Institute of Global Changemakers
Trapped in the Exeter bubble? The new club Institute of Global Changemakers (IGC) brings global issues to campus, offering students the chance to engage as citizens of the world. Founded by senior Abigail Africa, with the help of fellow coheads upper Sophia Zu and upper Alexis Gorfine, IGC works to foster empathy, care and engagement by focusing on a problem in the world today and developing ways to bring about positive change.
Africa first conceived the idea for the club in seventh grade, after she began to notice how every part of history is connected and, in turn, how every part of life is connected. “I wanted to draw all these connections, but I was just so busy cramming for tests,” she recalled. By sophomore year, she knew that she wanted to create a club centered around discussion-based community, working out harkness principles and learning about world events and “how we connect to everybody else,” Africa continued. Working with her teacher, Africa developed a "Global Citizenship Club," which she hoped would “speed up the process of a global citizen's self-education.” At that time, Africa also applied to Exeter, and, when she arrived the next year as a new upper, brought her dedication to global leadership with her.
“We have a lot of events that are going to be planned. We are trying to put together a panel on Syria, specifically the refugees in Jordan and in America.”
This past summer, Africa attended the Global Citizens Youth Summit, a nine-day residential program hosted at Harvard by the Global Citizens Initiative. There, Africa had the opportunity to learn the principles of global citizenship and get to know other global scholars. “I met kids from everywhere,” she recalled. “You learn each other’s stories, you learn to be empathetic.” The summit also introduced students to Design Thinking, a process that allows people to design a solution to a problem based on the individual human need rather than the perceived broader need. The program required its attendees to do a nine-month global service project of their design. “It is a locally inforced project with a global impact,” Africa explained. For her project, Africa decided to establish a network of clubs at Exeter and other schools, including Phillips Academy. This network, known as the Institute of Global Changemakers, works to bring global awareness to high school campuses and educate students on how to become global leaders themselves.
“Learning how to manage an international team has been tough,” Africa explained. However, she noted that the club has been a success here at Exeter. In fact, IGC has already hosted an event during which they played a recording of her friend Saria Samakie’s story of being kidnapped by the Syrian Free Army. According to Gorfine, it “had a really good turnout and everyone seemed to have a pretty positive attitude towards it. It was obviously an incredible story. I don't feel like anyone could have just imagined that.”
Upper Chiara Perotti attended the event “because being an international student, I’ve always been interested in these kinds of projects and I thought hearing out a refugee’s story was going to be amazing.” Likewise, upper Pedro Sanson decided to go “because I think it is a very important global issue and I am really interested in it.” Both will continue to be active in the club as a way of raising awareness of global issues on campus.
IGC has chosen the Syrian Refugee Crisis as their primary focus for this year. Africa hopes to help students become engaged on a “face to face level.” Samakie will be coming in February to give a talk about the work he is doing in Jordan to teach refugees English and how to use the internet so that they can research their own problems. “He doesn't want to tell them, he wants to help them to figure out on their own,” Africa explained. “He wants to teach them enough English to tell their own stories, to give themselves a face. That’s what we’re all about, about sharing stories and having empathy for everyone.”
IGC is partnering with Samakie to set up relationships between refugees and Exonians. “We have a lot of events that are going to be planned. We are trying to put together a panel on Syria, specifically the refugees in Jordan and in America.” Upper Maya Kim expressed hope that the club will more events like their first one with Samakie “to help remind people of what goes on outside of the country.” She said, “it can be easy to forget that there are important issues that are outside of the US and i think that this club reminds us.”
IGC will be hosting a meeting this Sunday at 12:00 p.m. where attendees will have the chance to talk with Samakie over Skype.