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Developing high-quality teaching and learning programs for youth has been an important activity at the Stanley Foundation for more than twenty years. The fundamentals of the programs are collaboration and tolerance, values that transfer from individual empowerment to global understanding.

Most programs happen in the summer, because that is when young people have the time to participate. This past summer the foundation cosponsored four programs and organized another one, Summer Special, on its own.

The accompanying chart compares and contrasts the individual programs, but they all share these common characteristics:

  • Most important, participants are exposed to new, unfamiliar experiences, activities, and ideas.
  • The staff acknowledge themselves as learners. While experts in particular content areas, they view their teaching as "facilitating" or "guiding" the learning process.
  • Participants are acknowledged as teachers. Their experiences, talents, and knowledge are explicitly part of the agenda.
  • A ratio of one staff member for every five or six participants allows for individual interaction and assessment.
  • Activities are experiential (hands on) and interdisciplinary.
  • Interdependence between the individual, community, state, nation, and world is stressed.
Multicultural resources are used, as well as settings that take participants out of their usual environments.
—Jill Goldesberry
NOV 1997
 
  Global Camp Nebraska International Camp Summer Arts Experience Summer Special Summer Explorations for Young Women
Site Inner city, St. Louis, MO Camp Carol Joy Holling, Ashland, NE (remote camping facility) Columbus Junction, IA (small rural town of approximately 2000) Muscatine, IA Farley, IA
Program 2-week day camp (9-2:30) 1-week full camping experience 3-day camp (8:30-11:30) 2-week day camp (9-noon) 3-day full camping experience (2 nights)
Participants 7th graders enrolled in St. Louis public schools with diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and income and ability levels 10- to 15-year-old Nebraskans. Most enrolled in a foreign language course 6th-8th graders of Columbus Community School District 5th-6th graders from Muscatine area 6th, 7th, and 8th grade young women in Western Dubuque School District
Emphasis Global citizenship, expanded view of the world Foreign languages of German, French, and Spanish as well as cultural elements of countries where these languages are spoken Perspective consciousness, applying creative processes of the fine arts to participants' community and world views Global education, leadership, exploring diversity, community building, and awareness of our affect on the planet Leadership development, global and environmental awareness, local and global community
Years in Existence 1 year 20 years 3 years 15 years 1 year
 

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