Program will send students to Rwanda
The usual high school field trips rarely go beyond our backyard: the Freedom Trail, the Aquarium, and the Salem Witch Museum. But Brookline-based program Facing History and Ourselves, which is taking 18 Massachusetts high school students to Rwanda next summer, is no normal organization.
The nonprofit group was recently awarded a grant from the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which will fund a two-year cultural exchange between TechBoston Academy, suburban Hudson High, and two Rwandan schools.
"It is not a content-based exchange," said Juan Castellanos, a program associate for Facing History. "It's a cultural exchange. The kids are focusing on community and what's at stake when you belong to a group."
Each school must now choose nine students and three alternates to be part of the two-year exchange with 18 Rwandan students. During the next year, students will meet once a month to participate in preparatory activities, such as language training and cultural lessons.
"We start off small in their own schools and then look at history," said Castellanos. "We use history as a vehicle to explore universal themes."
The students will focus on the concept of community at their meetings what the word community means to them, what it means to be a part of a community and how being a part of a community helps inform the choices individuals make, said Castellanos.
In July, the American students will spend 21 days in Rwanda, attending seminars and then working together to create "digital stories" that explore their communities. In March 2010, Rwandan students will come to America to complete the digital stories and to visit Washington, D.C., where the 36 students will present their finished products to the State Department.
"We want to show [students] they have something at stake," said Castellanos. "In classrooms, communities, country, they have to get involved. We show them their choices do matter."
KIMBERLY SANFELIZ 