities, to higher education programs and apprenticeships, to jobs and careers in world affairs.
This is what we propose. We are Learning Life, an educational nonprofit based in Ward 8 of Washington DC. Our flagship program, the Citizen Diplomacy Initiative (CDI), engages lower-income Ward 8 families in live dialogues and project collaborations with lower-income families in other nations to help democratize diplomacy, and nurture more caring and capable global citizens. We are small but innovative. We know that nurturing caring global citizens is not easy, but committed groups can transform people, cities and the world. It takes more than one organization though. It takes a city.
Get Involved
To get involved, join our Facebook group to share news and resources, and to engage our growing community. We will notify you via the Facebook group of pipeline-planning meetings when they start. Questions, suggestions, or want to get involved as a pipeline organizer? Contact Learning Life’s Director, Paul Lachelier, at paul@learninglife.info or 202-910-6966.
International Project Comparing Family Food Cultures Launches
Learning Life, a Washington DC-based educational nonprofit, is launching a new international family-t0-family project to explore family food cultures across the world.
Learning Life’s flagship program, the Citizen Diplomacy Initiative(CDI), engages lower-income American families, starting in Ward 8 of Washington DC, in live internet dialogues and project collaborations with lower-income families in other countries of the world to nurture more caring, capable global citizens. Last year, eight families in DC, Dakar, Senegal, and Jerash, Jordan engaged in an international community photo project. That project revealed intriguing differences in the foods the families eat, so this year, participating families will explore their own and another country’s food culture through interviews with our diverse volunteers, an immigrant or foreign guest, and a family in another country.
The project will unfold through five meetings, typically on weekends mornings or afternoons, with Learning Life volunteers at the participating families’ homes or online via Skype. The project culminates with a live internet dialogue between selected American families in the USA, and families in El Salvador, Senegal and Jordan.
Benefits of participation in CDI:
Provides children and their parents/guardians the chance to bond by learning together.
Helps participants learn more about themselves, their community, their country, and the world
Gives families access to language interpreters and other volunteers who can help families learn better and access resources
Offers an international experience that can help open doors to better schools and jobs.
May boost children’s interest, confidence and performance in school and everyday life by increasing their knowledge, skill and engagement with the world.
To be eligible, families must have:
Residence in selected locations in Washington DC, San Salvador, El Salvador, Dakar, Senegal and Jerash, Jordan.
At least one parent or guardian and one or more children 10-18 willing to participate.
Household income of less than their country’s annual median household income.
Parents with less than a bachelor’s or four-year university degree.
Traveled little or not at all outside their country, and have few if any contacts in other countries.
To learn more, contact us at email@learninglife.info.
International Community Photo Project Results Are In!
Learning Life is pleased to release the results of our international community photo project. The project, which ran from January to August 2017, was part of our flagship program, the Family Diplomacy Initiative(FDI). FDI engages lower-income American families in live dialogues and project collaborations with lower-income families in other nations to nurture more caring and capable global citizens. With each project, families practice a civic skill useful for tackling public issues local to global, like poverty, pollution, violence, or else. This first FDI project got the families to practice their photography skills.
During the project, five American families in metro DC worked with two families in Dakar, Senegal, and one family in Jerash, Jordan. The eight families comprised 24 total participants: eleven Senegalese, ten Americans, three Jordanians, of whom eight were parents or grandparents, and sixteen were children. Per our FDI selection criteria, all the families were lower-income (household annual income below their nation’s median), had parents with less than a bachelor’s degree, and had minimal engagement with the world, as measured by flights abroad, and contact with any friends or family living abroad. Likewise, none of the participants had previously taken part in any live internet dialogues with strangers living in other countries.
The eight families were asked to take photos in answer to the question “what is the nature of your community?” The families each took photos twice, once before and once after basic photography training Learning Life volunteers provided, producing a total of nearly 500 photos from which the families and Learning Life staff selected 70 for inclusion in a photo album on five community themes: public life, food culture, challenges, bright spots, and the future?
To evaluate our project’s impact, Learning Life volunteers scored the families’ photos to assess whether the quality of their photos improved due to training we provided. We also surveyed the participating family members before and after the project to measure any changes in interest, knowledge as well as attitudes about national superiority and people who are different. Here are the highlights from the research results:
Photo quality scores on average rose 3%.
Interest in foreign news, countries, cultures, dialogue and collaboration rose 5%.
Good feelings about the country the participants dialogued with increased 8%.
Attitudes of national superiority and intolerance for difference dropped 36%.
Below are some of the participants’ reflections on the project which reveal varied, thoughtful and touching lessons they drew from the dialogues and community photos.
Jenna (11-year old girl from Jerash, Jordan):
Nice people. Americans want to know about me and my culture, which I wasn’t expecting because I thought why would they bother learning about Jordan?
Marsha (51-year old grandmother from Washington, DC):
I learned that other cultures share more like than I thought. I learned that education varies with different ethnicities. I learned that food preferences and choices weigh heavily on obesity in different cultures.
Jeannot (35-year old son from Dakar, Senegal):
The [former] Senegalese President Leopold Senghor promoted openness and rooting one’s self in the world. Through Learning Life we explore our cultures. Through the photos we see diverse views, we look back on the past, improve the present, and offer perspectives about the future. When we already know our own culture, Learning Life allows us to discover other cultures, to travel without leaving our country, to improve communication during our dialogues.
Suleman (45-year old father from Jerash, Jordan):
Both American mothers are single moms and it’s hard to raise children alone. They take on all the difficulties in life alone, without a man. I’m impressed by how the mothers are both the man and the woman, do everything themselves, and have hopes for their children.
Seeing pictures of a black person in front of American government is encouraging. There is tolerance in the pictures that I wish to see around the world. The multi-colored people and kids in the pictures show that the US is for everybody.
The world is going in the wrong direction because of how much canned food Americans eat. There is also the fast-paced life the Americans are leading, which is not healthy. They have less children because of their busy lives.
Our second project, starting in February 2018, will continue with many of the same families, plus new ones in San Salvador, El Salvador. Following on the first project, which revealed striking differences in what the families eat, the second project will explore similarities and differences in the families’ food cultures through interviews the families will conduct with each other and others.
For a copy of the project’s full research report published in the professional journal, Childhood Education, click here.
What school do you attend, and what is your year and major there?
