Intercultural Conflicts | In the eyes of high school students
In case you missed it…
The World Affairs Council and The Academy of Global Studies at Winton Woods High School participated in the first PAK-USA Virtual Classroom Exchange from January through May 2020, a virtual high school student exchange sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan with leadership from Global Ties U.S., our national network affiliate.
We had 4 classrooms, with 10th grade scholars from Winton Woods, participate in the virtual exchange that connects approximately 10 schools/classrooms in Pakistan with 10 in the United States. Global Ties will develop the project-based curriculum, and at the end of the curriculum the projects will be evaluated and the Pakistani students behind the best projects will be selected to participate on a face-to-face exchange with the United States.
If the pandemic were not here, this would mean that 10 Pakistani students would have come to the high school to meet their USA counterparts from our school. Of course, this face-to-face exchange was not possible so instead Global Ties U.S. led a PAK-USA Film Festival to culminate and celebrate! The culmination was for each set of students in Pakistan and the US to create a video at the end of their experience highlighting cultural diversity and the things they learned from each other throughout the experience. In the video, you will see two of the three finalist videos are from the PAK-USA virtual exchange were from our local school, Winton Woods High School! The two nominations were the 1st place and 2nd place winners!
The students researched, practiced, and prepared inspiring video diaries discussing intercultural conflicts in their community.
Adeena discussed Women Empowerment in Pakistan. “This ideal starts off with men as the head of the family who have complete dominance over everything, in return women have no right to question or have control over their life decisions. This psychology has been going on for a quite a long while. The most recent step to neutralize this idea was a movement called Aurat (meaning woman) March.” The movement was held this past March on International Women’s Day and received a lot of attention but according to Adeena wasn’t effective. She encourages more action and more response in support of the women in her country seeking a voice.
Winton Woods High School student, Lauryn prepared her presentation on The Conflict in Police Brutality & Superiority. “Most of the mistreatment goes toward black people, but we want everyone to give their support because we’re practically all involved. We need to bring this horrible reality into the eyes of everyone.” Lauryn discusses the measurable effect and how it would integrate with her community, “Police brutality and abuse still happen. They abuse the power of knowing that they scare us, knowing that we feel threatened. I’m not saying that every cop is dirty, I’m just saying that so far I believe they have lost our trust and we could use their support.” She concluded her presentation sharing the overall impact and look into the future, “This needs to go international because other countries suffer too. In the future we don’t have to be let down or killed or feel small because of our skin, gender, maybe lack of power, or anything. We can all feel comfortable together as equals.”
Winton Woods High School students, Taidgh & Pierre, prepared their presentation on Racial Profiling, the act of being suspicious or targeting someone due to their skin color. Taidgh began the presentation by discussing the initial steps to bring change, “The steps that are needed to bring about change is an effective racial profiling policy that includes procedures to eliminate the influence of improper bias. This means that officers are required to explain why they pulled over the driver as soon as possible.” Pierre discusses the measurable effect, “This will reduce the number of times people get pulled over, stopped, or questioned based on the color of their skin. The long-term effect would allow the community to stand together as one [community] and not feel like it’s just one group of people being targeted. [People] will be happy and no one will worry about going outside and being questioned just because of their different skin color.”
Are you interested in supporting our local high school students as they address human rights issues that matter to them? Here you can find a compiled list of resources including articles, films, podcasts, books for children and adults, to deepen anti-racism knowledge.
If you have some time, make sure to watch the PAK-USA Student Film Festival – Watch Now! https://www.facebook.com/GlobalTiesUS/videos/1686191271557473/
Joshua Amstutz, coordinator of the Academy of Global Studies at Winton Woods High School, and the math department head, who led the charge shared that he was, “so thankful for our relationship with The World Affairs Council – Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky for bringing this opportunity to us!”
Here he shares additional thoughts about the exchange:
“The exchange was implemented most effectively into our 10th grade global seminar class. During this class, students learn about different perspectives from around the world in a Model United Nations format. This exchange took place of the Model UN format and allowed our students a real sharing of experiences and perspectives rather than the simulated version to which they had become accustomed. It was eye-opening for our students to be able to virtually connect with the Pakistani students. The biggest takeaways that our students had were how well-versed in English the Pakistani students were as well as a greater appreciation for writing formalized arguments relating to global issues and cultural differences. Our students mostly enjoyed the FlipGrid assignments where they got to connect with the Pakistani students asynchronously as well as researching and learning about the schools from which the Pakistani students came!”
The Academy of Global Studies at Winton Woods High School was one of 10 schools across the nation who were selected to participate in this exchange by World Affairs Council, the non-profit organization Global Ties USA, and the US Department of State! We are honored and excited to have such a robust partnership with global organizations as well as a local high school committed to global excellence for its students.
