Thanks to Learning Life intern Thalia Navia for her assistance in the research for this post. Some data in this post was updated on May 13, 2020.
Globalization is increasing, and for good reason. Advances in transport and communication technologies are making it easier for people to travel and talk across national borders. This leads to greater trade and movement across borders, which in turn brings people more and cheaper goods and services as well as more opportunities to explore, learn, collaborate and prosper.
Globalization – simply defined, more connections and interdependence between countries – is driven to a great extent by businesses searching for profits. When businesses are able to sell their goods and services to more consumers abroad, they expand their potential for growth and profits. This helps explain why pay tends to be higher in international trade-directed than non-trade directed jobs (Griswold 2016), and why international jobs – like customer service representatives, market analysts, digital map-makers, language interpreters and translators, and airline and hospitality workers – are proliferating (Sentz 2016, Peltier 2018).
Given our world’s globalizing trend, persisting socio-economic inequities as to who participates in and leads foreign affairs threatens to further marginalize already disadvantaged groups, and undermine the representativeness of international business and policy-making. In the United States, this is especially true for African and Hispanic Americans, who comprise 14% and 17% of the U.S. population, respectively, yet who represent just:
5% and 7.5% of U.S. college students who study abroad (Carr 2014)
4% and 5.1% of U.S. Foreign Service officers (Miller 2015)
2% and 3% of executives of Fortune 500 companies (Jones 2017)
More recently, in 2020, the U.S. government’s Government Accountability Office reported that Hispanic Americans represent just 7% of the U.S. State Department’s full-time, permanent workforce, and minorities and women were most poorly represented at management and executive levels (GAO 2020).
Unfortunately, race and ethnicity dovetail closely with income and wealth, and Hispanic and African Americans have substantially less of both than European and Asian Americans on average (Peterson Foundation 2018). This makes it more difficult for blacks and Latinos to take advantage of travel abroad opportunities that help stimulate interest in the wider world.
While some individuals can overcome disadvantages to pursue successful international careers, it is much more difficult for marginalized groups to do so without government policies – like annual grants for travel, study and work abroad in high school and college, and consistent funding for effective international engagement programs at all ages – that widen opportunity on a large scale. Of course, there are a number of U.S. programs that fund international study, exchanges and travel abroad, such as the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study Abroad Program, the Critical Language Scholarship Program, and the Youth Ambassadors Program. However, the number of spots or grants offered are often quite limited, and those who take advantage of these programs – even programs meant exclusively to benefit ethnic and racial minorities, like the Thomas Pickering Fellowship and the Charles Rangel Summer Enrichment Program – tend to come from economically relatively privileged backgrounds.
Reformers who wish to open the world to marginalized peoples cannot create programs and expect the disadvantaged to throng to them. If they do, they will continue to disproportionately attract privileged applicants. Inequality segregates the disadvantaged and tends to narrow their geographic horizons, so they are much less inclined to take advantage of opportunities to engage with a world so foreign to them. Thus, reformers must go to the marginalized, opening opportunities in direct and sustained ways in their otherwise segregated communities.
It takes time and an accumulation of experiences – conversations, books, magazines, games, films, travel, classes, volunteering, internships, work — to understand, care about, and act effectively in the world. That’s an accumulation the advantaged are more likely to gather, little by little, as they grow up. Absent government policies to provide marginalized groups with such bridge-building opportunities in their own communities, nonprofits can do much to open the world to the disadvantaged. This includes mentorship, field trips, games, documentary discussions, volunteering, virtual exchanges, and other opportunities that can enrich marginalized neighborhoods, and connect the traveled and untraveled, with or without costly travel abroad.
Globalization holds much promise, but whether that promise is fulfilled for all rather than a few depends on clear-eyed purpose, sustained effort, and bridge-building to connect the marginalized to the world.
This is the fourth in a series of spotlights on our summer 2018 student interns. Learning Life’s students this summer are assisting with planning, fundraising, curriculum development, and international family-to-family projects focused on community photography and food culture as part of our Citizen Diplomacy Initiative (CDI). Minke Xie, interviewed below, is, among other things, helping with financial reporting and fundraising planning, translation of CDI documents into Chinese, and outreach to potential partners in Beijing, China.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Beijing, the capital of China. I spent the first 18 years of my life in Beijing and completed my bachelor’s degree in Wuhan, a city in the middle of China. I then came to the United States in 2014. China has a long history, but immersing one’s self in ancient Chinese history is not ideal in a world where international interaction is increasingly frequent and important. So, I came to the United States to get my Master’s degree and to learn about another culture.
What school do you attend, and what is your year and major there?
I am a graduate student at George Mason University pursuing a Master’s degree in public policy. My concentration is in social policy. When I finished my bachelor’s degree in journalism in China, I felt that I wanted to not just observe society change, but engage in the change. This pushed me to choose my current direction of study.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I have a lot of interests, but what I enjoy the most is making art journals. Since I casually learned about art journaling around 2012, I have accumulated six journals. Art journaling keeps me looking for the beauty of life.
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?
A life experience that has shaped me is traveling with my classmates to Europe when I was 13. We visited Britain, France, Germany among other countries. This was my first time traveling without my parents and out of my home country. It was rewarding because it was the first time I became aware that places in the world vary from each other, and some people live in ways very different from us Chinese people.
Why did you choose to intern with Learning Life?
I chose to intern with Learning Life because my program requires me to take a course in nonprofit organizational development, including an internship with a nonprofit, so this is a good chance to practice what I learned from books. Also, Learning Life plans to expand its Citizen Diplomacy Initiative to China, so it is a good fit for me because I can help Learning Life make connections as a fluent Chinese speaker.
What is the most beautiful place you have seen on Earth, and why is it so beautiful?
The place I most love on Earth currently is the Dotonbori River in Osaka, Japan. I traveled there with my friend last summer. We spent an entire evening on a sightseeing boat to enjoy Osaka’s night scene and jazz music. It was so beautiful, just like some Japanese movie scenes.
Intern Spotlight: FZ Kassidi
This is the second 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). FZ Kassidi, interviewed below, is helping with event fundraising, food culture research transcriptions into French and English, and the family food culture project.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Morocco between Rabat, the country’s capital, and Agadir, a coastal city. I am Moroccan as are both my parents.
What school do you attend, and what is your year and major there?
I attend the George Washington University as a junior majoring in International Affairs with a concentration in International Economics and a minor in Business Administration.
What do you like to do in your free time?
In my free time, I love to read any type of book, draw people or cartoons, and if my free time is longer than a weekend, to travel, discover new places and meet new people. Also, I’m a huge world soccer and American basketball fan, so I watch a lot of games in my free time, especially Real Madrid and the Golden State Warriors. Finally, I love to go to the movies as much as I can!
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?
I would say interning in Geneva, Switzerland in summer 2017 for the diplomatic mission of Morocco to the United Nations and other international organizations. I spent one month with the Moroccan human rights delegation representing Moroccan interests during the 35th United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2017. The second month I spent with the economics delegation, representing Moroccan interests at the World Trade Organization. Being assigned to make speeches in front of diplomats coming from all over the world, and writing detailed reports about meetings I attended shows the great responsibility I was entrusted with, which allowed me to discover for the first time a new, professional side of myself. This internship also gave me the opportunity to travel as much as I could in Europe, so I got to visit cities like Geneva, Lausanne, and Zurich, Switzerland, Brussels and Lieges, Belgium, Monaco, as well as Cannes, France, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Holland, and Zagreb and Split, Croatia. Through all these travels and work-related opportunities that summer I got to not only discover new places, experiences and people but also to discover myself.
What are your career plans?
My career goal is to ultimately work for/with the World Bank to help build more economically and socially prosperous societies that are currently struggling to achieve higher and sustainable growth.
Why did you choose to intern with Learning Life?
Learning Life is an honorable non-profit organization that works to give global educational opportunities to children and families in lower-income communities in Washington DC and abroad. That is something that I wish to achieve in my home country of Morocco in the future, so interning with Learning Life greatly and undeniably helps me build up my skills and knowledge for my future endeavors.
What is the most beautiful place you have seen on Earth, and why is it so beautiful?
This is a really hard question. I’m what you can call a “travelaholic.” I love to visit new beautiful places as often as I can. To narrow it down, I thought of Maui, Hawaii, which was one of the most amazing places I got to visit. The beaches, the people, the culture, the mountain hiking, waterfalls and all its beautiful nature made me fall in love with the place. But Split, Croatia was such a beautiful place too. The city has many unforgettable islands around it, and mesmerizing caves.
Build a World Affairs Pipeline for Youth in DC
BUILD A WORLD AFFAIRS PIPELINE FOR YOUTH IN DC
Learning Life seeks individuals and organizations interested in helping to build a “World Affairs Pipeline” connecting lower-income DC children to opportunities and careers in international relations.
The Challenges
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 farther and farther behind, but become the resigned and resentful rather than caring and connected global citizens we need in our heterogeneous world.
Metro DC is blessed with a wide array of international government agencies, businesses and nonprofits. These entities often collaborate professionally, but less often civically, let alone build an enduring pipeline of opportunities that can change young lives for the better, widen participation in world affairs, and help bridge DC’s deep divides. Too often, despite the commonly expressed desire to cooperate, and countless first meetings, deep, lasting, widely beneficial collaborations do not materialize as organizations are pressed to meet internal deadlines, chase fleeting funding, or speak to passing popular issues. Amidst the constant flurry of activity, there is a crying need to gather regularly, strategize broadly and deeply, and coordinate frequently to build that enduring pipeline.
The Proposed Pipeline
There is much that caring individuals and organizations in metro DC can do to institutionalize the cooperation that can change lives, widen participation in world affairs, and help bridge DC’s deep divides. Toward this end, it is fruitful to think in terms of a pipeline. Committed groups already build steel and plastic pipelines to deliver oil and gas to homes and businesses across the world. So can committed people in regions like metro DC build World Affairs Pipelines that nurture, in regularly coordinated 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, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit devoted to innovating education, democracy and diplomacy by spreading learning in everyday life beyond school walls. In our increasingly interconnected yet divided world, we develop innovative learning communities in order to widen and deepen participation in democracy and diplomacy. We are small but innovative. We know we can achieve more in partnership with like-minded metro DC organizations. We also know that transforming the lives of lower-income youth is not easy, but committed groups working together in the long-term can transform people, cities and the world.
The World Affairs Pipeline we propose will take time to build out fully. One key tool to start building the Pipeline is regular (e.g., bi-weekly or monthly) meetings of interested organizations Learning Life is currently in a preliminary phase talking with relevant metro DC organizations to learn about each other, assess fit, and when there is fit, test ways we can collaborate to start building the Pipeline. Possible Pipeline components — and ways individuals and organizations can contribute — include, but are not limited to:
Community visits: Visits to classrooms, community groups, and families to present an international issue with local impacts, and explain how one or more DC area organizations address that issue.
Family outings: Matching motivated families across socio-economic divides to get to know each other, and participate together periodically in fun weekend outings to museums, cultural festivals, foreign restaurants, etc.
Mentoring: One-on-one mentoring focused on engaging youth with the world through visits to metro DC museums, embassies, cultural festivals, foreign restaurants, etc.
World food visits and tours: Food tastings and culture discussions at foreign restaurants offering periodic, focused, one-restaurant visits, and/or an annual tour of participating foreign restaurants.
Cook-eat-learn sessions: Foreign food cooking, eating and learning with small groups of families or teachers and students at the homes of participating volunteers and families.
Office tours: Tours of offices to network and show DC area students the types of work, work environments, and learning opportunities world affairs organizations provide.
Issue simulations: International issue simulations engaging DC schools and volunteers from world affairs organizations, with preparatory meetings online and culminating simulation and celebration in-person.
Virtual exchanges: Online dialogues, projects and communities connecting DC area youth to peers, families, mentors and other caring people worldwide.
After-school and summer contests: World issue and/or storytelling challenges involving student teams within and across schools, with special access to certain Pipeline opportunities for the winners.
World festivals: An annual world festival for youth and families offering international arts, food and discussions as well as connections to an array of low-cost to free international opportunities.
Bridging discussions: A regular series of moderated small and large-group international issue discussions engaging youth from diverse area schools online.
Travel abroad: Sponsored low-cost or free learning and volunteering opportunities abroad.
Internships: Spring, summer and fall internships with world affairs organizations.
Apprenticeships: Stipended or fully-paid job trainings for eligible, motivated youth.
If interested in helping to build a DC World Affairs Pipeline, please contact us at email@learninglife.info.
Globalization – simply defined, more connections and interdependence between countries – is driven to a great extent by businesses searching for profits. When businesses are able to sell their goods and services to more consumers abroad, they expand their potential for growth and profits. This helps explain why pay tends to be higher in international trade-directed than non-trade directed jobs (Griswold 2016), and why international jobs – like customer service representatives, market analysts, digital map-makers, language interpreters and translators, and airline and hospitality workers – are proliferating (Sentz 2016, Peltier 2018).
