Conversations with AFS-USA's Global Awards Winners

In honor of International Education week, The AFS Exchange brings you conversations with the awardees of AFS-USA’s 2022 Global Awards! These awardees were recognized earlier this year for their commitment to helping the next generation achieve global and intercultural competence.

We hear from Global Educator Award winner Josh Amstuz from Cleveland, Ohio about how he became interested in international education after a trip to Madrid with his father. We learn more about project-based learning and his role at the Academy of Global Studies at Winton Woods High School.

The winner of the Global School Award was Oconomowoc High School in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Carrie Schultz, Danielle Chaussée, and Jason Curtis share about the value of highlighting global competence in their school. They also discuss the benefits of welcoming multiple AFS students each year, giving their students the ability to learn about other cultures without traveling themselves. The impact AFSers can have on a school community is really far-reaching- no airplane required! That’s the #AFSeffect!

Guests:
Josh Amstutz
Carrie Schultz
Danielle Chaussée
Jason Curtis

Study Abroad with AFS-USA: www.afsusa.org/study-abroad
Volunteer with AFS-USA: www.afsusa.org/volunteer
Host with AFS-USA: www.afsusa.org/host
Educator Resources: www.afsusa.org/educators
Contact us: podcast@afsusa.org

Transcript

Kate M.
Hello and welcome to The AFS Exchange. My name is Kate Mulvihill. The AFS Exchange is a podcast by AFS-USA where we open the door to hear from members of our AFS family. This is a place to have conversations, or exchanges, with AFS host families, students, volunteers, and educators.

During these exchanges, we will hear from our guests on how their lives have been impacted by AFS. What lessons have they taken away from their experience abroad, or their experience with hosted students in the United States?

[Music]

Kate M.
So International Education Week comes around every November. This year, it’s Monday the 14th through Friday the 18th… possibly when you are listening to this episode. International Education Week highlights the benefits of international education and exchange and is promoted by the US Department of State and the Department of Education.

In honor of this week, I will be sharing 2 interviews with the awardees of AFS-USA’s inaugural Global Awards. These awardees were recognized earlier this year for their commitment to helping the next generation achieve global and intercultural competence.

So there are two awards- the Global Educator Award and the Global School Award. To start, I will be talking with Global Educator Josh Amstutz from the Academy of Global Studies at Winton Woods High School in Ohio.

Then I will be sharing an interview with Jason Curtis, Carrie Schultz, and Danielle Chaussée from Oconomowoc High School in Wisconsin, the winner of the Global School Award.

Through both of these conversations, you will hear about how these educators have successfully integrated global issues into the curriculum in classrooms of all subjects. We also hear about the value of having AFS students in the classroom and the school community.

Do you know an educator or school who you think would be a good fit for these awards? Stay tuned until the end of the episode to hear about this year’s application process.

[Music]

Kate M.
Josh Amstutz is a math teacher and Coordinator of Global Studies of the Academy of Global Studies at Winton Woods High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. HIs first introduction to global learning was alongside his father, a Spanish teacher, on a class trip to Spain. He then had his own study abroad experience in Italy, before starting at Winton Woods.
We will hear about his school’s unique approach to education via project-based learning- and how global education is woven into every class.

Josh A.
Yep, so my name is Josh Amstutz. I am a math teacher first and foremost at the Academy of Global Studies at Winton Woods High School. I also have the pleasure of being the coordinator of the Academy of Global Studies at Winton Woods High School and the math department head. I've been teaching here for 10 years, I've been teaching for 11 years total. I teach anywhere from freshman classes and starter algebra to our advanced classes and calculus through Cincinnati State Community College.

And of course, the most important thing is I've been interested in applying project based learning and global knowledge my entire teaching career. It is my goal 100% to make sure that that is expanded upon rather than something that is done solely within the four walls of my classroom.

Kate M.
All right, and how did you become so interested in that? How did that become a priority for you?

Josh A.
Yeah, I think it all started when I was a kid when I was in high school. So my dad was a Spanish teacher, he had the ability to take me abroad when I was a sophomore in high school. So I went to Spain.
I came from a very small town in Ohio with about 600 people. So we didn't get out much. There wasn't a lot to do, per se. That one experience definitely transformed my perspective of the world. And I thought, man, if a kid from the small town Berlin Heights, Ohio, can have this experience, why can everyone not have this experience? It has to be attainable. So throughout my college career I really invested myself and everything in global learning from being able to take extra courses on it, to studying abroad myself in Italy.
So that when I became a teacher, I could not only just take trips for language classes, which is what my dad's class was, a language class that I was able to go on a trip for. I wanted to do trips in math class, history, and language. And that was my whole goal going into teaching is being able to offer these opportunities outside of just foreign languages.

Josh A.
So we went to Madrid, we went to another town called Segovia, we went to Toledo. And those are the three main hubs. And we did anything from visiting castles to visiting art museums, looking at the architecture, to going to an authentic flamenco dance studio, which was super cool. This all happened about 16 years ago for me, but it’s still super meaningful.

Kate M.
In college, Josh studied abroad in Italy.

Josh A. 
So that was kind of my first step into being able to incorporate international travel, or travel in general for my own students, because I felt like I needed to do it myself and know what it was like to be in another culture other than my own.

So when I was a senior in high school, I found a passion for Italian culture and Italian language. So I taught myself Italian and I said, “Hey, I want to eventually study abroad. So that'd be a good thing to do.” When I got into college- I'm a planner- so my first year of college, I met with my advisor, and I said, “All right, this is what I'm taking every semester so that I can have my spring semester my junior year off, to travel to Italy to do what I want to do.”

It was just the most amazing experience. I was there for four months. I was in Florence, Italy. It's a school called the Scuela Lorenzo Domenici. And it was right in the heart of Florence. I was able to take classes not related to math education, which was a real treat for me. Although I love math, I love education. It was nice to take a History of Florence class and to take a Tuscany and its Environments class. It was something just new and unique, that experience. But I think the best part was like getting to know the local people, the local culture. Going to my coffee guy in the morning practicing the language, going to the market buying my own food, just like every other Italian person. And of course sightseeing, which is really great as well.
I think the biggest surprise to me was the difference that it made in me knowing the language as opposed to other tourists or other foreigners who did so.

Kate M.
I am sure that this is something that a lot of AFSers know well! Learning the language- even just a little bit- can open up doors of understanding and connection during your time abroad.

Josh A.
Because I knew the language, I was able to go to the more authentic Italian restaurants, when I went to any establishment, even if it was to see like the Uffizi Galleries or to see Michelangelo's David, like, you know, being able to speak with Italians in Italian, there was a greater appreciation for that. And I saw a difference in their demeanor towards me versus other people who just expected them to speak English or whatever language they spoke. 
That made sense, how important it is to truly understand others perspectives. So that you don't just impose your beliefs upon them; you try to make an effort to learn their beliefs as well.

Kate M.
I do want to note that you can be passionate about global education and it doesn’t need to come out through language. We talk a lot about world languages on this podcast because it is a big part of international exchange, and also because it is very much a personal interest of mine… but there are many ways to bring global learning into the classroom that do not involve world languages. So let’s learn a bit more about that, and how it shows up at the Academy of Global Studies…

Josh A.
So the Academy of Global Studies has been around for about 10 years now. It started in the 2011-2012 school year, in the hope that we can create global citizens in our community and do learning a little bit differently. It started as freshmen and then added a sophomore class, then junior, then senior class with each respective year.

The academy was really focused on two kinds of models. We focus on New Tech Network, which is an organization in the United States that offers a project based learning format, so that we have some PD for our teachers to be able to organize projects to make them meaningful, to allow them to have student choice and technology usage and a format and reflective processes. Really focusing on the holistic individual, rather than old versions of schooling, which is just traditional. You test, you regurgitate, you move on.

The second piece though, the global piece, comes from our connection with Asia Society. So originally, we were partnered with both organizations, we used the PBL (project-based learning) format from New Tech. And we use the global perspective to focus our projects on from the Asia Society, or the International School Studies network. And through that, we created a whole domain of grading, of competence around the global piece called global competence. We have rubrics for global competence in a math classroom, an English classroom, a science classroom, a history classroom. Because it does look different, and it should look different.

And so the point of AGS was to combine all that together. And there's just a team of seven people that started this, it grew, you know, to have four years of schooling. So now we have a team of 17 teachers, of which I'm the coordinator. I'm a teacher in it as well. But I helped to make sure that the communication is there, that the support is there for our students, and that we're continuously progressing our program rather than just becoming complacent. So that's a brief history of the Academy of Global Studies.

Kate M.
Every morning AGS has something called Zero Bell. Students who are part of AGS start school at 7:12 instead of 8. During this time, students learn more about how to become global citizens. They have seminars on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, they hear from speakers from around the world, and they have opportunities to take their learning outside the classroom.

Josh A.
This morning. For instance, we just had a presentation from a former graduate from the Academy of Global Studies, who's 24 Now he is worked his way up and Amazon owns a couple of rental properties, and said, “Hey, listen, Mr. A, I want to give back to the Academy of Global Studies. I'm so appreciative of them really expanding my horizons and being able to look outside of just our community.”

And tomorrow, we have a group from Armenia coming in who's focusing on STEM education, like just really cool experiences. Where our  kids get to meet people from around the world, if they don't have the means to travel there in the hopes that eventually they'll use programs like AFS to be able to do so. So it's really integral to what we do. It's what brings us together. And that's where our family atmosphere I think comes from.

Kate M.
So, how is Winton Woods different from other schools?

Josh A.
But I'd say Winton Woods, it's kind of a cool dynamic. First off, we are a K to 12 project-based learning district. So starting in kindergarten, our kids learn via projects. They focus on critical-thinking, agency, and collaboration. All the soft skills that we have talked about. So it looks very different than pretty much every other district, to be honest with you in the area. There are some schools in our area that have high school programs that are focused on the soft skills, but there is no district in the entire Cincinnati area doing project-based learning starting K to 12.

Kate M.
In the project-based learning model, students work on a project over an extended period of time – a week to a semester – a project that engages them in solving a real-world problem or answering a complex question. They demonstrate their knowledge and skills by creating a public product or presentation for a real audience.

How is this different from just… being in a “traditional classroom”… and doing a project? Well with those types of projects, students often work on them after the teacher covers the content of a unit. Here, the project is the vehicle for teaching the knowledge and skills students need to learn. The project is what frames the curriculum and instruction.

Josh A.
So that alone makes us just a little bit unique and different. In some cases it is really hard for students to adapt to. If you think about it, if you're an eighth grader coming from another district where you've done traditional learning your whole life… and now you're in this district, where class looks different, the setup looks different. You know, the teachers are instructing you in small little segments, rather than one direct lecture where you constantly are having to communicate. So those students who normally grew up being reserved, and they got a red face when they were maybe presenting, very nervous, their voice quivered. That doesn't necessarily exist anymore in our district, because they are constantly communicating with each other. Because we feel like that is something that is really important for their skill set in life in general.

Kate M.
I was interested to hear about how the UN Sustainable Development Goals get brought into the classroom. How can you teach math with a global lens?

Josh A.
So one example I'll give, I'll give two quick ones, one from a higher level course and one from a lower level. I'm just to show it can be done anywhere.

I teach a combined course called Pre Calculus Aligned Physics or PCAP for short. The physics teacher and I decided to create this course because the math really supplemented the physics, the physics supplements the math. They worked hand in hand.

One of the most recent projects we did was called the One Pair at a Time project. And so the scenario is, there's an organization called Soles for Souls. It's real, but we hypothetically say, Hey, listen, they're looking to offer Shark Tank presentations on a shoe of choice to help people in need in a developing country. So what the students did is they investigated some developing countries around the world with 12 different terrain types that our world has. From karst to rolling hills to ocean to desert. And what they had to do is design a shoe to be able to help people who are working for very low wages in those areas to be able to provide more opportunity. Because appropriate footwear, it's the easiest ways to help people out of poverty, being able to simply travel comfortably from point A to point B to get to work.

So they used exponential equations to be able to understand acceleration of objects down surfaces. They then used this investigation to calculate coefficients of friction between a shoe type and a surface type. So if you have a sandy, rocky mountain terrain vs. a swamp land vs. a desert that's all sand, you want shoes with different types of friction. So they investigated those two main concepts from math and science, they then 3d printed shoes, after they design them on some 3D printing software, which we are just so grateful for our district to have the opportunity to do and then they created a sharpening presentation at the end, to showcase hey, here's my shoe design, here's the people it's supposed to help, here's how it's going to help them. Here's the math and physics that we did to show why it works. But you know, we deserve, you know, X amount of profit or X amount of money for X percent profit of our sheet company. So it was just a fun way to culminate the project.

Kate M.
One project is called The Triangle of Influence.

Josh A.
So what they do is they investigate countries around the world who are really struggling to meet one of the Sustainable Development Goals within that country. They do a little research about why they're struggling to meet it. They focus on three cities that they think are the ones that could benefit from solving the issues the most or, or improving the goal the most. They then plot those cities in our online platform called Desmos. They connect them with a system of linear inequalities. So it creates a nice little triangle. Sometimes it's scalene, sometimes it's acute, obtuse, doesn't matter. But then they have to create and solve the inequalities to show this basically, this region or this zone, that could really be benefited, if we were to pour resources into it to try to help them to meet that sustainable development goal. So it helps them to be able to research the need for it, but also have a very real application. And I use the Bermuda Triangle as a reference point, the beginning of project so they understand the concept of what's going on, but allows them to not only practice that idea of systems of linear inequalities, but we also use the StG data tracker to understand some statistical models to be able to understand why it is those people are struggling to meet the goal. So just two quick examples, one of higher, one of lower but both very meaningful.

Kate M.
And these classes are popular among the students of Winton Woods.

Josh A. 
Okay, the cool thing I will say is that our first year of the course, we had 19 students sign up. Just 19, because they didn't know about it. Whereas this year, we now have over 80 who signed up to take Precalculus and Physics whereas before, we might only have 25 students schoolwide who were brave enough to take Physics. So not only has it improved the global knowledge of our kids, but it's also improved the ability for the kids to see themselves being in a math or science field. Whereas before that was not necessarily the case.

Kate M. 
I think that just like this whole concept is amazing. And as somebody who is not a very strong science student, to have an opportunity… you're not just going in and you're not just doing worksheet after worksheet of physics problems. You are seeing how this can apply to the world outside of the classroom, the world outside of Cincinnati outside of the United States, and provide a better idea for students on how science can actually be applicable and ways outside of just research and testing. And if some of these students don't go on to do anything globally, going forward, just knowing that science is more than one thing, math can be more than one thing. I think that's so valuable. And I'm sure it's opened up a whole lot of doors for students and given them opportunities to consider professions that they didn't think were on the table for them.

Josh A.
And I think it's a testament to that we've actually gone through our curriculum faster than when we originally taught both courses separately from one another. So a lot of people might think, well, projects, there's a lot of quote unquote, fluff there, which I consider not fluff, but very valuable information to be a holistically rounded student. But because the students are so much more engaged, and so much more invested, it really is a one and done concept. Because every math and physics concept applies to a specific skill they need for the project, there's not a lot of reteaching I have to do. I mean, they pretty much get it the first time around, because not only is it in small group settings that we do what we call workshops. It's never a whole class lecture, because I could have 12 different groups, for instance, this year in my PCAP class, and they all are different stages, because they all are focusing on different things. Are there different levels, and that's okay, like that. But it's really hard for a teacher to be able to give up that structure in their classroom. Because it does take a lot of planning, it does take a lot of front loading. But once you get good at it, man, it's so great for the kids.

Kate M.
I asked Josh why he thought global competence was important to teach, specifically to high schoolers.

Josh A. 
Yeah, I mean, I think global competence is valuable, because regardless of what students are going to do after high school, if they're going to go into a trade, if they're going to go into the armed forces, if they're going to go into college university, they're going to meet and greet people from all around the world who have different stories other than them.

We are not in the world anymore, where your hometown is where you're going to live and die. It's just not the case. That's great for some because that's where your family is. And that's always where your heart kind of gets pulled back to. But the vast majority of our kids are going to go into a workforce where they're going to have people from around the world and they're more likely to excel and to succeed if they have some prior knowledge about being adaptable to other cultures and recognizing those perspectives. The last thing that I want the student to do when they leave this high school is to say an ignorant comment or to say something that would offend someone, and reduce their options with respect to their workforce and their ability to move up in whatever company or placement that they have.

So in hearing from our graduates that are now coming back, like the individual who came today, you know, it's really great to hear that perspective. They say, Listen, you know, I've done the college thing, I've worked for it in a place like Amazon, you know, I've also been an  Uber driver, he said, to be able to get himself through. And all those requirements he was comfortable doing, because he learned about other cultures, he learned how to communicate his ideas, he learned how to critically think. He learned how to have agency and collaboration skills, all of those skills that we consider the soft skills are really the skills to succeed. I mean, it's great to be good at your content. And that's so important. But it's even better if you have someone who's good at their content and can do all the other things. So that's why I think it's so important.

Kate M.
AFS-USA invited the Global Award Winners to the ECA conference in March of 2022.

The ECA is the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. AFS-USA partners with the ECA to offer some of our Sponsored Programs, like the YES and FLEX Programs. YES stands for the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program, and FLEX stands for the Future Leaders Exchange Program. You can hear interviews with some YES participants in the 2nd episode of this season, called AFSers in Schools: The Impact of Student Exchange.

Anyway, AFS and other exchange organizations put on an annual conference in Alexandria, Virginia alongside the ECA for volunteers, policy makers, educators, and international partners.

Josh A.
But at the ECA conference for AFS, I really gained a greater perspective and expanded, in my opinion, my mission to be able to be more of a liaison between the students and these families in the school system. So I think my big takeaways from the conference were after meeting all the individuals from around the world who came to present and after meeting all the volunteers from across the country who were there to really learn and try to integrate their kids more closely into their communities. I feel that as educators, we need to be a part of that conference to that we need to be able to have educational representatives there, along with the community members who are liaisons between the schools, because some of the issues that I heard about from the volunteers have kids not assimilating with the culture of the school, or kids having great home lives, their host families, struggling to make friends, I really want to help those kids who are not necessarily adapting as well as the vast majority of the others who have really great positive experiences.

So I think the conference just gave me perspective. And it gave me a lot of hope because there are so many people there who volunteer their time and their energy and their money and their resources to be able to promote global education and get to know people from other countries and cultures. And I think that's just such a valuable thing to represent.

I can say that prior to this conference, you know, AFS to me was an exchange organization. After this conference, though, I see that AFS is so much more. I see it's really working to showcase where global education is working well within the classroom, and within communities so that they can represent that and replicate it across the country. Even since the conference, I've had three different presentations with the staff members of the Academy of Global Studies with my student. I talk to them about the resources available, the educator resources online, the newsletter that we get.

Being able to talk to our kids about the opportunities to study abroad, which I found out from our representative who works with our school, we've only really had like one or two students ever actually study abroad, we've hosted students, that's great. But our students never saw themselves as studying abroad because they didn't know more about it.

Kate M.
I asked Josh about the effect of welcoming AFS students into the school community.

Josh A. 
Yeah, I mean, it's always been a positive impact. I have loved, love, love working with all the AFS students. Being a math teacher and being able to teach I normally teach younger grade levels and higher grade levels. Usually, they're in my math class. And it's been great. You know, we've had students from Pakistan, from Republican Georgia, from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is super cool to students from Italy, you know, in Germany, and all of them have had such a positive impact on our student culture, simply because it's finally real. Like they're using their global knowledge and competence in the context of someone from another country where they're recognizing their perspective without really realizing it. They're investigating the world by asking them all these questions about school life and how life is for them in the other country, and they have only been a positive benefit to our student population. Another cool thing too, is that we have a family in our district who've hosted students who are visually impaired, which I think is amazing, because in this family, the mom is an educator, she's visually impaired and so they have a passion for making sure that these opportunities exist for all types of students. And so I've had three students in my math classes. And once you know, my cross-country team, who's visually impaired, being able to participate and to interact with people from other cultures and countries and that's just adds an extra layer of appreciation that our students have is the ability to not only study abroad, but also do it with a disability is something that is super impactful, and something that I think really positively encourages our kids to do something greater than what they currently have planned for themselves.

Kate M. 
Well, I think that is it for me. Is there anything else that you would like to add, Josh?

Josh A.
Oh, you know, I, I will just say, in closing, that global education is possible for everybody. It just takes someone to be open minded. And I am always willing and open to share my ideas, our projects. I have teachers in all categories of content that you possibly think of, who are willing to connect with other teachers and students around the country. So I'll just say that it's possible. And we are here. And we're always open, our doors are open. And we'd love to talk to anybody interested in Global Ed.

Kate M.
That was Josh Amstutz from the Academy of Global Studies at Winton Woods High School in Ohio. You can get in touch with him and learn more about his global education approach to project-based learning by reaching out via the directory at wintonwoods.org.

[Music]

Kate M. 
For the second part of this episode, we’re going to hear from Carrie Schultz, Danielle Chaussée, and Jason Curtis from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Oconomowoc High School was the winner of the Global School Award, We’ll  hear about the school’s goals of teaching global competence and empathy and the importance of the relationships between AFS volunteers and schools. We’ll also hear about the contributions of AFS students in the classroom- this school welcomes in 7-10 students every year!

To start, I asked Carrie, Danielle, and Jason about their history with international education.

Carrie S. 
I'll start. So I'm Carrie Schultz, and I am one of the counselors here at Oconomowoc High School. I also coordinate our IB program, and work with our gifted students. I have been at the school for 27 years. So my background started actually as a German teacher. So I have that passion, I guess, hidden deep inside. And that was my exchange when I was in college. I did spend a year abroad. And I guess when you think about me getting started with Global Education Initiative, I don't know when it ever started, I think I've always had it. It's been a passion of mine, to learn about the world and to expand horizons. So when I started my German education program early on, that's kind of where it started, and it's gone from there.

Danielle C. 
And I'm Danielle Chaussée. I'm a Spanish teacher here. And I'm also the coordinator of our Global Scholars Program. And I also studied abroad in college. I studied in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and also, through my master's program studied in a variety of different countries abroad.  I studied international relations, international studies in college. In 2017, I was also a Teachers for Global Classrooms Fellow through the State Department. So that really just kept building on a passion that was already there.

Jason C. 
I'm Jason Curtis, I'm the principal here at the high school. My first personal experience with an exchange program maybe was more through service learning. When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to participate in a service trip in Haiti. 

And then from a teacher point of view, I facilitated an exchange based off of history, and World War Two and immigration with our sister city school in Germany. And it was a history based exchange.  But the way I became passionate about global education was as a history teacher helping kids see, not only what we're studying, but also immerse themselves in the cultural kind of experiences that exists for the people that we’re studying about, and to maybe grow that empathy and experience for what they went through at those same times in history. And based on what we're studying.

Kate M.
So before I got any further in my interview with Carrie, Danielle, and Jason, I wanted to clarify the pronunciation of Oconomowoc, spelled O-c-o-n-o-m-o-w-o-c.

So even though I did google it before we talked. How would you pronounce the name of the city in which you live?

Carrie S.
Who's gonna do it?  Oconomowoc.

Kate M.
Oconomowoc.

Carrie S.
Oconomowoc. You got it!

Kate M.
Oconomowoc.

So what is life like for students in Oconomowoc? What is it like to be a teenager? What's the town like?

Carrie S.   
Despite the name and where we're located, the opportunities are endless. If a student is willing to get themselves out there, everything's available to them. Not only by what we have environmentally here in the area, but at what we offer our students as in the school system.

Jason C. 
From a school perspective, we're probably the hub of the 14 to 18 year old population. We're a one high school town. But we're big enough where we're able to provide a lot of different opportunities from 28 different athletic competition type of experiences, to a beautiful theater arts program that puts on three different productions a year, to a pretty comprehensive educational experience that ranges from rigorous college prep experiences like the International Baccalaureate program to about dozen or so advanced placement classes. We offer four different world languages. And we offer a pretty comprehensive career readiness program.

So it's really a great place to kind of learn and then from there, we believe strongly in community partnerships. So whether it's our French program connected through the French bakery downtown, or it's like I mentioned history connected with our sister city, or the work on that has existed in all the world languages around some of the global connections or connections, even locally, that lead to global connections to a really cool place that kind of is the hub of the town, as far as some of these experiences go for our teens.

Kate M.
Have any of you taught AFS students in the classroom? And can you talk a little bit about those experiences?

Danielle C.
Um, yeah, I've had several in my classroom. And they bring in such a rich perspective. Usually, if I have an AFS student in my classroom, it's because if they come from a Spanish speaking country is I don't want to see a safe, they feel safe there, you know, it's like home, you know, like, is they have that, that time where they can speak Spanish, you know, and so they always bring in such an interesting perspective to class and, and it's wonderful for my students to be able to hear different accents.

And you know, just the conversations that arise. I do remember one year when I had students, I had a student from, I believe it was Argentina, or Chile, and a student from Spain at the same time in the same class. And they argued all the time over accents, who had the most appropriate accent? And whether vosotros was really a thing. So you know, it was great for my kids to sit back and just be you know, watching the ping pong ball, like watching this argument occur almost on a daily basis.

Kate M.
Quick note, vosotros is a Spanish word that means “you all”, or it’s the 2nd person plural. It is used widely throughout dialects in Spain, but rarely in Latin America. We have a little variation in English, but there’s not as sharp a divide at all. Other English equivalents include… you guys, you lot in the UK, y’all if you’re from the Southern US, yinz if you’re from Western Pennsylvania… etc etc.
 
Carrie S.   
For sure, we integrate our AFS students as one of our own. And I've watched them just flourish in all the different activities. They're at our proms, they're in our homecoming parade. And we make them a part of our final like, kind of closing to the school year too, as they share their experiences. So definitely a positive impact. And just as Danielle mentioned, it’s those little things within the classes when they provide that perspective that we can always get from just reading a textbook or watching something. But also just that positive energy, and they're interested in us kind of sparks that interest in our kids to learn about them, which I think in and of itself is a huge benefit of having AFS students here.

Jason C.
And I think our volunteer person has done a great job of placing them in homes that value involvement, and staying connected to the school. When we review applications, we're looking to see what contributions they are going to bring to our school not just from the country and language they might speak but also from like, yeah, when do you want to get involved? And what do we got room for? What's going on here that you want to be able to have an experience in and make, make our community stronger and better. And our kids on the reverse end are all embracing of the experience of having students join the school community from that lens there too. That says a lot to the culture that our teachers and coaches provide, as they embrace someone that could be seen as a competitor on the soccer field, because they might take your spot, right, but to be able to make them part of the team and embrace that it's been really powerful to watch.

Kate M.
I asked Danielle, Carrie, and Jason how they defined ‘global competence’.

Danielle C.   
When I think of global competence, I go to the Asia Society's definition of understanding other perspectives and the ability to investigate and having that curiosity. Also the ability to communicate with a diverse audience, and then definitely taking action, that's a huge piece of being globally competent, just having that ability to take action and knowing you can, no matter how big or small, you can do something that matters.

Carrie S.
Our school has been working on a lot with that empathy piece and what kids take away from service and service learning. So I see that all fitting into that global competence and intercultural learning, because while we might not be very diverse here, there's there are competencies that you can pick up in different situations that can carry over into maybe a more global or in a cultural state later, like if the students had a college that may be more diverse. So what are those skills that they can learn here? So I think those are the things like empathy, and that service and taking action, as Danielle said, have been key components for us here.

Kate M. 
Thank you. So how do you teach high schoolers empathy? How do you bring global concepts and ideas into the classroom and not just in history or the language classroom, but all sorts of subjects.

Danielle C.
So, for example, I teach through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. So everything that we study is grounded in that. And I co teach with a science teacher. And so we're, we're always going through that lens.

Carrie S.
Yep, and I would take that a step further, I mean, through our IB classes, international baccalaureate, that's a given component that our teachers are looking for different ways to add different perspectives into their teaching into the assessments that the students do. Almost every assessment that they do involves that perspectives piece that is not just from the American perspective, so they have to find those other pieces. And our IB kids are our students. Teachers aren't just IB teachers, they teach other classes. So they infuse those concepts and ideas into those other areas that they teach. And it's just something I think we've been working on as a school.

Danielle C.
What's really great, especially in the area of oral language, our state standards have just kind of realigned. And one of our two of our standards now our new standards are intercultural communication, and global competency and community connections. So it's kind of something we live in breathe, no matter what level we're teaching, no matter who the teacher is,

Jason C.
No, I'm just gonna take from my perspective, it's trusting the teachers that kind of run with these ideas and find their passions, and the higher a diverse group of thinkers and help them run with these different concepts and let them have the power to be innovative, try new things, and to see the success in that as they experience it. Set the fence posts wide enough where they can run around the field and be able to provide these opportunities for kids and instill as part of the culture through their own individual passions. And from a grassroots effort more so than a top down model.

Kate M.
So last year, they applied for the inaugural Global School Award. This past March, they also attended the ECA conference.

Danielle C.
We heard about it through an AFS volunteer, actually, who encouraged us to apply for it. And we just, it was a rigorous process. But I think Carrie always says it best that it's a really reflective process. And it really made us see everything that we have done so far, in terms of global education, but it also really made us reflect on what else we can do. We're excited for the ‘what now?’

Carrie S.
As a school, we're always looking for how we can be more culturally responsive, how we can bring that global aspect to small town, Wisconsin. And so going through that process was reaffirming, like, Hey, we are doing a lot. And maybe it's more just taking the opportunity to highlight those things.  And I guess, tell more people about it. So that was a great opportunity to do that, and to showcase what we're already doing. But it also, you know, I think both a little fire in us to like, hey, we want to keep this going.

Kate M.
What was your experience like? And are there any things in particular that you have brought back home to Wisconsin that you learned from the conference?

Danielle C.
I think one big takeaway for us was how to help facilitate the communication between AFS volunteers and our school and to help them understand how they can best talk to schools, make those connections and who to talk to. So I think for me it just really strengthened that connection.

Carrie S.
It was surprising to me to hear how difficult that is, I guess, I didn't realize all the background pieces that are in there. It was very eye opening to me to hear about the difficulty that lies there with having kids placed into American schools. But the conference itself was very awesome. It was just great to hear from all the different countries to meet all the different people and just hear how different schools do different things. That's what are always the big takeaways, I think of those conferences.

Jason C.   
I understood better the partnership that exists between AFS volunteers in the school and this kind of delicate dance that it plays with the, you know, perspectives and the need that it takes to work together to provide a holistic, a comprehensive and a positive experience for not only the students that we're hosting, but the families that are hosting them. And while the school may have one perspective and a volunteer may need to bring a different perspective, how we all work together to provide that experience for the student is important. Now think truly prior to ECA understood just how intricate that all was.
 
Kate M.
Why should a school invest in AFS student, why would you recommend that an AFS that a school welcome an AFS student into their community?

Danielle C. 
One big reason I would say is that not every student has the opportunity from here to travel abroad. And having students visit here gives them that ability to learn about other cultures without having to travel themselves. That impacts the school of 1700 students. So that impact is really far-reaching without even having to get on an airplane.

Carrie S.
Not only just for their students, but I think about even our adults in our community in the school that they see. It opens eyes to different perspectives, and just having that knowledge that hey, people think about this differently, or they view this one event or this, maybe the conflict in Ukraine, it's seeing differently through different eyes. And there, there's so many factors involved in that.

That goes, you know, from the culture, they come from, to their upbringing, whatever that is. So I think that it's a positive impact not just on the kids but the community.

Kate M.
Well, great. Thank you so much, Carrie and Danielle and Jason. And I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me today. And yeah, have a great rest of your afternoon.

Danielle C.
Thanks. Great talking to you.

Jason C.
Nice to meet you.

Kate M.
Nice to meet you too.

Kate M.
That was Carrie Schultz, Danielle Chaussée, and Jason Curtis from Oconomowoc High School in Wisconsin, winner of the Global School Award.

Thank you for listening to this International Education Week episode featuring the winners of the inaugural AFS-USA Global Awards. Do you know someone- or some school- that exemplifies a commitment to global education and the integration of global competence concepts into the classroom? Nominations for the 2023 awards are open until December 11th. Learn more at afsusa.org/educators.

Also at that same web address? Intercultural education lessons plans, classroom resources, and professional development opportunities.

[Music]
 
Kate M.
Well, thank you for listening to The AFS Exchange! I’m Kate Mulvihill. We will be taking a bit of a break here at The AFS Exchange, but go subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you won’t miss an episode once we’re back. You can contact us at podcast@afsusa.org with thoughts about the episode, or suggestions for future episodes.

This podcast was created by Kate Mulvihill. Social media by Julie Ball. Editing support by Nina Gaulin and Rebecca Oswalt. Thank you to our guests Josh Amstutz, Carrie Schultz, Danielle Chaussée, and Jason Curtis. Also a thank you to AFS-USA’s Director of Educational Outreach, Jill Woerner.