Experiential Learning

For more than 90 years, experiential learning has been a hallmark of World Learning’s approach to change. It started with the first group of students who traveled to Europe with The Experiment in International Living in 1932: They went to learn about new cultures by living in them. They returned transformed. Now all of World Learning’s education, development, and exchange programs are grounded in the principles of experiential learning.

Often called learning by doing, experiential learning is an educational approach that engages students in hands-on activities and encourages them to reflect on and interpret their observations from those experiences. This period of reflection enables students to take action, experiment, or problem-solve using their new depth of knowledge.

Whether we’re working with teachers, youth, community leaders, or civil society organizations, World Learning’s emphasis on experiential learning encourages people around the world to listen, learn, reflect, and ultimately make informed plans to create change in their lives and their communities.

Learn more about how experiential learning enriches our work across our six program areas.

Leadership Development

World Learning is committed to helping emerging leaders tackle the challenges of a complex world. We work with people of all ages and backgrounds to develop their leadership skills, which they can draw on to make a difference locally and globally.

We foster youth leadership through international exchanges like The Experiment in International Living and the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program. These programs bring together young people from the United States and around the world to strengthen their sense of civic responsibility, develop communication skills, build lasting friendships across cultures, and cultivate the ability, confidence, and motivation to make a difference in their communities. Our youth exchanges don’t end when participants return home—many go on to organize action projects in their communities.

Our professional exchange and development programs motivate participants to take initiative and drive change. The Leaders Advancing Democracy Mongolia program brings young democracy activists together to collaborate on ways to solve their country’s most pressing issues. In Kosovo, our Transformational Leadership Program gives a new generation of leaders the opportunity to pursue master’s degrees in the U.S., then return home to strengthen their professional fields and rebuild a war-torn society. Our global development programs employ the same strategy. For example, in El Salvador, our Higher Education for Economic Growth Project trains educators to use cutting-edge strategies to transform their universities.

Ultimately, our programs cultivate the core principles of leadership. This is evident in our results: Program participants routinely report an increase in confidence, cultural intelligence, and empathy, as well as a clearer understanding of what it means to lead. They report a sense of responsibility to ͞pay it forward͟ through volunteerism, civic engagement, and deeper involvement in their communities.

Learn more about how leadership development enriches our work across our six program areas.

Locally Led Development

At World Learning, locally led development is both a mindset and a methodology. Since 1932, our work has been grounded in our original founding vision: We go to learn, not to teach. To make lasting change, we must listen to, learn from, and thoughtfully collaborate with local actors to best foster change.

World Learning knows that true sustainable development comes from local leadership, expertise, commitment, and buy-in. How does this work in practice? Consistent with our organizational values, World Learning applies a systematic approach that always reflects a community’s culture, values, and aspirations to ensure lasting change. Our approach is not one-size-fits-all or duplicative.

We work directly with local partners to identify needs, barriers, resources, and best practices to collaboratively identify solutions that include designing programs, frameworks, curricula, and trainings. We partner not only with government agencies, but also with community-based organizations, universities, the private sector, and youth organizations to design and deliver locally created and relevant programs. We work to empower and strengthen capacities and systems to respond to their greatest challenges.

World Learning believes that reciprocity and respect are essential for sustainable community-building. Our programs are grounded in a people-centered method to ensure that the voices, expertise, and agency of all are amplified. Additionally, by working directly with diverse program participants, more inclusive solutions are found. 

Our locally led development approach is central to our way of thinking and working. It is how we can all collectively and collaboratively contribute to create a more sustainable, peaceful, and just world.

Grants Management

World Learning leads in the use of grantmaking as a development tool. We believe that even small grants can make a big difference all over the world. Grants support emerging leaders as they launch projects to improve their communities. They strengthen institutions striving to meet new goals and serve more people. But grants are more than funding—they’re real-world learning opportunities.

We have extensive experience in managing grants under USAID and other donor-funded programs. We work with individual NGOs, networks, and intermediary organizations in development sectors ranging from health and education to democracy and enterprise development. Our grants programs have total funds as large as $79 million; individual grants range from as little as $500 to as much as $3.5 million. Regardless of the level of funding provided, each successful grant was the result of World Learning’s localized, participatory, and partnership-focused approach to working with local organizations.

In that approach, we work hands-on with our partners through all stages of the process. We have developed mechanisms to select grantee organizations, and we provide them with targeted technical assistance, training, and mentoring to ensure they will be able to carry out their proposed community project. To help our partners improve their services, we also offer our custom Participatory Institutional Analysis (PIA) tool, which helps them assess their performance and develop a plan for change. Even once the grant has ended, our grantee organizations can continue to use the PIA for continuous improvement.

Through our grants management approach, our partners learn how to serve their communities by actually serving their communities. They’re learning by doing—and they continue this work on their own longer after we’re gone to become stronger and better equipped to transform their communities.

Learn more about how grants management enriches our work across our six program areas.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning

World Learning’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) team excels in conducting advanced and innovative approaches to monitoring and evaluation.

Because we understand that program design and implementation is a complex undertaking that takes place in complex environments, our team always uses a systematic process to capture, analyze, and share programmatic data.

Our tailored approach relies upon close collaboration and effective communication to address all stakeholder needs so that we ensure our work is highly effective and impactful.

We have extensive experience in designing evaluation frameworks under USAID and other donor-funded programs and have a vanguard approach to assessing the success of new educational programs.

Examples of World Learning’s MERL capabilities include:

  • Developing and running the monitoring and evaluation systems for the USAID Transforming Higher Educations Systems program in Malawi, a multiyear initiative involving several university and private sector partners
  • Specializing in the use of the MODE Framework developed by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
  • Implementing a randomized control trial to determine the effectiveness of a new high-school economics curriculum for the USAID Youth Employment Skills program in Uzbekistan, the first time such an approach has been used for a USAID-funded initiative