Learning Life is pleased to present this inaugural spotlight on families involved in our Citizen Diplomacy Initiative (CDI). The Winslow-Curtis Family, featured in the adjoining photograph, has been engaged with CDI since its inception in August 2016. Below, each participating Family member — the father, Adrian, older daughter, Samya, and younger daughter, Kaliah — tell us more about themselves and what they like about Learning Life.
Adrian:
Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Washington DC.
What is your current and/or past line of work?
I have taught and performed dance and theater. I also have been a drug counselor, custodian, and restaurant worker.
Is there a life experience you have had that has particularly shaped you thus far?
Being a parent because you have to really put your children first and yourself first at the same time. It’s a roller coaster ride! You will never have anything to yourself, but it’s rewarding because you want them to have the most. It also sets a standard that pushes me to do better, do more, try again for them, even if I fail.
What do you like most about Learning Life?
The information I get about other cultures, eating right, things that help me with life.
What’s one experience you’ve had with Learning Life that has been particularly meaningful to you?
When we [CDI families in DC and Learning Life staff] went to the Senegalese restaurant [Chez Dior in Hyattsville, MD in February 2017]. Let’s start with the drinks. It was interesting to learn about the red drink [Senegalese bissap juice, made with hibiscus] that helped the community with certain ailments. The food followed certain traditions. It was good to see my kids eat things that they otherwise do not eat, like Senegalese fish, which had a different flavor they weren’t used.
Samya:
Where were you born, and how old are you now?
I was born in northwest Washington DC. I am seventeen years old.
What grade are you in, and what’s your favorite class in school?
I’m in 11th grade, and my favorite subjects are forensic science, trigonometry and AP English.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I like to cheer on my high school cheerleading team, I like to draw, watch TV, make slime, and cook with my little sister.
What would you like to be when you grow up?
I’m not sure, but I am interested in the Air Force, being a doctor (neurosurgeon or plastic surgeon), a forensic scientist, or a lawyer.
What do you like most about Learning Life?
I like that I get to explore the wider world and meet new people.
Kaliah:
Where were you born, and how old are you now?
I was born in 2009 in Washington DC. I am nine years old now.
What grade are you in, and what’s your favorite class in school?
I am in 3rd grade. My favorite classes in school are science and reading, but I like all my classes really.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I like to color on coloring sheets. I like watching “The Magic School Bus” and “Brain Child” on Netflix because they teach you about plants, animals, the Earth, the body, and how you digest food, bad germs and so on. I like to read adventure books too.
What would you like to be when you grow up?
I am not sure yet, but I think I would like to be a teacher, or a fitness trainer.
What do you like most about Learning Life?
It teaches you about different people, cities, and how people are different in their lives, places, their food, but they’re still the same as us because they are humans, not like other animals or plants.
What Happened in 2018 & What’s Coming in 2019
Learning Life was busy in 2018, and has ambitious plans for 2019! In brief, we launched an international mentoring program, tested a global storytelling challenge as well as “cook, eat and learn sessions” or CELS, and engaged families in four countries in an ongoing food culture project. This post reports on each of these initiatives, reveals our plans for 2019, and explains three simple ways you can help.
Food Culture Project: Following on our successful 2017 community photo project, we moved our flagship program, the Citizen Diplomacy Initiative (CDI), forward with a new project intended to develop ten participating families’ understanding of nutrition and food culture through conversations and meals. This project marked the first time that Learning Life staff met face-to-face with some of our families and an organizational partner abroad. In March, my wife and I visited the Collectif pour la Promotion des Groupes Vulnérables, a partner association of men in Dakar, Senegal who provide free educational programming for families and youth in their lower-income neighborhood. We conducted research to compare the food culture of three of the Collective’s families with that of three of our lower-income families in DC to gain a better sense of the relative healthfulness of their food practices and beliefs (click here for the research results). This project was the concrete start of a long-term collaboration between Learning Life and Georgetown University Medical Center’s (GUMC) Community Health Division to improve the health of our families in DC and abroad. That collaboration led to further research and four conference poster presentations in 2018. We plan to complete the food culture project in spring 2019.
Cook, Eat & Learn Sessions (CELS): Launched in fall 2018, CELS are an outgrowth of Learning Life’s partnership with GUMC’s Community Health Division. In September, six GUMC medical students, working in pairs, began meeting with several of our families in DC at their homes to cook and eat a meal together while learning about nutrition, cooking and foreign food culture. Each pair of medical students was charged with coming up with a meal that is foreign, tasty, inexpensive, easy to make and accessible (i.e., the families can buy the ingredients from their closest supermarket). The CELS are intended to deepen our families knowledge about nutrition and cooking with an eye to improving their health in the long-term. In 2019, we will continue the CELS with our families in DC, and possibly, depending on interest, develop virtual CELS between DC area students of health and medicine, and our foreign families.
Global Storytelling Challenge: Likewise launched in fall 2018, the pilot Challenge engaged five middle school students at the Saint Thomas More Catholic Academy in DC’s Ward 8 in learning about international issues (e.g., climate change, war, poverty, gang violence, gender inequality) then creating and performing stories about issues the students chose. In December, the students, led by two George Washington University International Education Program graduate students, Nichole Hutchins and Rujjares Hans, performed their stories before their schoolmates and teachers in two competing teams of three and two students. Research on storytelling suggests that this art form can improve student engagement, visual memory, information recall and language skills as well as create a more welcoming and tolerant learning environment (more on this research in an upcoming Learning Life post). Hence, in 2019, following the food culture project, we aim to complete a second Global Storytelling Challenge involving more children in DC as well as abroad.
Mentoring: Informal mentoring Learning Life volunteers did with some of our youth in Washington DC in 2017 showed that those children exhibited more self-confidence, knowledge, and motivation to participate in our programming. Mentoring also helped forge more trusting, participatory relationships with participating families. Accordingly, in 2018, we launched a mentoring program to support CDI. Our mentoring connects DC area college and graduate students as well as professionals in mentoring our youth not only in DC but where we work abroad: in San Salvador, El Salvador, Dakar, Senegal, and Jerash, Jordan. Our mentors and mentees in DC meet at least once per month to visit foreign embassies, museums, cultural festivals, restaurants and more. Our mentors mentoring children abroad meet with their mentees live via Facebook or Skype at least twice per month to read articles, watch videos, and discuss their thoughts and experiences as well as the mentees’ ambitions and plans. For both the mentees in DC and abroad, the mentoring is intended to deepen their understanding of the world, and connect them to ideas, resources and educational opportunities that can improve their lives. Currently, we have 15 mentors mentoring 11 children in DC and 5 children and adults in El Salvador, Senegal and Jordan, with plans to up to double the number of mentor-mentee pairs in 2019.
As we move into 2019, here are three ways you can help:
1)Donate to support our work. Learning Life does a lot with little funding. The money you donate pays for food, printing, youth awards, and other items that help recruit and motivate our families and carry out our programs. When you donate, please consider becoming a Learning Life sustainer by giving $5, $10, $20 or whatever amount you are comfortable with per week or month through your credit card.
2) Volunteer with Learning Life: Volunteers do the bulk of Learning Life’s work. You can help with mentoring, international learning activities, language interpreting, document translation, planning, fundraising, recruitment, research, writing, graphic design, video marketing, and other tasks. To learn more, contact us at email@learninglife.info.
3) Shop through iGive.com, and help fund Learning Life free. Shop more than 1,400 stores (Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, Crate & Barrel, The Gap, KMart, Nordstrom, Sephora, Staples, Starbucks, Target, T-Mobile, Walgreens, and many more) through iGive, and if you make Learning Life your preferred charity, a percentage of your purchase will be donated to Learning Life at no cost to you.
On Monday this week, laughter and screams erupted from a school cafeteria in Washington DC as two student teams competed in telling stories about pressing international issues.
The students, 7th and 8th graders at Saint Thomas More Catholic Academy (STM) in southeast DC’s Ward 8, were participating in Learning Life’s pilot Global Storytelling Challenge in partnership with STM. “We live in one world, we all like stories, and stories can change the world,” Learning Life Director Paul Lachelier told the students assembled to view the students’ stories. Research on storytelling suggests that this art form can improve student engagement, visual memory, information recall and language skills as well as create a more welcoming and tolerant learning environment. This Challenge was a first experiment in storytelling for Learning Life and STM intended to encourage youth interest and learning about international affairs.
The students participating in the Challenge met for six weekly sessions in October-December at STM with two Learning Life teachers, Rujjares Hans and Nichole Hutchins, both Master’s students in the International Education Program at George Washington University. During the sessions, Ms. Hutchins and Ms. Hans first guided the students through videos and discussions to learn about various international issues that impact health, including climate change, poverty, violence against women, child labor, and human trafficking. They then formed two teams, and each team chose an issue that interested them most and crafted a story to help inform their fellow STM students about that issue.
One team presented a story about a young Cambodian girl compelled to work in a village brick factory rather than go to school to help support her family. The other team told a story of a young Sudanese girl whose mother is tricked into delivering her daughter into slavery as a domestic laborer in Brazil. Their stories were evaluated by three judges with substantial experience in storytelling: “The Moth” storyteller Nick Baskerville, Vera Oyé Yaa-Anna, founder of Oyé Palaver Hut, and John Johnson, founder and artistic director of Verbal Gymnastics Theater Company. The audience, composed of STM teachers, staff, and students in Grades 2-8, then had the opportunity to make some noise in support of the team they thought performed better. The story about the Sudanese girl won the judges’ critical acclaim and the audiences’ enthusiastic screams, but both teams were awarded certificates and small cash rewards for completing the pilot Challenge.
The student storytellers and STM staff enjoyed the Challenge. “The best part is that I had fun acting with my friends and learning new facts about the world,” said one of the student storytellers in a post-Challenge survey. “STM is thrilled to have participated in this first Global Storytelling Challenge, and we look forward to working with Learning Life on the next Challenge in 2019,” said STM Principal Gerald Smith.
In coming years, pending funding, Learning Life may expand the Challenge to involve more youth in Ward 8 and possibly other communities in the world with which we work in a more competitive international storytelling contest with bigger prizes. Stay tuned!
Intern Spotlight: Yaxeni Valero
This is the second of two spotlights on our fall semester 2018 student interns. Learning Life’s students this fall are assisting with curriculum development, research, and youth international learning activities as part of our Citizen Diplomacy Initiative (CDI). Yaxeni Valero, interviewed below, is helping with gathering educational content on mentoring, storytelling and health, assisting with health-learning youth activities, and more.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Houston, Texas.
What school do you attend, and what is your year and major there?
I am currently a sophomore at Georgetown University pursuing a major in Global Health and a minor in Psychology.
What do you like to do in your free time?
In my free time, I enjoy volunteering in the community, including packing meals for the homeless, and teaching science to children. I also really enjoy trying new foods and finding new places to eat out. I’ve discovered and really enjoy sushi and Korean beef bowls.
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?
When I was in middle school, I can remember helping my mother study for her citizenship test by testing her with index cards. At a young age, I did not understand the true magnitude of the situation and how impactful it was for my mother. As I got older, I began to hear about immigration issues and learn about politics. More recently, as I learned about Central American immigrant families being torn apart at the US border, my mind drifted to that memory. Something in me shifted. I learned to appreciate what I was once too young and uneducated to understand. This shaped me into a more open-minded, education-seeking individual. I always wanted to do good, but now, I want to truly learn as well — not just learning from a textbook, but learning that connects those textbooks to real life around me and helps me make a difference.
What are your career plans?
In the future, I wish to travel to poorer, undeveloped countries so that I can further understand the differences that are encountered in places where resources are scarce and poverty is high. I wish to look at health care and disease and understand how this shapes people’s lives and how it can be alleviated or prevented.
Why did you choose to intern with Learning Life?
I chose to intern with learning life because I value education. It’s a powerful tool that gives people more control over their own lives. I also value Learning Life’s work to help close educational gaps that exist because of the lack of resources in some communities. I believe educating youth is the definition of a better tomorrow, and that making them more curious and educated individuals will help bring change.
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 Aguascalientes, a city in central Mexico. My parents were born and raised there, and although I have not been there in in about seven years I have great memories of it. This is a place enriched with culture and community, including lots of celebrations like the Quinceañera. I love walking around when I am there and visiting all the animals, including horses, cows, pigs, goats and chickens, in the ranches nearby.
Adrian:
