News-Decoder now has partner programs in 11 countries.
By Nelson Graves
Two more schools have joined News-Decoder, extending our geographic reach into a fifth continent — Latin America — and linking us with one of China’s top academic institutions.
Gimnasio Los Caobos in Colombia and the Affiliated High School of Peking University (BDFZ) in China are among the very best schools in those countries, and they join 16 other institutions inside of News-Decoder’s global community.
With the recent addition of the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in South Africa, Herlufsholm School in Denmark and Middlesex School in the United States, News-Decoder now has partners with programs in 11 countries.
Caobos and ALA give News-Decoder a presence for the first time in two countries in the Southern Hemisphere. (Colombia straddles the equator.)
“Gimnasio Los Caobos is dedicated to making connections between our curriculum and the world beyond our walls,” said Jennifer Klein, head of Caobos, which has a project-based curriculum for students from pre-Kindergarten through high school.
“Global partnerships through organizations like News-Decoder are an essential way that our students learn with and from the world in ways that build their global competencies and create opportunities to create change in their own community.”
BDFZ is part of Peking University, consistently ranked as China’s top university. Students enrolled in BDFZ’s international section, called Dalton Academy, will participate in News-Decoder webinars and produce multi-media content for the website.
Caobos and Dalton hope to collaborate on a common theme in the 2018-19 academic year, taking advantage of News-Decoder’s network to knit cross-border connections.
Students at News-Decoder’s partner schools will examine critical international issues throughout the next academic year starting in September, organizing online seminars and producing articles, podcasts, photo reports and video for our soon-to-be relaunched website.
The issues include climate change, nationalism, the future of democracy, the South China Sea, immigration, human rights, globalization and Africa.
News-Decoder started three years ago with a pilot program and then launched a full-on program a year ago with 14 founding member schools and universities.
The mission is to create better global citizens by helping young people around the world to better understand complex issues and to learn from each other and our pool of experts.
Nelson Graves is the founder of News-Decoder. He was a correspondent, bureau chief and regional managing editor at Reuters, holding posts in Washington, Paris, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Milan and Tokyo. He later served as admissions director at Johns Hopkins University’s graduate program in international relations in Europe, and has worked with schools around the world as a teacher and trustee.