Author Archives: Patricia Shafer

Amazing Women: Grâce Françoise Nibizi

Patricia Shafer, November 16, 2015

One of the beautiful surprise benefits of our work is the amazing women we meet, like Grâce Françoise Nibizi, from Burundi. Her story is so inspiring. We met her at the annual Opportunity Collaboration social impact conference in October. In follow-up, we are exploring a relationship with Grâce Françoise and the organization she leads – SaCoDe, which stands for Sante Communaute Developpement (“Promotion of Health for Community Development”).

Grâce Françoise was born the third of 10 children. At age 4, she was sent to live in an all-girls boarding school. Over the years, Grâce Françoise remained very close to and cared for her sick grandmother. She cared for her hospitalized grandmother while studying nursing. Later, while working as a young nurse in a public hospital, Grâce Françoise moved in with her single mother to help raise younger brothers and sisters.

Grâce Françoise married and gave birth to two sons. In 1993, the family moved to Kenya and while raising her sons, Grâce Françoise completed university degrees in International Business Management and Administration and International Business Communication. She also volunteered in Kenyan refugee camps.

In 1997, Grâce Françoise returned to Burundi and held positions with Catholic Relief Services, United Nations organizations, and the European Union. In 2010, she created SaCoDe with a passionate commitment to help disadvantaged women raise their children in dignity.

Today, Grâce Françoise oversees programs that use mobile phone SMS for reproductive health education; provide counseling in youth centers and public schools; and produce education and information videos, many of which focus on the needs of girls. Women in the ISUKU (“hygiene”) project learn to clean homes and offices in ways that prevent transfer of bacteria and promote wellness. Outstanding alumni are hired into hotels, cafes and offices in Burundi’s capital of Bujumbura. Through the TERINTAMBWE (“move forward”) project, rural women receive business management and financial tips via mobile phone SMS messages disseminated by representatives of village women’s associations.

Projects that blend humanitarian work with an entrepreneurial business sensibility is right in line with our philosophy at Mothering Across Continents. The world needs thoughtful women social innovators. We look forward to a continuing connection with Grâce Françoise.

Exceptional Teacher – Outstanding Contributions

Patricia Shafer, October 21, 2015

It’s official. We just nominated physics teacher Deb Semmler for the Global Teacher Prize, an annual $1 million award to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession. This award recognizes an individual who practices innovative instruction, models excellence, encourages others to become teachers, achieves demonstrable student learning, and engages young people as global citizens.

Over three-plus years we’ve come to know Deb and other teachers where she works – East Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, NC, USA. We’ve had the honor of partnering with East Meck on a variety of programs, including Any1Can, The Global Class, and facilitation of a staff Global Immersion Learning Journey. We’ve witnessed “Eagle Pride” at this incredibly diverse, partial magnet IB school of 2,000 students. If we had the ability, we’d make the case for multiple awards spread far and wide to many teachers. So, why did we nominate Deb for an award that’s informally called the “Nobel Prize for Teaching”?

In an age when Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) education is a global need and opportunity, Deb is an Advanced Placement Physics teacher and co-founding member of East Meck’s National Academy Foundation (NAF) Academy of Engineering (AOE)
In 18 years of teaching, she’s coached 15 Science Olympiad teams that qualified for North Carolina statewide competitions, and since she’s been teaching IB diploma physics, East Meck’s overall score has increased dramatically and is now above the world average
Her spirit is about being “all in” for and “all about” students and teachers, always finding new ways to coach and mentor both
She’s a co-founder of the school’s Global Immersion Steering Team (GIST), which is ambitiously developing materials, frameworks and professional development experiences to incorporate global education in the classroom

These are some of our “just the facts, ma’am” evidence of Deb’s teaching impact in the city of Charlotte . . . But we also nominated Deb for her growing impact on education around the world. In summer 2015, Deb accepted our invitation to travel to Rwanda and learn about challenges of and gaps in science and engineering education in East Africa. She worked alongside teachers at two all-girl’s secondary schools in remote, rural areas, visited eight rural public and private schools overall, and met with the Minister of Science Education. Now, she is building on this experience with Mothering Across Continents as lead project catalyst developing “Pivot Academy,” an approach to helping schools in even the most challenged communities to shift from teaching through textbook memorization to approaches that use the design cycle and hands-on experiments to solve problems: food/hunger, water/sanitation, and environment/sustainability.

Soccer for Everyone . . . Please.

Patricia Shafer, July 24, 2015

Inspired by the Charlotte Soccer Initiative, we’re deep in analyses of which US youth (geography, gender, race, ethnicity, household income) have (or don’t have) access. What a gift to meet Daniel Araujo of Creative Player Sports Foundation. He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, to parents that didn’t finish elementary school. As he says, “The chance to play soccer saved me and gave me every opportunity.”

Today, Daniel’s a former professional soccer player; coach/consultant and FIFA agent; and co-creator of a youth soccer learning system and training methodology. He’s also turning an overgrown lot next to a stone restoration business and warehouse into a proverbial “Field of Dreams.” The project is unfolding in Charlotte, on Wilkinson Boulevard, a road that Charlotte Magazine contributor Chuck McShane described this way: “Beyond uptown’s gleaming glass towers . . . Amid the industrial warehouses and barbed-wire fence lots filled with tractor-trailers, faded neon glows on the rusted signs of converted service stations, roadside motels, and drive-in restaurants.”

I was introduced to Daniel, thanks to Chase Saunders, attorney and Chair of the Charlotte Rotary Club’s participation in what’s being called the Charlotte Soccer Initiative. He kept saying, “This is a story of the American Dream, an entrepreneur’s dream, a dream for serving the community.”

And so he was right . . . When you arrive at Creative Player Sports on Wilkinson Blvd., you then drive through a broad passageway with an imposing warehouse on the left, dump trucks on the right, and a bright, beautiful green patch behind – the area’s only soccer pitch. Enter a less imposing secondary warehouse behind the first, and it might as well be a visit to Emerald City – an enormous patch of artificial turf marks out the area for indoor soccer play. To the left: the display case with memorabilia and a framed letter from a young girl expressing thanks in bold colors and proclaiming: “Soccer Rocks.” From this location, Daniel and Creative Player Sports are managing soccer play, training, coaching, life skills classes, and side classes to engage moms and create a feeling of community.

According to data reported by Forbes, ESPN and Sports Illustrated, the writer of the letter (thanks to Daniel) is a statistical anomaly. Across the US, the sport that the world often calls “the Beautiful Game” is generally hard to access if you live in an urban setting, are Hispanic or African-American, and are a girl. Even if you know about and are interested in soccer, you will likely begin to play at a later age, have few opportunities to play competitively, and leave the game after middle school due to the under-development of the sport in public schools operating on restricted athletic and extra-curricular budgets. While soccer seems inexpensive (All you need is a ball, right?), the all-in costs of competitive soccer are out of reach for many youth – a heartbreaking reality for newcomers, refugees and immigrants – many of whom may come from countries where soccer is a passion. According to Daniel, the average cost for playing soccer in Charlotte at a “pay for play” club starts with a yearly fee that ranges from $350 to $1,750 not including tournament fees, equipment, shoes or clothes.

Is this little gem of a facility created out of nothing the answer? Of course not, it’s just one foundational piece of the puzzle that is conceived of as the Charlotte Soccer Initiative. But it’s enough to spark our imagination at Mothering Across Continents . . . What if we connect Daniel with Candace Murray, founder of nonprofit PeacePassers, a network model designed to inspire schools and community groups to collect gently-used soccer equipment and donate it where there is a need? What if civic leaders see, objectively, based on data, the economic development and poverty alleviation value of more facilities like Daniel’s? What if the next time a report comes out on the “most soccer-friendly cities in the US,” one of them is in the Southeast?

See Daniel’s interview on FOX 46 Charlotte!

Click image to watch.

From Knowledge Comes Beauty

Patricia Shafer, July 20, 2015

“From Knowledge Comes Beauty” reads a hand-painted T-shirt, a gift to a high school merit scholar in Rwanda, originally painted by a student in the US . . . Why? Did the US student who painted the T-shirt believe deep down inside that there is a connection between knowledge and beauty? Does the recipient, Daphrose, now feel a sense of connection with a young person thousands of miles away that she may never meet?

We will likely never know the true answers. However, when Mothering Across Continents special projects coordinator Elizabeth Peacock packed her luggage and more than 20 hand-painted T-shirts for a trip to Rwanda, she wondered what magic might be created. T-shirts, she reminded us, have become a global medium of expression, especially for youth. Likewise – hearts, peace signs, flowers and books are images that translate well across many cultures. The languages of love, compassion and quality education are bridge-builders.

Yet, Elizabeth’s bearing of T-shirt gifts had an even bigger purpose. Three years ago, she led an enormous T-shirt painting exercise across middle and high schools in Charlotte, North Carolina. After workshops learning about seven global issues (poverty, education/illiteracy, hunger, water/infrastructure, environment, conflict/peace, and intolerance), students were invited to paint a white T-shirt in a way that expressed what he or she had learned about what can be done to address one issue. Schools and students raised money to participate. The funds were designated to help build a school in South Sudan. The school, Nyarweng Primary, is operating today.

Then what? What becomes of the T-shirts? First, they toured Charlotte, including an installation of 2,000 T-shirts at the annual Sensoria Arts Festival at Central Piedmont Community College. The exhibit was called “Any1Can” – a theme carried on each of the T-shirts and reminder that Any1Can Promote Education, Any1Can Teach Tolerance, Any1Can Stop Hunger, Any1Can . . .

Some have been set aside, almost museum-like, to be untouched, and only replicated through social enterprise products available in the Mothering Across Continents store. Special gifts have been made of others – the group that Elizabeth just took to students in Rwanda, for example. And another group have been looked at, not as T-shirts to wear per se, but as accidental canvases to be upcycled into purses, bags and backpacks – a potential social enterprise to help fund more education projects.

But I digress . . . I’ve started to share the material and potential marketing impact of these T-shirts, which is easy to do, because we’re often told that T-shirts are a powerful and affordable marketing opportunity. Practically speaking, that may be true. But speaking with purpose, what matters more is that students in the US were introduced to the idea of global issues and the idea that Any1Can make a difference; they were asked to react through art; and their thoughts are being conveyed as gifts half-way around the world. Coming full-circle: “From Knowledge Comes Beauty.”

Global Teacher Travel Opens Hearts and Minds

Patricia Shafer, July 10, 2015

Our program The Global Class helps US schools connect with the world in unexpected ways. Great sentiments and photos are emerging from teachers who just returned from a “Food, Sustainability, Peace” trip to Costa Rica. Seven of these teachers are from East Mecklenburg, a public high school in Charlotte, North Carolina, that has embarked on a three-year Global Immersion Journey. One of the first big “Aha” moments of this facilitated journey was the leadership team’s realization that there had never been a group international trip for East Meck teachers. They agreed on Costa Rica as the first opportunity.

Of course, a trip like this means thousands of photos and memories. But global education facilitator Carina Cordero, who guided the trip, suggests that the traditional Costa Rican greeting of “Pura Vida!” (pure life) captures the essence. And there is definitely a peaceful feeling that comes through in some of the photos of fresh food. As the 2015-16 school year nears, these teachers will spend a full day reflecting and planning how to incorporate trip insights into lesson plans. East Meck has a 2015-16 goal of 50% of students experiencing a deep dive education experience on the global theme of “Food, Sustainability, Peace.”

Meanwhile, it’s a summary from Jonathan Janus, who teaches 9th grade English and AP Human Geography, that inspires us at Mothering Across Continents and The Global Class: “It is easy to use global lingo and throw in global concepts at a shallow level. However, the ultimate goal of global education is to change the way students look at the world and live in the world. Three stories struck me as valuable lessons of the importance of facing challenges and overcoming them, lessons that I can apply. The first was the struggle of an organic coffee farmer to be a good steward of his land while trying to make money to support his family. Another was the scarred face of a Nicaraguan boy at a rural school whose poignant story captured our hearts, a reminder that immigration is not just a 1st world problem. The third story was the local fishermen who spent years taking on big business and ended up preserving a beautiful and rapidly shrinking way of life. These stories would have remained untold without the opportunity for us to witness them firsthand. This trip and others like it are essential to forming global teachers and global classrooms.”

Beautiful moments are easy to find in Rwanda

Patricia Shafer, July 6, 2015

With open eyes, beautiful moments are easy to find in Rwanda. That’s often a surprise to first-time visitors. Stories and images of the 1994 genocide from news reels and memoirs are many people’s only reference points. So, we’ve been moved by the distinctly different email updates that we’re receiving from Mothering Across Continents-supported volunteers who are in Rwanda right now. Beautiful flowers, a high school girl sitting under a tree reading, a stroll up a cobblestone pathway. All are reminders that nature’s artistry, opportunities to quietly reflect, and a sense of connection are available around the world. So are examples of aspiration and leadership. A visit to Gashora Girls Academy, not far from the capital of Kigali, inspired US Physics teacher Deb Semmler’s breathless end-of-day reflection: “WOW! . . . Gashora is 3.2 miles down a dirt road on the edge of a beautiful lake. The students run the school. They make decisions on how the school operates, and they have pride. The three girls that we talked and walked around the school with have big dreams and are high achievers . . . We talked about the summer leadership program they are part of. This summer, 123 girls from around the world (50 from the US and Canada) are spending three weeks learning about leadership and girl power.” As Deb has commented more than once on her experience in Rwanda, “A great day in Africa.”

Science Education for Girls in Rwanda

It’s been awhile since we posted a blog on our website. Physics teacher Deb Semmler’s trip to Rwanda makes it worth starting up again. Through Mothering Across Continents, she is guest teaching and providing professional development training for physics, chemistry and biology teachers for nearly three weeks. It’s her first trip to Africa.

I’m at an all-girls high school that we call “Biyimana” for short. The school, managed by nuns, was founded in 1955 with the first class graduation in 1959. The school is very well-established and they raise cows to provide fresh milk for the students, as well as chickens for eggs, pigs, and rabbits to sell to provide beef for students. They have large gardens that provide fruits and vegetables for the students, including carrots, beets, and bananas. They seem fully self-supporting and have men who tend to the livestock and gardens. Nobody wants for food here, and there is no food desert as far as I can tell. I see fresh fruit and vegetable at every meal and available along the “road” as we drive to and from the school. I drank warm fresh milk for the first time ever at lunch (so far, so good, not sick).

The teachers use questioning and have students individually go to the board, do the work, and explain each step of a problem or question to the others. They use science note booking for taking notes and doing problems (two separate books). The students’ notebook are impeccable, using ink and rulers to draw. They don’t make mistakes and have perfect handwriting.

One morning, I did professional development training with 2 biology teachers, 2 chemistry teachers and one physics teacher. We started with the hydrophilic bead that I had left in water overnight . . . with the coin that is invisible when there is no excess water and visible with excess water due to light refraction in the air space.

I made a short presentation using the projector on the newest research on how people learn, not by reading and rereading but by testing themselves overtime. That led me to show them how we use “foldables” so students can take notes and test their knowledge over time. The teachers separated into subject groups and made their own. One bio teacher one a foldable of fungi. The other made one on the difference between DNA and RNA. The chemistry teachers made one on acids and bases. I worked with the physics teacher on some of the physics specific material (FCI and graphing diagnostic) and computer documents that I am sharing. I showed the chemistry teacher the acid/base pH PhEt interactive lab that shows the same thing as doing an actual lab. We did a pH lab with the NaOH and pH paper I brought and transmission of disease lab.

The chemistry teacher asked if I could make the electrolytic cell lab he had in his notes, using a battery and two conducting probes. We made it work with the conductivity tester I brought, and he used it in his classroom along with the pH paper test with salt (NaCl), pure water and a strong base (NaOH). The students did the tests and shared results. These are excellent teachers. They just need resources! Sometimes language is a barrier, so it’s been suggested that students write notes to our students at East Mecklenburg High, and our students write back. I also asked how we could bring 6 to 10 visiting teachers and students here, and transfer them from the hotel to the school along the rough road. transfer many. The answer is to rent a state operated bus and driver.

This is why I am here! These teachers, like most I know, love their students and work very hard to help them be successful. The headmistress watched the whole physics class and was very happy to see the students engaged.

Piet from Zambia…From Doctor to Engineer

Piety Ngandu is a scholarship student, supported by a donor for the past 7 years with 5 to go. He is from a rural family of 13 children in Zambia who’s now on a path to becoming an engineer. Here’s a recent letter from him.

“Hi, how are you? Last October, I was admitted at the University of Zambia. It was a step to become a doctor. But I began to love all the sciences and even more – Physics. Every experiment was connected with everything in the universe and just seemed to be real.

As I was developing an interest in Physics at University of Zambia, I decided to become an engineer and later a Rocket Scientist. Copperbelt Province has an industrial nature, so I’ve transferred to Copperbelt University. Also, the government of Zambia is now offering me a 100% free tuition at the institution. I saw this as a relief to my donor sponsors as they would not have to worry about my tuition fees. But for boarding and study materials for Year 2, 3, 4 and 5, it will be a challenge for me for which I will still need help from my sponsors. This was also a very good opportunity not to waste because I could get accommodations at the university, making it easier to study more. And it is cheaper to be living at school than in a boarding house.

I am now doing six courses. These are Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Pure Mathematics, Computer Science and Communication Skills. These Communication Skills are new to me, but I have started to enjoy it because it teaches me how to interact with different types of people. Computer Science is also interesting because everything now involves computers. For the Sciences, I expect no problems in these courses. I am happy to inform you that so far everything is going well, and I am doing fine. I will be a civil engineer by 2019.

I am wishing you all the best, and I thank you for the assistance you are giving me.”

Piet age 13. Current age: 20

Top Ten List of Reasons our Eyes were Opened, Heads were Left Buzzing, and Spines are Still Tingling

Saturday, April 5, was a big day for us. In January, we officially took the plunge to plan and deliver the Any1Can You’re It! Global Youth Service Summit. It constituted a series of firsts . . . first time we hosted a youth service summit, first time we served as Youth Service America’s local lead agency, first time students from public and private high schools across the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District came together in conjunction with Global Youth Service Day (April 11). We knew it would be a day of surprises – as are all “events.” But we really underestimated how much we would learn in the presence of approximately 125 students who are service leaders at 16 different schools. Given that the event came on the heels of “Top Ten Reasons” originator David Letterman announcing he will retire, we’re offering our “Top Ten List of Reasons our Eyes were Opened, Heads were Left Buzzing, and Spines are Still Tingling.” In reverse order, of course:

10. STUDENTS WILL GO OUT OF THEIR WAY ON A SATURDAY.
When we first decided to move ahead with the event, with limited time to organize sponsors, partners, and commitments to attend, we held our breath. Will students come to a summit on a Saturday? We learned that we underestimated how moved and motivated they would be by the opportunity to come together to learn about and share experiences with service projects.

9. MUSIC MATTERS.
One of our facilitating partners, Leading2Change, insisted that we couldn’t have a youth summit without the right music. They were right. It was one of those intangibles that said “This summit is for you.”

8. SPECIAL VISITORS TAKE PEOPLE’S BREATH AWAY.
Our keynote speaker was 18-year-old Charles Orgbon, founder of Atlanta-based Greening Forward. He started his non-profit environmental efforts in the 6th grade. He’s now a high school senior. In six years his organization has supported projects engaging 2,000 students and 10,000 adults in environmental service.

7. LOCALS INSPIRE TOO.
Students and an adviser from Charlotte Latin attended. We learned that this year they’ve raised $35,000 to support a school project in Tanzania, and they’re still going! Two students were the catalysts who proposed the project.

6. See #8 and note…
WE UNDERESTIMATE YOUTH, AND THEY UNDERESTIMATE EACH OTHER.
A common refrain was, “I had no idea other schools are working on stuff like we are at our school. I thought we were the only ones who cared about global issues and service.”

5. BETTER FUEL UP.
If you want a successful event, surprise students with fresh, hot pizza and snacks they like. Thanks, Fuel Pizza. Thanks, LANCE for the chips. Thanks, EarthFare for the apples, bananas and yummy juice. A collective gasp arose and hands clapped when we shared that lunch included you.

4. MISSING SKILL – ADVOCACY.
Asked for examples of their activities in the realms of Awareness, Service, Philanthropy or Advocacy, there were plenty of examples of the first three – almost no examples of the last (Advocacy). Facilitators asked “Why?” Participants responded: “Who wants to hear from
us?” and “We don’t know how to advocate.”

3. IF YOU WANT HONESTY, EXPECT UNCOMFORTABLE MOMENTS.
Like…the student troupe that performed at lunch and named specific issues at specific schools. Like…the dialogue in the economy workshop led a participant to share that his father lives and works in New York, while the family lives in Charlotte, because that’s where his father found the best job to put food on the table. They SKYPE each night, but miss each other a lot.

2. PEACE WINS.
Given seven different themes as options for creating a service campaign (education, poverty, hunger, water, peace, tolerance, and environment), peace and its parallel tolerance win out. But the truth is, we as facilitators don’t know why. We simply noticed a pattern.

1. FIRSTS ALWAYS LEAD TO THE QUESTION – WHAT NEXT?
Some students exchanged contact information on the spot and declared, “Look at me – I’m networking.” Twitter, Facebook and Instagram received their fair share of traffic. And the
general sentiment from students and facilitators indicated, this was a great first step.
And so . . . ?!

What are teachers doing to prepare students for the world of tomorrow?

Adults with children attending school in countries with developed economies are hearing a common theme these days . . . “We need to focus on developing global citizens with 21^st century skills.” But interview teachers (which we often do as creators of The Global Class and Any1Can Project), and you hear the practical challenges at hand. There are high expectations of (and pressure on) today’s educators to effectively teach to established curricula and help students improve scores on standardized exams. So, how and where can they integrate global education in ways that align with what they’re already teaching and are presented in new, innovative and engaging ways that appeal to students – especially teenagers in high schools?

As one contribution to the answer, we offer up Exhibit A – the 9^th grade English teachers and administrators of Myers Park High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. This year, with the support and encouragement of a new principal, Mark Bosco, interested in expanded global knowledge and problem-solving skills, these teachers launched a year-long program that culminates in April.

Step 1: They participated in professional development on how to incorporate seven global issues into the classroom.
Step 2: They introduced the history and context of South Sudan and the former Lost Boys of Sudan into their classrooms through articles, videos, an assembly, and dialogues.
Step 3: They connected classroom learning to efforts of a student club that took the lead on sharing with the rest of the school what was going on in 9^th grade English.
Step 4: Working in an integrated way, the 9^th grade English teachers and student club members planned a 3-mile “Walk for Wisdom” to raise funds for adult literacy in South Sudan. The walk takes place on Friday, April 4, with nearly 700 of the high school’s 3,000 students registered.
Step 5: After the walk, in April, the teachers are leading classroom reflection conversations about the relationship between what students learned about South Sudan and themes of education, conflict and intolerance in classic literature, specifically Romeo and Juliet and The Odyssey.
Step 6: All of the 900 English students in 9^th grade are learning to use online technology to create “memes” that juxtapose images from South Sudan with famous lines from “R&J” and “Odyssey.”

And there’s a culmination. By May, these memes will be curated for presentation at the school and in public.

Next time you hear someone say, “What are teachers doing to prepare students for the world of tomorrow?” feel free to think about this moment in time that links a photo of a few teachers sitting in a circle of student desks and what emerged from it.