Press

From Outside In: How Out-of-School Programs Enrich Student Learning
By Nancy Bacon, World Affairs Council of Seattle

For students to graduate from our K-12 school system prepared for citizenship, they need a rich extra-curricular experience outside of school. In this essay, I seek to define key elements of citizenship today and then explain how out-of-school programs connected with in-school curriculum support education for citizenship. I describe the two types of hosts for out-of-school programs, higher education institutions and community organizations, and provide examples of out-of-school programs within both of these contexts. In conclusion, I address some of the challenges in evaluating out-of-school time programs run by universities and non-governmental agencies. Read full article - click here (PDF).

The 2003 World Affairs Challenge

Denver, Colorado
On Thursday [May 22, 2003], [Rifle High School] brought their winning project, "Giving a Face to Hunger," to the World Trade Day business conference in Denver.

In front of a painted cardboard set, wearing handmade costumes and few signs of nerves, the students delivered their poignant, powerful dramatization of the plight of the hungry to a roomful of buttondown business types.

When the students finished, the place erupted. The businessmen and women wiped tears from their eyes and gave them a standing ovation.

It wasn't just the skit.

At a time when a third of Latino students don't finish high school and teachers struggle to make school more compelling than a $6-an-hour job in a fast-food joint, a bunch of brown-faced kids with mediocre grades and limited English skills discovered their own remarkable ability.

—Diane Carman, The Denver Post, Sunday, May 25, 2003

San Francisco, California
In the context of student remarks about their experience in the Challenge, the events of May 31, 2003, gave participants a remarkable opportunity to move beyond the walls of their schools and communities, to learn about their roles in the global community and to accept a small portion of the responsibility that comes with greater knowledge of the world.

—Kerry Ruetenik, Project Spera, KIDS Can Make a Difference newsletter, Fall 2003

Previous Challenges:

Denver, Colorado

The Challenge included three other competitions: a poster contest, a quiz on current international events scored individually and a collaborative question scored as a team, but each team consisted of students randomly selected from different schools. The students discussed solutions for the spread of schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms carried by snails that infect humans, damaging our kidneys and bladders.

They debated with judges whether to invest a hypothetical foundation's money in pharmaceutical cures, research, education programs, reducing human contact with contaminated water or eliminating the snails with molluscicides.

"I thought our discussion was really cool because I talked to people I didn't know and shared our points of view," [Halley] Goymerac said. [Daniel] Holmberg agreed, recalling that interacting with so many students from so many different schools was the most rewarding part of the day.

—Einar Jensen, Clear Creek Courant, April 10, 2002

Here they are, trying to clean up the world's problems, and they haven't even cleaned up their rooms yet.

But that didn't stop 270 high school and junior high students from tackling one of the toughest issues the world faces, human rights, in a daylong series of dramatic presentations and discussion groups called the World Affairs Challenge at the University of Denver.

—Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer, Sunday, May 9, 1993