BOULDER – On Monday, July 15 a delegation of 13 high school students from Belarus will meet with undergraduates from the University of Colorado Boulder to examine higher education in the United States and acquire and apply youth-centered civic engagement and community organizing theory.
Sponsored by World Link, Inc., the delegation will tour the campus, dine at the Center for Community, and participate in several student-led workshops. Local high school students will join the delegation and will arrive on campus at 9:30 a.m. and depart at 4:30 p.m.
Monday’s visit is part of the University of Colorado’s Public Achievement program, which both empowers K-12 students to find solutions to salient community issues and promotes student retention and access to post-secondary education. The exchange event seeks to introduce participating students to the Public Achievement curricular framework.
CU-Boulder undergraduates, who serve as Public Achievement coaches, will join Belarusian students for the duration of their visit. The event will culminate with the development of comprehensive action plans that visiting students will implement upon their return to Belarus with the support of CU-Boulder mentors, who will provide online instruction and guidance throughout the 2013-2014 academic year. The visiting students will self select the issues they seek to address, such as sustainability and community gardening. The goal is to cultivate a team of citizen diplomats who will inspire others to follow their lead.
CU-Boulder marks the second stop for the delegation. Students recently met with representatives from the Center for Democracy and Citizenship in Chicago, where they were introduced to democratic theory and corresponding concepts. Monday’s workshops, which will include a talk by local high school students who participated in CU-Boulder’s Public Achievement program during the 2012-2013 academic year will build on previous trainings.
“I am excited to have an opportunity to work with Belarusian students,” said Samuel Lentz, CU-Boulder undergraduate and Public Achievement teaching assistant. “Despite differences in our cultural and political landscape, I believe that the youth empowerment is a necessary and universal approach to building strong and sustainable communities. I hope that the delegation will not only walk away with a new skill set, but a new-found motivation to emerge as leaders in their respective hometowns.”
Administered by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement with support from INVST Community Studies, the School of Education, and CU-Boulder Outreach Committee, Public Achievement seeks to challenge traditional notions of citizen participation by placing young people in the center of their civic environment. Launched in January 2008 as part of a statewide civic engagement initiative, the University of Colorado’s Public Achievement program currently involves more than 75 CU-Boulder undergraduates and nearly 250 K-12 students at Casey Middle School in North Boulder and Centaurus High School and Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer in Lafayette. For more information, visit http://www.colorado.edu/publicachievement.
World Link, Inc. is a non-profit organization headquartered in Kalona, Iowa, that conducts exchange programs for educators and youth through government sponsored projects that seek to improve the understanding and cooperation among the people and cultures of the world. World Link is a unique exchange organization that conducts only publically sponsored exchange programs that serve a citizen diplomacy mission. For additional information, visit http://www.worldlinkinc.org.