Close up program trip report and evaluation

Close-Up Program

1 Report/Evaluation Close Up Program

Preface

The Marshall Islands students from Majuro Atoll arrived in Washington D.C on June 8th, 2012 with the later group from Kwajalein Atoll arriving two days later on June 10th, 2012. The Close-Up program’s sole purpose and objective is to emphasize Civic Duty. The approach taken in reaching this goal was teaching our young students on the United States History and Government. The program ran for 15 days straight. The typical program started at 7:30 AM, sometimes it started as early as 6:30AM and ended between 9-10 PM. Three separate programs in three different locations were given to the students; Eight days in Washington D.C, Virginia, two days in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania, and the remaining three days in New York.

Format

The typical format for this program was that students and teachers had separate programs. We teachers saw that the teacher program was based mostly on sight seeing and touring, so we worked out a schedule where the students would fully benefit from said scheduled arrangement. Three of us teacher rotated shifts to ensure that the students were fully taken care of during their duration in the CloseUp Program with one teacher with the Students at times, One teacher attending the teacher program at times, and we always had one or two teachers back at the hotel in case of emergencies and family members needed to reach the students. The student program was exclusively for students and at times teachers were needed only to chaperone and provide information. The Student program was aimed as stated above, in teaching students American History and Government through workshops, debates, tours/sight-seeing, and was supplemented further with lectures, games, and academic work. Some of the sites that were visited just to name a few were Capitol Hill, Department of Interior, Lincoln Memorial, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Williamsburg Pennsylvania, White House, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Library of Congress, etc. Occasionally the students had some leisure time to shop and watch Broadway shows and plays but 90-95 percent of the time, the students had a strict schedule to follow that was focused on the above mentioned approach which allowed little time for them to rest. One student, we interviewed, mentioned that they had done Congress Mock Debates and some workshop where students had the opportunity to practice writing grants.

Evaluation and Recommendations

As far as the effectiveness of this program, from our professional opinion, this program definitely proved effective in showcasing how grand America is but 100 percent of the student mostly enjoyed the sight seeing, the leisure activity, and the food. We teachers conducted an interview to survey the students on the program and again 100 percent of them didn’t really care for most of the Academic material that was taught because it was deemed irrelevant to them. This was largely due to the fact that mostly American content was taught. The Marshallese kids

2 Report/Evaluation Close Up Program

wanted to have an opportunity to learn more about their own history and government in relation to the United States. During their visit to the Department of Interior, they did however have an opportunity to ask questions but time was limited and this opportunity was only afforded to the students who were brave enough to ask questions. This program is indeed a useful program that showcases American History but we teachers believe that more could be done to benefit the students.

As this program emphasizes Civic Duty to one’s own country, it would have been great to include an academic portion that is relevant for Pacific Island students in Micronesia to instill pride so that our students can foster their own skills and be the young leaders that we are grooming them to be. Unfortunately as previously stated in the preceding paragraphs of this report, this program focused primarily on emphasizing American Civic Duty. If anything, the student all agreed that the most promising part of this program was the experience and interacting with the other group of students from Micronesia of similar backgrounds (Freely Associated States of Palau and FSM) but as far as the academic material that was provided, all the students agreed that the material was interesting but it was somewhat irrelevant as they couldn’t fully relate to it, some even felt like it was more catered for American students.

This indicated to us teachers that students who are sent off in this program need to have taken American History and Government or Comparative Government (Marshall Islands/America) if they are to fully benefit from this program. Otherwise, the students we send off to this program as mentioned in this report won’t be as prepared regardless of how bright they are. Given that students and teachers had separate programs and very little knowledge of the Close-Up Program, our students were a bit unprepared to the content taught in this program. This was only fully realized when we teachers personally interviewed the students of their program.

We teachers would recommend for future references to send off students who are well versed in American History and Government and seeing as seniors take these mentioned courses, it is logical to send the upper classmen who’ve taken these courses.

Respectfully Submitted by:

1. Bwein Heine 2. Desmond N. Doulatram 3. Mesin Juria

Attachments: 1. Names of Students