Country: Iraq

Young Iraqi Professionals Find Their Direction through Bawsala Career Mentorship Program

Participants of World Learning’s Bawsala Career Mentorship Program in southern Iraq have significantly higher rates of employment than alumni of another U.S.-funded career program in the region and college-educated young adults who didn’t go through a program at all, according to a recent tracer study.

Bawsala Career Mentorship Program is an approach to youth workforce development created by World Learning for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. In addition to teaching job-seeking skills, it offers an experience of self-discovery that can ultimately lead young workers to a more fulfilling career.

“World Learning’s Bawsala Career Mentorship Program is a proven, scalable, and replicable model that we have successfully implemented in a number of different contexts to help connect young women and men to professional opportunities,” says Catherine Honeyman, World Learning’s senior youth workforce specialist, who led the study.

The program started in 2015 to build job-preparation skills for college students in southern Iraq, an important economic center rich in oil, gas, and agriculture.

To date, 177 students have completed the program, funded by the U.S. Department of State, despite challenging circumstances.

Since the program was launched, southern Iraq has been hit hard by anti-government corruptions protests and a wave of violence that shuttered the U.S. consulate in Basra; high youth unemployment following years of ISIS activity and recruitment in the area; and more recently, the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite these monumental hurdles, the Bawsala Career Mentorship Program not only has endured but has even expanded to three neighboring areas in the south: Dhi Qar, Maysan and Muthanna.

“Our combination of periodic online or in-person meetings with a mentor, self-study guides, and the support generated within the group have been powerfully effective with our participants and have adapted to difficult situations and needs,” says Honeyman.

Today, Bawsala­ — Arabic for “compass” — helps college-educated youth find their way in the region’s private-sector job market. Adult mentors working in a variety of industries act as a kind of compass, helping young people navigate their career path.

This is no small task, given high unemployment throughout the country.

Youth Unemployment Rates Soar

In 2020, Iraq’s official unemployment was reported at 12.83 percent despite a bloated state sector. Youth unemployment is estimated to be much higher, at over 25 percent.

Youth with higher education degrees don’t seem to fare much better. World Learning’s recent tracer study noted that well-educated youth face particularly “high levels of unemployment and social discontent.”

According to the UN, Iraq has one of the youngest populations in the world. More than 60 percent of the population is under the age of 25.

World Learning supports several comprehensive workforce preparedness programs in Iraq, including Southern Iraq Job Skills Development Program, Basrah Employability and Entrepreneurship Program, and English Language Investment and Training for Economic Success (ELITES) virtual program

Tracer Study Findings Support Bawsala Method’s Effectiveness

A tracer study tracks participants after they complete a program to find out how the program impacted their lives.

“In this case, we could compare our participants’ employment outcomes to the employment rates found among Iraqi youth using university career centers — and we found that our participants had about a two times higher rate of employment despite the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Honeyman.

Despite a tough job market in southern Iraq’s Basra Governate, Bawsala Career Mentorship Program also compared “very favorably” to employment rates of a similar group — university graduates who accessed Career Development Center (CDC) services under the U.S. Iraq Higher Education Partnership Program (HEPP).

The tracer study found World Learning’s Bawsala Program demonstrated a higher rate of employment both during COVID-impacted closures (36 percent versus 22 percent) as well as longer-term pre-COVID employment (52 percent versus 26 percent) than CDC services.

“We were surprised and pleased to learn through this tracer study that our participants have attained significantly higher employment rates than comparable motivated youth who have accessed university career services in Iraq,” says Honeyman, an expert in education quality, employment, and entrepreneurship with extensive experience leading research and policy analysis.

“This shows that our mentorship model offers important added benefits,” she adds, pointing out that young women in a socially conservative region are able to fully participate in the Bawsala Career Mentorship program.

Skills Sought by Private Sector Employers

A pre-pandemic survey of private-sector employers in Iraq revealed that recent college graduate job candidates lacked skills such as critical thinking, time management, and flexibility — the soft skills needed to succeed in the workplace.

The program coordinator for Bawsala Career Mentorship Program in Iraq [World Learning also runs a Bawsala Career Mentorship Program for young women in Algeria], says the aim of the mentorship program is to develop a range of interpersonal communication and life skills required by Iraq’s private sector and international employers.

“Bawsala is different from other programs in that it focuses on the actual needs of the job market,” she says.

In 2019, World Learning conducted a labor market study and a follow-up in 2021 in the Basra area. . The program integrated the most needed skills by the employers in the southern region.

“English language skills are the number one thing employers are looking for,” says the coordinator, who previously worked as a translator at the U.S. consulate in Basra.

Bawsala Career Mentorship Curriculum

The Bawsala curriculum spans eight months — approximately four hours of material a month for a total of 32 contact hours — and includes business English.

The current cohort started this spring and is made up of 80 students and 12 mentors from four provinces in southern Iraq who meet virtually due to the pandemic.

The program aims for parity between young men and women, as well as diversity based on religious and sectarian affiliation, including minority groups and students with disabilities.

Throughout the mentorship program, students work with a group of nine other students and a mentor in activities aimed at building relationships.

Mentors meet regularly online with their groups to introduce each module, and in between meetings, mentees work on individual exercises and receive feedback and guidance from peers.

The program covers eight themes including understanding personal strengths and weaknesses, conducting an effective job search, preparing and acing a job interview, public speaking, creating a virtual professional footprint, entrepreneurship, and problem-solving in the workplace.

The program coordinator says the virtual meetings go twice as long as they did in person because there’s more discussion and students are eager to participate. They are given two weeks to complete a self-guided activity online before the module wraps up with another meeting and lots of discussion.

It turns out, “the virtual choice was excellent for us,” she says. “What we find is that participants and mentors connect more easily via Zoom.”

Participant and Alumni Feedback

Bawsala Career Mentorship Program participants are 18- to 22-years-old, in university and chosen based on personality and motivation.

The program coordinator says applicants are chosen based on their vision for the future and for themselves.

Participant feedback from the tracer study indicates that participants appreciated the positive impact that the Bawsala program had in their lives.­

The program coordinator says students tell her the program has changed both their career and life perspectives.

“Some of them are still in college and say their studying has improved, their grades have improved, and the relationship with the people around them has also improved,” she says.

Mentors work in the private sector, often in their company’s HR or recruitment departments, speak English well, and have experience working or training youth.

They are paid a small stipend for their volunteer work.

“It’s a win-win situation,” says the program coordinator. “It helps a company find the perfect candidate.”

The program also incorporates preparedness and networking for budding entrepreneurs. The tracer study indicated that 6 percent of Bawsala alumni were planning to start a business.

In a previous cohort, an IT specialist found two partners to join him in creating a business — an IT center servicing other small businesses.

Other alumni have gotten jobs in the oil and gas industries, energy and power sectors, international organizations, and diplomatic missions.

One tracer study participant writes: “The experience of the career mentorship program was exceptional. I developed my skills a lot.”

He reports getting a pre-graduation job offer, which he accepted. Since then, he reports, he has continued to build his skills: “Now, I am 25 years old and became the director of a health, environment, and safety department of an oil company in Basra.”

The success of the program goes well beyond landing a job. “It made me understand the nature of work, how to write a CV, and other skills,” writes another Bawsala student.

Honeyman says World Learning is already working with some career centers in Iraq.

“I hope we can continue helping them to strengthen their offerings to achieve even greater impact for their students,” she says.

“It’s exciting to have such a consistent chain of programing serving youth in Iraq so that we can really see their successes and support them further over time.”

Celebrating the Importance of Virtual Exchanges on National STEM Day

By World Learning Program Associate Katya Murillo and Intern Taieb Cherif

Climate change, food security and sanitation, healthcare, and gender equality are just a few of the many grand challenges countries across the globe face today, and in an increasingly global world we recognize that we must work together to solve them creatively. But how?

On this National STEM Day, World Learning recognizes the power of STEM education as a driving force of change. In Syria, Ethiopia, and Algeria among others, our STEM programs have transformed the lives of young people by exposing them to new career opportunities and experiences. Last month, World Learning launched a new program that will continue to use STEM education as a driving force of change: The NextGen Coders Network (NGCN).

This virtual exchange program will bring together university students and young professionals from Iraq, the Palestinian Territories, and the United States through “hackathons.” From the comfort of their own homes, local libraries, or university campuses, participants will use coding skills to design solutions to their countries’ grand challenges. This format fosters greater cultural understanding between U.S. and international participants as they work both individually and in groups and collaborate across borders and professional backgrounds. At the end of each of the program’s four cycles, participants will have an opportunity to showcase their prototypes in a virtual “Ideas Festival.” NGCN is funded by the Stevens Initiative, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, with funding from the U.S. government, and administered by the Aspen Institute.

Through NGCN, World Learning aims to highlight the importance of STEM education in finding innovative solutions to our world’s complex problems. The NGCN curriculum spans over 10 weeks and introduces participants to coding languages and concepts like project management and design thinking. It comprises 15 modules that cater to the different needs of participants, while developing and strengthening hard skills that will give participants the confidence to thrive in a technological age. This curriculum allows students to not only gain knowledge in STEM areas, but to think critically and resourcefully about the change they can create in the world.

World Learning knows the world’s grand challenges require diverse perspectives and backgrounds to work together and learn from each other’s successes and failures. It might even be that a solution already exists, and the next challenge is figuring out how to scale the solutions for all to benefit. That is why NGCN emphasizes the multidisciplinary nature of the virtual exchange, bringing together an international cohort of students and young professionals who do not exclusively come from a computer science background, as the name of the program might suggest. Thus, participants can benefit from the multiplicity of perspectives and areas of expertise.

Solving global issues necessitates a deep intercultural understanding among people across the world. With more than 86 years of experience running international exchange programs, World Learning, through NGCN, aims to promote virtual exchange as a way to create a generation of globally and culturally aware citizens. Such programs have the capacity to empower young people and give them a new window to the world at low economic and social costs.

Reflecting on what drew him to this program, Aryan Wadhwani, a participant from Indiana University, expressed that he is fascinated by the idea of a virtual exchange and sees in it as an opportunity to “learn about the experiences of people from different cultures” and “come up with ideas to solve real-world problems.”

World Learning looks forward to seeing how Aryan and his peers will go on to drive change in their communities, countries, and beyond.

How a Partnership is Paving the Way to STEM Education in Kurdistan

Some partnerships were meant to be.

For years, kids all over the world have been learning how to program computers and build robots as part of the global movement toward STEM education. But it took a bit longer for STEM to take root in Kurdistan, the autonomous northern region of Iraq.

Kurdistan Save the Children was eager to change that. Founded in 1991, the Iraqi nonprofit organization works to ensure protection, health, and education for all children. Over the years, it has developed a wide network and an excellent track record for educational youth programming.

Still, the idea of launching its own STEM initiative was daunting.

“When something is untouched like this in your region, you are kind of hesitant,” says Sara Rashid, a senior officer at Kurdistan Save the Children. “Do we have the capacity? Do we have the skills? Do we have the knowledge?”

Partnering with an organization with experience in STEM education seemed like the best solution — and, two years ago, they decided World Learning was the ideal partner.

Several staff members at Kurdistan Save the Children are alumni of the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program(IYLEP), a U.S. Department of State-funded international exchange program that World Learning has facilitated for more than 10 years. They informed the organization’s leaders that World Learning was seeking a partner, too, for a new program called Kids Can Code.

Funded by the Catalyst Foundation for Universal Education — and using computer kits and a STEM curriculum provided by the technology company Kano — Kids Can Code was designed to teach basic coding and English language skills to Syrian children living in refugee camps in Iraq. Based in Washington, DC, World Learning needed a partner on the ground that could train teachers and deal with issues as they arise.

Kurdistan Save the Children was a perfect candidate for that job. Not only did it have a depth of experience in educational programs for children, but the nonprofit also operates a youth activity center in the Arbat refugee camp in Sulaymaniyah province.

“They’re an organization that has deep roots in the community,” says Dr. Kara McBride, senior education and research specialist at World Learning. “Kurdistan Save the Children has been there ever since the first families in Arbat arrived. They have the community’s trust, and they understand their needs.”

For Kurdistan Save the Children, the partnership also held possibilities beyond developing their capacity in STEM. Rashid says World Learning’s commitment to experiential learning set it apart from other NGOs. “With World Learning, we knew it would be a different experience because they are very much education-oriented,” she says. “We were hoping to have that door open to a different approach to education.”

Training the Trainers

That door opened with the training of trainers in September 2018.

As Kurdistan Save the Children would be responsible for hiring and training the Kids Can Code teachers, it was important for key staff members to gain a deep understanding of the STEM and English curriculum first. And so, that fall, McBride traveled to Kurdistan to offer training alongside Kano’s education community manager, Taylor Chustz.

“What we learned from World Learning in a month takes three years to learn independently.”

Over the course of a couple weeks, McBride and Chustz worked with the four Kurdistan Save the Children staff members — all long-serving employees — who had been designated as the program trainers to ensure its sustainability. Using Kano’s innovative kits, they learned how to teach children to build a computer and then program it to make art, games, and music. McBride also demonstrated how to incorporate experiential learning — which engages children in hands-on activities and encourages them to reflect on and learn from those experiences — into a classroom. Rashid says this flexible, child-friendly style of teaching is new to Iraq, which traditionally takes a more rigid approach to education. “It really hit home,” Rashid says.

It was clear to Rashid that her colleagues had absorbed what they’d learned when they hosted a five-day training for the new Kids Can Code teachers. That training went like clockwork: all the materials were ready and organized without any need for further adaptation.

“What we learned from World Learning in a month takes three years to learn independently,” Rashid says. “The benefits are endless.”

Flexibility and Feedback

No matter how thorough the training, though, challenges are sure to arise in a classroom. During the first cohort of Kids Can Code, World Learning remained in close touch with Kurdistan Save the Children in order to help them navigate those obstacles.

“World Learning is very flexible in giving you a lot of feedback with every report you send. Your partner is committed from beginning to end.”

Each week, Kurdistan Save the Children submitted monitoring reports that noted issues the teachers were facing such as a lack of self-confidence among the children or divisions between the boys and the girls in the class. McBride responded to each report, offering suggestions on how to adapt the curriculum to meet those challenges.

“The difference in working with World Learning is that there isn’t a rigid format that you stick to from the beginning of a project until the end of a project,” Rashid says. “World Learning is very flexible in giving you a lot of feedback with every report you send. Your partner is committed from beginning to end.”

That made a difference when it came time to train a new set of teachers for this year’s Kids can Code cohort. Kurdistan Save the Children incorporated the lessons learned from the previous cohort directly into the teacher training. Not only did it ensure that teachers had the tools to deal with problems as they arose, but it also has helped prevent some problems from occurring. It’s an encouraging sign that Kurdistan Save the Children is now ready to step up its education programming.

Building a More Sustainable Future

In fact, Kurdistan Save the Children is already transforming its approach to education using the knowledge gained from the Kids Can Code partnership.

Having witnessed the value of experiential learning, many of the teachers hired for Kids Can Code have already been able to use the new techniques and activities they learned from McBride in the other courses they teach at Arbat.

“For World Learning to come in and train Kurdistan Save the Children in such a sustainable way, that will resonate for a long, long time.”

Meanwhile, the nonprofit has also built experiential learning into all its teacher trainings. Rashid says the impact of that decision cannot be underestimated given the organization’s broad reach in the region, including its role training public school teachers.

“For World Learning to come in and train Kurdistan Save the Children in such a sustainable way, that will resonate for a long, long time,” Rashid says.

Collaborating with World Learning has also given Kurdistan Save the Children the confidence it needed to venture further into the STEM education field.

Later this year, the organization plans to roll out a STEM curriculum adapted from Kids Can Code at its six other cultural activity centers — meaning that, soon, even more kids across Kurdistan will be part of the global movement toward STEM education.

That’s truly the power of partnership.

In Iraq, a Mentorship Program Gives Young People New Job Opportunities

Sarah was just hoping for a job — any job — when she joined a workforce readiness and mentorship program last year in Basrah, a southern Iraqi city known for its vast oil reserves.

Having just entered her fourth year of college, Sarah, now 23, knew the challenges young people face finding work in her country. As the World Bank reports, Iraq’s labor market is particularly difficult for women and youth, more than a fifth of whom are neither employed nor in education or training.

In Sarah’s experience, there seemed to be few avenues to help young people prepare for the working world beyond the technical knowledge they gain in school. Internships are rare in many fields, while universities seldom train students in soft skills such as communication skills and critical thinking. Many of Sarah’s friends didn’t even know how to apply for a job let alone excel at one.

Eager to gain those skills, Sarah applied to join the Basrah Employability and Entrepreneurship Program. Funded by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and implemented by World Learning, the seven-month program connects young people with professional mentors and provides them with hands-on job readiness training.

The program exceeded her expectations: Within two months of graduating, Sarah received seven job offers. And she didn’t need to settle for just any job — she’s now working in her chosen field, the oil and gas industry, as a document control officer.

“I was blown away,” Sarah says. “It was crazy. [The program materials] were really, really useful.”

Sarah’s story is one of this innovative program’s many successes.Originally launched in 2015 as the Maharat Mentorship Program, the Basrah Employability and Entrepreneurship Program takes a comprehensive and contextual approach to preparing youth to join the workforce. World Learning drew on its extensive experience in youth workforce development to create the curriculum, while also tapping into the local knowledge and networks that staff have developed over 10 years implementing the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program.

Guided by their mentors in monthly meetings, participants explore various career pathways, identify their strengths, discover how to overcome their weaknesses, and learn best practices for job-seekers. Then, they put their knowledge into action through mock interviews, networking events, building profiles on professional social networks like LinkedIn, and more.

In Basrah, this mentorship program fills a vital need.

“I believe Basrah [is lacking access to] the skills required to seek for a job and enter the market,” says Mohaned, 30, an engineering and IT supervisor for a major oil and gas company.

As the Basrah native explains, the region lacks job-training programs that help young people get a foothold in the working world. As a result, his company tends to hire people from the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, where there’s greater access to soft skills trainings.

In 2017, Mohaned became a mentor in the Basrah Employability and Entrepreneurship Program to help local youth overcome these challenges. He believes the program is particularly effective due to its experiential nature, noting that this is the first opportunity for many students to experience a learning style that is hands-on rather than lecture-based.

Sarah affirms that practicing interviewing, resume-writing, and networking in real-world scenarios made it easier to apply those skills in her job search. But she also says that mentors like Mohaned help set this youth workforce development program apart.

In fact, mentorship has made a difference in Sarah’s life even beyond her career. She recalls how one of her mentors suggested that she had a talent for training others. With a little guidance, Sarah decided to pursue extracurricular opportunities as a peace education trainer — and she now works as a trainer with the United Nations Development Programme.

“If the mentors see somebody who has more to give, they work on it,” Sarah says. “They opened the door for me. I didn’t know I could do that.”

In fact, participants overwhelmingly report that the Basrah Employability and Entrepreneurship Program has made a difference for them. Since its inception, the mentorship program has trained 85 Iraqi participants — 90 percent of whom report coming away with clearer career goals as well as increased confidence in writing CVs and interviewing for jobs. In 2018, 95 percent reported satisfaction with their monthly mentor sessions, while 100 percent felt more comfortable working in teams.

The program’s success has extended to Algeria, too. In 2017, World Learning partnered with the U.S. Embassy in Algiers on another iteration of the Maharat Mentorship Program tailored to Algeria. It, too, has shown results: In 2018, 70 percent of participants had secured employment or internship opportunities during the program.

Employers can see the difference in job applicants.

Schlumberger, a global oil company with projects in Iraq, has hired two graduates of the Basrah Employability and Entrepreneurship Program, Zainab and Haneen. Their supervisor noted in an email to World Learning that both women “start every day ready for any problems [they] may face. A very important skill that both had was their ability to effectively communicate topics that [are] very complex. They have used this ability over the past months to successfully solve several problems and the company has benefited a lot.”

Mohaned recently saw that when his employer held an all-day job interview for entry-level engineers. Throughout the day’s activities, which tested both technical knowledge plus teamwork and leadership abilities, three candidates stood out to the hiring committee — all alumni from the Basrah Employability and Entrepreneurship Program. They were all hired.

“I was really happy and proud,” he says. “I could see the practical impact of [the program] on their skills.”

For Children in a Syrian Refugee Camp, Coding Is More Than a Skill

Kids across the world are learning how to code. In recent years, coding has come to be seen as one of the many skills that can prepare children for a rapidly changing economy.

But learning to code has taken on special meaning for the children of Arbat, a Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq. Here, a new coding club is helping kids make friends, learn English, and rediscover passions they had to leave behind when they were forced from their homes.

It’s also an opportunity to resume an interrupted education. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR), four million refugee children don’t attend school — let alone have access to competitive science and technology skills like coding. For Syrian refugees, the challenge is especially dire with two-fifths of school-aged children out of school.

Last year, World Learning teamed up with three forward-thinking partners in the private and civil sectors to address that challenge by launching Syrian Refugee Kids Can Code. Held five days a week in the Arbat activity center, this club offers children the opportunity to build and program computers using coding kits provided by the technology company Kano. Kurdistan Save the Children (KSC), a local NGO, runs the club’s daily operations, which are funded by the Catalyst Foundation for Universal Education, an organization that supports projects that encourage kids to pursue education.

Kids Can Code is deliberate about offering that encouragement. World Learning’s global education team adapted Kano’s coding curriculum to make it accessible for students in the camp by developing English vocabulary and grammar games to help the students — most of whom speak little to no English — use commands on their computers. Knowing that children need to feel safe and comfortable in order to learn, the team also trained KSC teachers to provide psychosocial support.

It’s already making a difference. Read on to find out how Kids Can Code has impacted the lives of Laila, Berivan, and twin sisters Nasrin and Rozhin.

LAILA

Laila grew up in Syria with her parents, a younger sister, and two younger brothers. She loved visiting her uncle, an artist, to watch him paint. “I spent hours looking at my uncle’s hands to see what he drew,” she says. “I never got bored.” At age five, she began to paint, too. Her uncle encouraged her to keep going and so she started painting every day. Art become her favorite subject at school.

But when Syria’s civil war broke out, Laila’s family had to leave everything behind. They fled to the Arbat refugee camp in Kurdistan, the northern region of Iraq, where life was more difficult than Laila had expected. “I was excited to start a peaceful life, but at the same time I was so sad to leave all my paintings and painting equipment [in Syria],” Laila says. Struggling to provide for their family, her parents couldn’t afford to buy new painting supplies. Laila had to give up painting entirely.

That changed in 2016. Kurdistan Save the Children opened an activity center — which had its own art department — inside the Arbat camp. Laila began visiting the activity center daily to practice painting once again. In 2018, she even had the opportunity to showcase her work at KSC’s Annual Kaziwa Exhibition.

Kids Can Code helped further ignite Laila’s passion for creativity. She loved learning how to code — especially using the Make Art app, which uses coding to creating drawings — and discovered she was quite good at it. She became a regular in the class.

Laila is determined to keep going in her art education so that someday she can grow up to become an artist — just like her uncle.

BERIVAN

Berivan’s life started out quite ordinary: She lived happily in a small house in Damascus with her parents, younger brother, and younger sister. But in 2014, when she was 6, things changed. Her father had to go away for work, traveling during a time when Syria was engulfed in violent conflict. He never came back.

Not long after, the Syrian army destroyed Berivan’s house, forcing the family to move in with an uncle. Though Berivan was sad to lose her little pink room and her neighborhood friends, she got used to her new life. Playing with her cousins helped her forget some of the pain that she had suffered. Her family lived there for three years.

In 2017, though, the family decided to leave for Kurdistan. “All we wanted at that time was freedom,” Berivan says. Though it was difficult to once again leave everything behind, they knew they could live in peace in the Arbat refugee camp.

Now Berivan has a stable life. Her mother got a job cleaning the Arbat activity center, where Berivan participates regularly in Kids Can Code. She loves how it has improved her English language skills and taught her how to draw through coding. She works hard at her studies so that she can someday become a successful teacher and help her mother care for the family. “My mother is my hero,” Berivan says. “She never made us feel that we don’t have a father.”

NASRIN AND ROZHIN

Nasrin and Rozhin never got to know their parents. Just weeks after the twin sisters were born in Syria, their father was killed in a demonstration. Shortly afterward, their mother remarried and traveled abroad, leaving her daughters behind. They never heard from her again.

Fortunately, an aunt took in the twins, deciding to raise them like her own children. Since then, she has done everything she can to be like a mother for her nieces — including fleeing to Kurdistan when they were 5 years old for their protection from the unrest in Syria.

Still, things were difficult upon arrival at the Arbat refugee camp. Their aunt struggled to find employment, resorting to collecting leftover bread to re-sell so she could pay the electricity bill. And while the girls started attending school every day, they didn’t have any friends and never went out to play.

That changed when they joined Kids Can Code. During the coding classes, Nasrin and Rozhin started to come out of their shells, making friends with other children at the camp. Their grades in their English class have improved through the course, too — and they even taught their aunt some of the English words and phrases that they’ve learned.

Life remains difficult for Nasrin and Rozhin. While the girls have always felt like they do have a mother — they call their aunt “mom” — they still mourn their father. “When we see children holding their fathers’ hands it breaks our heart, because we will never know how it feels to have a father to protect you,” Rozhin says. Yet, in spite of that sorrow, the twins remain full of life and dreams of a better future.

Watch this video from our partner Kano to learn more about Kids Can Code:

World Learning Receives Grant from the Stevens Initiative to Connect Students in the U.S., Middle East, and North Africa through Virtual Exchange

Grantees will create opportunities for U.S. and international students to build global competencies and career readiness skills through virtual exchange.

Today, the Stevens Initiative announced funding for The Experiment Digital and the NextGen Coders Network implemented by World Learning. They are two of six programs selected through an international competition to fund virtual exchange programs in the United States and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

World Learning is part of the third round of Stevens Initiative grantees. These exchanges will enable thousands of young people to gain the skills that they need to succeed in today’s economy and society, and to establish new cross-cultural connections.

Under the Stevens Initiative, The Experiment Digital, implemented by World Learning, is a two-month summer virtual exchange program that helps high school aged youth become more civically engaged by empowering them to plan and execute a community service project. Through interactive modules on leadership, community issues, and digital citizenship, participants will gain 21st century global competency skills. Through small group dialogue with participants from different countries, participants will develop mutual understanding and learn how to communicate across cultures and regions.

Under the Stevens Initiative, the NextGen Coders Network, implemented by World Learning, will create a virtual exchange opportunity for university students and young professionals from Iraq, Palestinian Territories, and the United States of America.  These exchanges will take place through “hackathons” involving collaboration to solve grand challenges facing their communities using coding-oriented solutions. World Learning will implement the program in partnership with organizations in the U.S. and abroad.

“World Learning is thrilled to partner with the Stevens Initiative on these innovative virtual exchange programs that connect and empower young people across the world,” said Carol Jenkins, CEO of World Learning. “Building on our decades of experience in international exchange – and leveraging our robust digital platform and expertise in STEM education – we look forward to creating even more opportunities for young people to make a difference at home and globally.”

“I am very pleased with the grants that we are awarding for the next round of Stevens Initiative funded virtual exchange programs,” said Marie Royce, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. “As bandwidths increase and platforms get more sophisticated, virtual exchanges open opportunities for international exposure and connection to hundreds of thousands – and potentially millions – of people. Virtual exchanges like those funded by the Stevens Initiative also facilitate cross-cultural experiences and build career readiness skills. I look forward to a great expansion of this innovative program over the next year and continuing to honor this living legacy to Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.”

Through the work of these six new programs, the Stevens Initiative will expand its reach to nearly 40,000 students in 15 MENA countries and the Palestinian Territories, and in 44 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC. Programs will begin this April and will continue through the summer of 2021.

Other programs include:

  • Global Nomads Group (GNG): Campfire, GNG’s flagship program, focuses on virtual storytelling – an interdisciplinary and powerful vehicle for youth to build empathy, self-awareness, and global understanding.
  • International Research & Exchanges Board, Inc. (IREX): The Global Solutions Sustainability Challenge (GSSC), implemented by IREX, connects students in the United States, Jordan, and Iraq to virtually collaborate on a sustainable solution to a contemporary business challenge.
  • Soliya: Soliya’s Connect Global will bring together college-aged youth in the United States and in the Middle East and North Africa for online, face-to-face dialogue.
  • William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan (WDI): Implemented by WDI, Business & Culture: A Virtual Practicum is a classroom-to-classroom, action-learning course on international business cultures that brings together students from Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, and the U.S.

“The Aspen Institute values the open exchange of ideas and the work of the Stevens Initiative allows for just that,” said Elliot Gerson, Executive Vice President of Public & Policy Programs at the Aspen Institute. “Through virtual exchange, youth in the US and MENA region are able to engage with one another, learn together, and become global-minded leaders.”

Created in 2015 by the Stevens family as a living legacy to Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, the Stevens Initiative is a public-private partnership that is building global competencies and 21st century skills for young people in the United States and the Middle East and North Africa. Through virtual exchange, the Initiative connects youth through technology to collaborate and learn together, giving them access to a substantive international exchange.

The Initiative is awarding these six grants to schools and organizations to implement virtual exchange programs, lasting from several weeks to several months, for students from middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities.

World Learning works globally to enhance the capacity and commitment of individuals, institutions, and communities to create a more peaceful and just world through education, sustainable development, and exchange. Our programs advance leadership in more than 150 countries.

The Experiment Digital and the NextGen Coders Network are funded by the Stevens Initiative, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and is administered by the Aspen Institute. It is also supported by the Bezos Family Foundation and the governments of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

More Information

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) builds relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries through academic, cultural, sports, professional and private exchanges, as well as public-private partnerships and mentoring programs. These exchange programs improve foreign relations and strengthen the national security of the United States, support U.S. international leadership, and provide a broad range of domestic benefits by helping break down barriers that often divide us. Visit eca.state.gov.

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Institute is based in Washington, D.C.; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

The Bezos Family Foundation supports rigorous, inspired learning environments for young people, from birth through high school, to put their education into action. Through investments in research, public awareness, systems building and programs, the foundation works to elevate the field of education and improve life outcomes for all children.

The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Washington, D.C. is committed to promoting and increasing cross-cultural understanding and educational exchanges. In line with the UAE Government’s values, the Embassy supports educational programming at schools and universities across the U.S. The Embassy works with U.S. institutions to provide unique opportunities for peer-to-peer exchanges and help broaden student’s horizons.

The Kingdom of Morocco has held a longstanding commitment to the promotion of peace, mutual understanding and respect across all fora.  In line with this commitment, the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco is a strong supporter of the Stevens Initiative and is proud to be included in its programs, which foster opportunities for cross-cultural exchanges between youth.

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Kids Can Code: Teaching Technology in Iraq

A man points at a small commputer while two young girls look on.Five days a week, around 200 school-aged children huddle around U-shaped tables in the activity center at the Arbat refugee camp in northern Iraq. Together, the children build computers and learn basic coding, all while they practice English and develop strategies for coping in a difficult environment.

These lessons are at the heart of Kids Can Code, a club for refugee children born out of an innovative new partnership that World Learning has launched alongside technology company Kano and Kurdistan Save the Children (KSC), with funding from the Catalyst Foundation for Universal Education.

“This is a really terrific partnership. We were thrilled to find an organization equipped to put together a program that would use this innovative product, which teaches a valuable skill and gets kids engaged with STEM,” says Emily Daughtry, senior program officer at Catalyst.

Two young girls work at a small orange computer as an adult woman looks on.Kids Can Code builds upon Kano’s intuitive technology and computer coding lessons, which give young people the skills they need to find jobs in the modern workforce and to shape the digital world. World Learning, a leader in global education, adapted that curriculum to make it accessible for students in the camp, most of whom speak little to no English and often struggle with trauma.

Dr. Kara McBride, senior education program specialist at World Learning, led the effort to form that curriculum. She likens her approach to the way Kano teaches kids to “hack” coding by offering easy-to-use lessons and games.

“I ended up taking that concept and hacking English,” she says.

McBride built vocabulary and grammar lessons and games designed to help students progress through the Kano coding lessons, which begin with simple and direct commands but grow more challenging each week. For example, McBride introduced a game called “Move If…,” in which students switch places with one another in response to commands their teacher gives in a combination of English and Kurdish. The game prepares students to use commands to move the cursor around in one of the Kano applications and later to understand “if…then” statements.

A girl types on a small orange keyboard while watching a small computer screen.Though English and technology skills are the main aims of the club, McBride says the curriculum design also builds soft skills — like collaboration and problem solving — and is embedded with psychosocial support elements to help children who are dealing with difficult life circumstances feel safe in the classroom and develop skills for making friends and handling emotions. Kids Can Code teachers are trained to provide the emotional support their students need. “From the very first minute they walk in, you’re greeting them and being interested in their lives,” McBride says.

Kids Can Code’s daily operations will be sustained by KSC, an Iraqi humanitarian organization. World Learning connected with KSC through the extensive alumni network of another World Learning program, the U.S. Department of State-funded Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program (IYLEP). McBride says that partnership was essential.

“It is huge,” she says. “There’s no way we could access the camp without them.”

Catalyst, the funding partner, was also critical to the success of Kids Can Code. Catalyst supports projects that encourage kids to strive for higher education as well as non-formal education projects that help keep them engaged in education no matter their circumstances. Daughtry says the Kids Can Code project perfectly bridges those two pillars.

“It’s an exciting way to engage young people in a 21st century skill that’s really valuable,” she says. “And hopefully it will also spark their interest and keep them engaged with STEM skills in a way that will make it easier for them to stay on a pathway to higher education.”

This Teen Is Transforming How His Peers See the Middle East

Fifteen-year-old Turner Payne didn’t know very much about the Middle East before last summer. Though he was interested in the world, Payne didn’t have much opportunity to learn about the region’s history or culture as a high school freshman in Maryland. What he knew about it was what he’d learned from social media and TV news stories, which portrayed the Middle East as a place of conflict full of terror attacks and refugees.

But that changed when Payne joined the Digital Young Leaders Exchange Program (DYLEP), a virtual exchange program run by World Learning that connects teenagers from the U.S. and Iraq. In addition to getting to know peers from another country, it’s designed to help them develop leadership skills, while fostering civic engagement and respect for diversity. Payne spent almost every day of the four-month program chatting online with Iraqi teenagers — his virtual “family” — learning about their culture and sharing his experiences with them.

“I learned through DYLEP about how rich the Middle East is and how many different cultures and religions it has,” Payne says. He was surprised to find out, too, how much he had in common with his Iraqi family. “We connected on a very personal level because we shared the same interests and values like the love of travel, learning different languages, watching sports, eating good meals, and hanging out with family and friends. And that’s something I didn’t think would [happen with] someone from such a different area than me.”

Now in his sophomore year of high school, Payne is working to help other teens dispel misconceptions about the world. DYLEP participants are encouraged to launch projects addressing challenges in their communities, so Payne founded an initiative called Binding Borders. The digital cross-cultural project features video interviews with students from the Middle East and North Africa talking about how their cultures are perceived in the U.S.

“My experience at DYLEP really opened my eyes to the many different stereotypes that existed in the U.S. about the Middle East,” Payne says. “I wanted to come up with an idea that would address this problem.” He thought video interviews would be a powerful way to help American teens understand how their peers from the Middle East feel about how their culture is portrayed.

Turner (left) with his partner and classmate Abdullah.

Payne turned to his DYLEP family for advice on developing Binding Borders, as some of them already had experience in launching community projects. They suggested their American friend partner with a classmate to help promote Binding Borders more widely.

Payne found that partner in his classmate Abdelrahman Abdullah, whose family had moved to the U.S. from Egypt a few years earlier. Abdullah enthusiastically signed on to be Binding Border

s’ director.

In his own video, Abdullah explains the cross-cultural challenges he faced when his family moved to the U.S. Most students associated his native country with camels and pyramids rather than facets of modern Egyptian society — and the media didn’t help. “[My culture is] always portrayed negatively,” he says in the video. “Sometimes people think everyone is a terrorist because you’re a Muslim or just from the Middle East.”

Payne says this message is a common theme throughout the seven or eight video interviews he has recorded for the project. “They want us to go beyond the news and actually learn [about their culture],” he says.

So far, these messages are helping. Payne says the classmates who have watched the videos are surprised by what they’ve learned about Middle Eastern culture. “After they see these videos they have a moment where they realize, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve totally been stereotyping Middle Eastern students,’” he says. “I hope that will help them change.”

Payne and Abdullah plan to continue spreading Binding Borders’ message. They’ve presented the project to their school’s International Club and Payne has posted information about it on DYLEP’s Facebook page for alumni. They’re also planning to launch a Binding Borders club at their school next year, which Payne says will raise money to fund DYLEP scholarships as well as support the International Rescue Committee’s office in Silver Spring, Maryland. He’s excited to see how Binding Borders can help Middle Eastern and American students in his community overcome their differences and find a common ground.

“I think it’s important for us to learn as much as we can about other cultures and world views,” he says. “We need to welcome diversity.”

World Learning to Receive Grant from the Aspen Institute Stevens Initiative to Administer Virtual Exchange Between High School Youth in Iraq and the United States

The Aspen Institute Stevens Initiative today announced the award of a two-year grant to World Learning, one of 10 new projects funded through a national competition to use virtual exchange to increase cross-cultural understanding and equip young people to participate in a global economy.

World Learning’s is among the first wave of virtual exchange programs to be funded by the Stevens Initiative, a public-private partnership designed to increase people-to-people exchange between youth in the United States and the Middle East and North Africa as a lasting tribute to the legacy of Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Virtual exchange uses technology for sustained, people-to-people education programs. The Initiative aims to increase mutual understanding between youth in middle school through post-secondary and equip a generation of globally minded youth with the skills they need to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world.

The announcement marks the first major step in the Stevens Initiative’s plan to scale up people-to-people exchanges between youth in the United States and the Middle East and North Africa. The Initiative provided $5 million to support online programs that will bring more than 20,000 young people together to engage in cross-cultural learning experiences. The programs reach 17 countries in the Middle East and North Africa and 25 American states.

Under the Stevens Initiative, World Learning will implement the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program – Virtual (IYLEP Virtual). With this program, World Learning will build upon its implementation of the U.S. Department of State Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program (IYLEP) by using innovative technology platforms to conduct an exchange and leadership development training entirely online for a diverse cadre of future Iraqi and American youth leaders. IYLEP Virtual’s curriculum will emphasize global leadership, education, and engagement.

Other examples of the work to be undertaken include:

  • Arabic, English and Kurdish language exchange programs between students in California and their peers in Morocco, Iraq and Saudi Arabia;
  • Storytelling through virtual reality for middle and high school students in Kentucky, New York, and Jordan, including Syrian refugees;
  • A collaborative anthropological project between high school students in Morocco and Chicago;
  • Global leadership activities for students in Iraq, Illinois, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Washington, and Wisconsin.
  • An online program exploring how the media portrays people in the United Arab Emirates and various states across the United States.

Most programs will launch in Spring 2016 and continue for a period of two years.

“This is the beginning of a global classroom. World Learning will be a pioneer in an exciting and dynamic field,” said Elliot Gerson, Executive Vice President of the Aspen Institute. “Our vision is to spark conversations between young people in countries around the world—to exchange ideas and information and to work together on addressing important issues. We look forward to working with World Learning to achieve this vision.”

The first Stevens Initiative award competition was open to U.S. non-profit organizations. In addition to holding future rounds of the award competition, the Initiative will share best practices and support research to address which methods have a measurable impact and have the potential to reach all young people as the field grows.

“World Learning is proud to work with the Aspen Institute on this important and innovative project,” said Carol Jenkins, President for Global Development and Exchange at World Learning. “We have implemented the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program for many years and look forward to applying that experience to use new technology to build and strengthen relationships between American and Iraqi youth.”

The other Stevens Initiative grantees announced today are:

  • Chicago Sister Cities International
  • Eurasia Foundation
  • Global Nomads Group
  • IEARN
  • National Democratic Institute
  • Soliya
  • State University of New York – Center for Collaborative Online International Learning
  • University of California Berkeley
  • Wofford College
  • World Learning

World Learning is a nonprofit organization that works globally to enhance the capacity and commitment of individuals, institutions, and communities to create a more sustainable, peaceful, and just world. The organization empowers people and strengthens institutions through education, development, and exchange programs.

The Stevens Initiative is a public-private partnership designed to increase people-to-people exchange between youth in the United States and the Middle East and North Africa as a lasting tribute to the legacy of Ambassador Chris Stevens. By fostering structured online engagements between young people in secondary through post-secondary education, the Stevens Initiative aims to increase mutual understanding and equip a generation of globally minded youth with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century.

Housed at the Aspen Institute, the Stevens Initiative is a collaboration between the family of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. Department of State, the Bezos Family Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the governments of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Algeria, and Morocco, and Microsoft, Mozilla, Twitter, and GoPro. Visit the Stevens Initiative at www.stevensinitiative.org.

The Experiment Digital

The Experiment Digital Leadership in STEM is implemented by World Learning and is supported by the J. Christopher Stevens Virtual Exchange Initiative (JCSVEI). JCSVEI is a U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs program administered by the Aspen Institute.

World Learning’s The Experiment Digital Youth Leadership & Community Service and English-Spanish Language Engage are funded by the Stevens Initiative, which is housed at the Aspen Institute and is supported by the Bezos Family Foundation.

EducationUSA Academy

For further information: edusaacademy@worldlearning.org

“Through EducationUSA Academy, I made new friends from all over the world, I learned about the American education system and requirements for getting accepted to an American university, and I visited one of the most interesting places in the United States in a friendly and helpful group.” -2017 EducationUSA Academy participant

Student Eligibility

Participants must:

  • Be students (currently enrolled or recently graduated), ages 15-18 at the time of the summer program;
  • Have at least three years of middle to high school English language study (language requirements may vary slightly by institution);
  • Be mature and self-disciplined, with a commitment to active participation in the Academy and its programming;
  • Aspire to pursue a portion of their higher education in the U.S.; and
  • Have sufficient personal funds to cover program fees and international airfare.

More information is available from your local EducationUSA adviser. To find your local EducationUSA advising center, please visit the EducationUSA website.

Follow the program on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

EducationUSA Academy is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by World Learning.

International Visitor Leadership Program

End of Year Report

Chosen by U.S. embassies worldwide to participate, distinguished professionals include:

  • parliamentarians
  • government officials
  • entrepreneurs
  • NGO leaders
  • journalists
  • academics
  • arts administrators
  • mid-career professionals

Programs focus on policy issues in areas such as:

  • government
  • international security
  • foreign policy
  • entrepreneurship
  • economics and trade
  • media
  • women’s leadership
  • education
  • public health
  • arts
  • agriculture
  • disability rights and inclusion

World Learning staff members design national itineraries, arrange logistics, set up meetings in Washington, DC, and coordinate the collaboration of U.S. Department of State program officers, interpreters and International Visitor Liaisons, and more than 85 community-based member organizations from the Global Ties U.S. Network who arrange local programs nationwide.

Participants

Most participants are mid-career professionals and emerging leaders, and for many, this is their first visit to the U.S. Groups are of varying sizes, from single visitors to groups of 25 or more. World Learning program staff work closely with their State Department counterparts to design a program customized to the project objectives and the visitors’ interests.

 

Participant Selection

IVLP candidates are selected solely by U.S. embassy personnel in each country. There is no application form. World Learning is a private sector partner of the U.S. Department of State; our role is limited to designing programs for participants once they arrive in the U.S. For further information regarding the program, please consult the U.S. Department of State’s website.

Program Design

A typical project includes up to a week of meetings in Washington, DC, to provide an orientation and overview of the theme and to introduce visitors to federal officials and agencies, national organizations, academics and think tanks, nonprofits and NGOs, and professionals in their specific field of interest. All projects include a briefing on the US federal system of government. Meetings may include panel discussions, site visits, workshops, individual interlocutors, job shadowing, or service opportunities. Visitors typically travel to an additional three or four cities in geographically diverse regions of the country; the itinerary may include a state capital and a small town to provide first-hand exposure to the great diversity that exists in the U.S. Also included in the program design are hospitality dinners, school visits, community service activities, and cultural events such as rodeos, state fairs, festivals, visits to national parks, or events that highlight some unique aspect of the region visited.

Participant Experience

“My recent experience in the IVLP program is so far the deepest ever for me to see and understand the full picture of what America as a country is like. I strongly believe this program will have a very long-term impact on my views about America and the world and to some extent it has already helped me to understand many long-time questions.” – Journalist from China

The International Visitor Leadership Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by World Learning.

Kids Can Code

Watch this video from our partner Kano to learn more about Kids Can Code: