A 10th U.S. school, Pace Academy, is joining News-Decoder, bringing a distinctive cross-disciplinary approach to our international network.

Pace Academy, a school in the south of the United States, has joined News-Decoder as our latest academic partner — one with an ambitious leadership program that nurtures a global mindset among students of all ages.

Located in the city of Atlanta, Pace is the 10th U.S. school to join our international network and the first from the South of that country.

“At Pace Academy, we are constantly looking for opportunities and resources students can engage with to challenge their perceptions, raise their awareness and develop their critical thinking skills around global issues,” said Kirsten Boehner, director of the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) and Design program at Pace.

“We found News Decoder to be an excellent platform where students can encourage each other to investigate and process matters of concern from around the world,” Boehner said.

Pace, which spans grades from primary through high school, encourages students to examine issues from a cross-disciplinary perspective, consistent with News-Decoder’s focus on broad themes that students probe from sometimes radically different viewpoints.

Pace’s school-wide theme for the coming academic year is waste, and students at the school will use News-Decoder’s platform to share their research and reporting on this pressing international problem.

“We are especially excited to learn from the themes that students from peer institutions are passionate about while at the same time sharing what we are learning about our current global theme of Waste,” Boehner said.

Global mindsets and cultural appreciation

The Isdell Center for Global Leadership at Pace spearheads the school-wide examination of themes, which in past years have focused on water, food, climate, conservation and energy.

Unlike many schools whose global studies programs are offered primarily to older students, Pace involves students of every age in the exploration of the annual theme.

“Thinking on this level challenges perceptions, requires curiosity and develops global mindsets and cultural appreciation,” according to Isdell’s website.

News-Decoder’s themes for 2019-20 include Walls and Bridges, Identity, the Environment, Crime and Punishment, Poverty and Wealth, War and Peace, and Truth and Fiction.

Students at News-Decoder partner schools share research and reporting on the themes during hour-long webinars, and produce multi-media packages of stories that are published on our website.

News-Decoder approaches the 2019-20 academic year with 16 academic partners in 10 countries — China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Italy, Jordan, South Africa, South Korea, Spain and the United States.

In April, Pace hosted the Global Education Benchmark Group‘s annual conference, where News-Decoder presented its 2019-20 program.

(For more on News-Decoder’s academic partners, click here.)


Nelson Graves is News-Decoder’s founder.

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News Decoder UpdatesPace Academy of U.S. joins News-Decoder’s ranks