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Several months pregnant with her first child, Nona whiled away a nine-hour drive upwards through the unforgiving terrain of Tajikistan's isolated mountains, trying to keep sickness at bay. A soft-spoken American woman, she was on her way to interview a promising young student from a remote village for a high school exchange and scholarship program in the United States.
Nona moved to Tajikistan one of the poorest countries in Central Asia a decade earlier to study Farsi and Tajik and fell in love with the country and the people. Now she works to make international education opportunities more available to learners of all ethnicities, creeds, cultures, and races and why she does not hesitate to embark upon a treacherous drive or to stay overnight in villages without electricity just to meet a promising student.
Experiencing life, culture, and customs outside one's own borders particularly for students not from the privileged elite is not possible without people like Nona, who believe in order to develop socially conscious and globally aware citizens, international education needs to be accessible for students from all backgrounds.
Across diverse parts of the world in over 80 countries from Azerbaijan and Senegal to Bangladesh and Kosovo we work tirelessly to change the paradigm that international education is available only to an elite minority.
The next generation of global leaders must come from all walks of life without regard to economic, social or political status, race or gender, ethnicity or religion, or sexual identification. And all must come equipped with cross-cultural understanding, foreign language skills, and a personal desire to improve the lives of others. This isn't just beneficial to an individual who receives an opportunity: these opportunities change the lives of families, communities, and even countries.
The Power of Alumni
Our 55,000 alumni from a Tajik high school student to an enterprising biotechnological engineer from Moscow or a first-grade teacher from Beijing to a womens' rights advocate in Turkey come from across North America, Eurasia, Southeast Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia are walking examples of the impact of international education on their lives and, subsequently, the lives of others.
Many international exchange students return home and create thriving alumni networks in their communities: like the alumni in Senegal who are building a more sustainable future for their country by educating local high school students on recycling and waste management; or the alumni behind the Help and Travel Project in Ukraine who serve disadvantaged communities across the country through short-term volunteer projects.
Exchange students are also more likely to be aware of minorities or underserved groups in society after spending time in another culture. Alumni in Tajikistan, like the student that Nona traveled nine hours and stayed in a village without electricity to interview, support disabled and orphaned students in Dushanbe by offering free English classes and raising money for basic provisions such as winter clothing and school supplies. Brikena, a native Kosovar, came to the US to pursue a graduate degree in post-conflict development and now advocates for equal rights and opportunities for Kosovar youth, women, and people with disabilities.
We have seen these kinds of exchanges happen every single day for the past 40 years. And these experiences go both ways: from those travelling to study or train in the US to Americans on similar journeys. American students who spend time in a new country and culture and return home as global citizens: Kara went to Tanzania to learn Swahili and when she came back home, she supported refugees arriving in the United States with her new language skills. Ben immersed himself in Chinese culture in Suzhou, China and started teaching Mandarin Chinese classes in underserved schools in California after his exchange program.
These are only a sampling of examples of the waves we make when we support access to international educational opportunities across the globe.
Access to international education is about so much more than an exchange program: It's about giving talented individuals around the world an opportunity to both learn from and understand a new culture and bring back that knowledge to their home countries and communities.
Change the world today. Support access and opportunity for our future leaders this #GivingTuesday.
We hope you'll join us in this exciting journey.