Around the POND
Student Leaders Take on Global Issues THE INAUGURAL CLASS OF GLOBAL
Leadership Institute (GLI) scholars completed the unique and highly competitive two-year program this spring. Designed to elevate thinking around global issues, the program’s mission is to develop a generation of global leaders with a genuine concern for world problems, multiple perspectives on global issues, and the skills to contribute toward the resolution of those problems. Each fall, 20 second-year high school students are selected for the GLI scholar program—10 from Taft, and 10 from public high schools in Waterbury. GLI scholars spend the next two years building leadership knowledge and skills by attending monthly talks by global
leaders and scholars, participating in team-building and diversity leadership workshops, and completing a summer service experience. Students also traveled to the United Nations to witness global leadership in action. “This year’s UN visit was quite extraordinary,” explained Jamella Lee, dean of Global and Diversity Education at Taft. “We attended a session of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. Our students were on the floor of the UN with the delegates. It was a tremendous opportunity for them.” At the end of the two-year program, GLI Scholars complete a culminating project investigating a local, national, or global problem for which they have a
genuine concern. The projects include a public presentation to school and community leaders. The first class of graduates explored topics ranging from ecology and sustainability, to special education, understanding problems in the Middle East, and homelessness. “Selena Soto was our last and most powerful presenter,” said Lee. “Her mother had been homeless during her youth, and Selena shared her story.” Soto, an artist, designed and sold a T-shirt; all profits from the sales were donated to a local homeless shelter. “The students saw this culmination of two years of skill development and scholarly endeavor as a graduation—as an advancement to a new level of leadership and responsibility,” said Lee. “The program has inspired them to take stronger leadership and advocacy roles in their community.” j . As a component of his culminating project, GLI scholar Zygi Jievaltas ’17 organized a town-wide cleanup day. Let’s Do It! Watertown was a Let’s Do It! World (LDIW) affiliate event. Since 2008, nearly 14 million people in 112 countries around the world have participated in Let’s Do It! World cleanup projects. Under Zygi’s leadership and coordination, Let’s Do It! Watertown worked at a number of sites around town, including Deland Field and Steele Brook Common.
m GLI scholar Shasha Alvares ’17 talks with Waterbury Mayor and Taft parent Neil O’Leary about her culminating project on immigration. “I have always been interested in the topic of immigration into America, because all of my family members are recent immigrants,” explained Shasha. “My project focused on undocumented immigration into the United States, and explored the concept of undocumented immigrants as social and economic assets to the United States.”
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Taft Bulletin / SUMMER 2016