Global Citizenship & the Global Issues Network

Rutland High School has undergone a number of school improvement initiatives over the past few years including: establishing a freshman interdisciplinary team, defining school-wide expectations, implementing Professional Learning Communities and creating STEM and Global Studies Programs. Representing the humanities and the sciences, we are going to explore ways of integrating these programs under one cohesive umbrella. The Global Issues Network (GIN) – which strives to mentor and motivate youth to take informed, thoughtful and sustainable actions to address the most pressing global issues – will act as a meaningful platform to incorporate content. As global citizens, students will have to apply skills from every discipline to affect positive changes: from math to music; with knowledge of social studies and science; using languages and laboratories. This integration of disciplines will foster communication, design solutions, participation, and understanding when grappling with complex issues that result from both the actions and inactions of students. The GIN philosophy, in combination with the culminating conference, will provide a context in which to earnestly complete this urgent work and to merge the otherwise seemingly-disparate fields representing our STEM and Global Studies programs.

Training for both a student group and the RHS faculty will support a sustainable GIN model. We will identify and train a core group of students across grade levels to serve as the student leadership team. The group will include students from all grade levels so that there will be a constant blend of veterans and recruits. These students will develop the skills necessary to produce a perennial GIN conference including leadership, facilitating, technology and public speaking. Additionally, the Rowland Fellowship will provide opportunities for staff-wide professional development focused on conflict management and project-based learning in order to prepare our faculty to support students.

Ultimately, our goal is to develop a system that not only promotes learning, but inspires and empowers students to become active and engaged citizens. RHS’s integrated, problem-based curriculum will naturally lend itself to the GIN conference where attendees will have the prospect of presenting and sharing with colleagues. While we are convinced of the merits of establishing a perennial GIN conference at RHS from the standpoint of best instructional practices, it is perhaps the higher calling of promoting pragmatic steps towards solving real-life environmental, economic, and social problems that motivates us even more.