A Local Educator Embarks on Trip to Bangladesh to Explore Climate Change with High School Students from the United States
Linda Stern, an Art Teacher at Bronx High School for the Visual Arts, has been selected for the pilot year of the American Youth Leadership Program with Bangladesh, an experiential education program involving travel and study in Bangladesh regarding climate change. She will spend her holiday break traveling to Bangladesh with 4 other educators and 30 student youth leaders from around the United States in a prestigious program visiting communities and organizations affected by climate change and seeing the impact firsthand. Such visits will include meeting farmers dealing with the loss of their farmland, and a firsthand look at the destruction of habitat in the Sundarbans nature reserve. The group will also learn about Bangladeshi culture and participate in service learning projects with Bangladeshi students.
The immersion trip is part of a prestigious initiative sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State called the American Youth Leadership Program (AYLP). World Savvy has partnered with the Bureau to run an AYLP with Bangladesh focused on climate change during the 2011-12 school year, with the goal of fostering mutual understanding, respect, and civic engagement among young Americans and their Bangladeshi peers. The AYLP with Bangladesh is a unique opportunity for 30 U.S. high school students and 5 U.S. educators to explore their interest in the critical issues of climate change, delving into the problem firsthand through a four-week trip to Bangladesh.
Upon return to the United States, youth leaders will implement action projects that they have designed during their Bangladeshi trip. Through enlisting the leadership of others in their schools and communities, they will transfer learning from their time spent abroad to their local environment, sparking change at home to address an issue affecting people globally.
