US-India Collaboration {Global Poverty}

Recently, my AP World History class was offered the opportunity to engage with a class in India, in an effort to build relationships, and look for solutions to global poverty.  Officially, the collaboration was facilitated by UNC-Chapel Hill's Center for International Understanding program. They describe it as follows: US India Partnership is a curricular and educational program to enhance collaborative global learning linking high school classrooms in the States of Maharashtra, India and North Carolina, USA. 

Our Skype Session with the students of  the New India School

We were teamed up with the New India School, in Pune India. We interacted with each other through Edmodo and a Skype session.  Each class watched a series of videos about global poverty, and submitted questions for the film producers (which they answered).  My students were quite inspired by the short films made by the guys at Living on One. This is an incredible organization that works to find understanding by living on $1.00 per day.  (I HIGHLY recommend you watch these series of short films, documenting how these American college kids lived 56 days, with only $56, in the mountains of Guatemala.)

From there, our class researched local poverty here in Buncombe County, and created (and shared) a powerpoint on the local initiatives to alleviate the effects of poverty.  My students researched free/reduced lunch rates for the North Buncombe District, the CHIP Health insurance program, as well as local charities who work to end poverty.  Our friends in India did the same, and we compared notes via a Skype session this morning (or evening for India).


While having that face to face interaction, the students were also able to ask each other questions about local poverty, education, food, and entertainment.  It has been a great experience for all of us, and it is fair to say that we are all more engaged and curious about our world - and how we can improve it.  The opening page of my syllabus for AP World History states that our primary goal in this class is to explore the ties that bind.  This opportunity to meet students from the other side of the world, learn about each other, and discuss our commonalities in dealing with local poverty is a major step towards that goal.

I feel so lucky to have this job: and lucky to spend my days with these students.  They continue to inspire and amaze me.