Author: Kady Cheng

Greetings, World Savvy community, 

This coming spring will mark 22 years for me as the CEO of World Savvy, and we continue to reach milestones that I could scarcely have imagined back in 2002. Together we have built an incredible organization: trusted, sustainable, and relied upon across the country to empower educators to make schools inclusive, relevant, and engaging for all students, inspiring young people to learn, work, and thrive as responsible global citizens. One of our core values as an organization is that we “intentionally grow and change”, and so, the news I am sharing today is offered in this spirit and with deep gratitude.

I am proud to share that now is the right time for me to start a thoughtful transition out of the CEO role. One of my deepest desires, always, was to build a leaderful organization that could meaningfully change the K-12 system, beyond my leadership. We’ve arrived in that place in the last year at World Savvy: the most experienced, talented national team we’ve ever assembled, rising demand and new partnerships across dozens of states, a stable and growing network of funding partners, and a proven approach that is now changing the conversation about what constitutes a quality education. Since 2002, we’ve reached more than 904,000 students and 7,300 teachers across 45 US states and 32 countries, and we’re positioned to impact millions more in the decade to come. And all of this is happening at a time when the world needs this work more than ever before–as we grapple with unprecedented levels of polarization and division, and complex global challenges that impact us wherever we live. Because of this, I know it is the right time to make space for a new executive to collaborate with our team to grow the organization to the heights we imagine in the decade to come: a thriving network of 10,000 schools centering global competence and building equitable, inclusive, and future-ready learning environments for all kids. 

Those who know me well know that I often stress the “Co” in my Co-Founder title, because I wouldn’t have begun this journey without my fellow Co-Founder, Madiha Murshed. I wouldn’t have stayed the course for so long without Madiha’s foundation, and without the tremendous team members and supporters who grew this work alongside me for more than two decades. I love this work, and it will always be an extension of my values and beliefs in the deepest way. It fills me with pride and optimism to see what began as such a small, ambitious endeavor making such an impact through the leadership of so many. 

As for what happens next, working closely with a Founder Transition Coach, we have created a Transition Team comprised of board members and staff to ensure that the entire process from now through the onboarding of a new leader minimizes disruption to our daily activities and supports our new leader as they take on the CEO role. Additionally, the Board has assembled a dream Search Team of board members and World Savvy stakeholders to lead the way in finding our next leader. A message from our Board Chair, Linda Ireland: 

As Board Chair, I am tremendously proud of what Dana has contributed over 20 years to bring World Savvy to this juncture. She is a marvel, living our values, inspiring so many to share in our mission, and working tirelessly to make World Savvy a leader in reimagining education to be what our young people deserve and our world needs. We are proud of the leaderful organization Dana has built. Our World Savvy staff, clients, stakeholders, and investors are incredible. As Chair of our Search Team, I am excited for what will come next for us all, especially the educators and students who will thrive as global citizens during World Savvy’s next remarkable chapter. We have a strong, experienced, and engaged Board committed to leaning into this transition with the intentionality, thoughtfulness, and enthusiasm it deserves. We have retained Good Citizen, a national search firm, to conduct a search beginning next month, with the intention of welcoming a new CEO by July 2024. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me at any time with questions or suggestions. ~Linda Ireland, Board Chair

Until next July, I will remain World Savvy’s very active and engaged CEO. Once our new leader begins, I will remain in a Founder-in-Residence role through the end of 2024, available to support new leadership and the organization in intentional ways that promote a smooth and effective transition. 

In this unique time of inflection, it is rising to the surface for me in visceral ways: we would never be here, at this place of national impact, without our phenomenal community of supporters, advocates, and partners. Many of you have already come forward pledging your continued full support when the day of my transition arrives. Thank you. It fills me with pride to know you see World Savvy as I do–a vibrant, strong, innovative, sustainable, essential organization much more powerful than any one person. My deep gratitude for each of you is hard to encapsulate, but it’s been the fuel for a movement that I have always believed, and will continue to, is changing education in the most important ways. 

In the coming months, we will transparently share our progress not only with respect to this transition but also to the critical work we continue to lead in schools nationwide. If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas about our transition process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, or to our Board Chair Linda Ireland, at ireland@humanvenn.com. 

Thank you, always, for continuing to be a part of this special community.

With gratitude,

Dana Mortenson
CEO and Co-Founder  

At The Wildling, stories are #1. Since the organization’s founding, The Wilding has been empowering youth to share bravely from their lived stories in a safe and meaningful way. And we can’t wait to invite you into the next chapter of this story: 

The Wildling is becoming part of World Savvy!

As we welcomed The Wildling to the World Savvy family with an open house this week, and as we work together over the course of the coming school year to embed The Wildling’s approach and resources to support World Savvy’s school partners, we want to invite you into this story. We are thrilled to be partnering together, and can’t wait to share more over the coming years about how The Wildling’s programming is better supporting educators and students to connect and share their stories, and how this partnership with World Savvy will expand the reach of this innovative and meaningful programming to students across the country. For now, we invite you to learn more about our journey to this exciting milestone…

World Savvy: What sparked your interest in this partnership?

The Wildling: When we met Dana Mortenson, we were inspired by her vision from the first moment. Having built The Wildling from the ground up four years prior, with stars in our eyes and a lot of grit, we were beyond impressed to hear about Dana’s story and how she had spent more than 20 years building World Savvy into an organization that works with entire schools and districts to inspire thousands of future-ready learners. 

The Wildling was always about imprinting young people with a sense that who they are matters first and that they have a story to tell and share that will inform their learning path—with the right guidance and approach. When we heard Dana share “cultivating connections” as a core pillar of World Savvy’s model—and the belief that each learner is part of something bigger—her words felt like an arrow striking right at the heart of our mission at The Wildling.

We knew after our conversation with Dana that we would be stronger together—and that is how we have always approached partnerships, feeling our way with intuition and knowing that we can harness that energy for more impactful results. We wondered: How could we leverage our impact and meet the great demand that was upon The Wildling after a pandemic and with a mental health crisis in front of us, and with educators who were asking for programs like ours to support their efforts to shore up their classrooms. We couldn’t be everywhere at once, and we had a lot to sort out to grow. When World Savvy asked about the potential for an integration, we knew right away that this was something we were interested in discussing further. This would mean giving our dynamic and impactful young program a home that would impact thousands, if not millions, of kids in the years to come—to feel and find their place in the world and to know how much they matter. 

World Savvy: This partnership was such an obvious fit for us. At World Savvy, we identify and nurture connections—between students and educators, among peers, between a school and the wider community—to make learning personal and relevant for all students. And one of the key ways that we as humans form connection is by telling stories, and cultivating empathy and understanding as we listen to others tell their stories. 

We are so excited to leverage The Wildling’s dynamic and engaging frameworks and resources in a variety of ways to better support educators and students. Year one of a World Savvy partnership is focused on Cultivating Connections—a theme that is deeply aligned with The Wildling’s program. There are a variety of ways for students to engage with the materials, from sharing personal narratives or utilizing the resources as a vehicle for sharing knowledge and encouraging discourse. Sharing together in this way helps students to develop key competencies they’ll use throughout their lives, such as engaging willingly and openly with others, demonstrating self-awareness about identity and culture, choosing empathy, and so much more.

What are you most excited about as The Wildling joins World Savvy?

The Wildling: Oh my. What are we NOT excited about? We couldn’t be happier. When people ask how this integration came to be, we say we have followed our curiosity from the very start. That is how The Wildling was born—a storyteller and an educator with big hearts and curiosity who wanted to help youth find their way back to the innate storytellers inside of them so they could share themselves freely and bravely. To have World Savvy approach us with the idea of an integration—watching The Wildling become an integral part of programming for classrooms upon classrooms of kids—is something we didn’t even understand was possible until the question was asked: What if you became part of us? 

We can’t wait to watch our program shine even brighter as we work together to reimagine what it looks like to cultivate connections in every classroom, making learning more personal and relevant for all people. This is a foundational belief we share as organizations. It is inspiring and expansive, and critical in this modern world to approach education in this way. It is essential.  

One thing we see every time we come together at a Wildling Story Jam, after-school setting, or school classroom, is that human beings at a very young age crave connection—to themselves and to their peers and to their teachers and to their caregivers and to the many people who are part of their everyday life. We have a tendency to forget that our innate ability as human beings to share from the content of our lives brings unity and community. It is this foundational piece of The Wildling that connects directly to World Savvy’s mission—you belong, you matter. YOU and YOUR STORY are where we need to start. We are meant to learn this together. 

To continue to follow our story, visit https://www.worldsavvy.org/contact/ and sign up to stay informed.

International Education Week celebrates the benefits of cultural and academic exchange programs around the world. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Education promotes how international education programs:

• Prepare Americans for a global environment.
• Invite the world’s future leaders to exchange ideas and experiences in the United States.

Today, the celebration kicks off at World Savvy by highlighting the accomplishments of five global education leaders whose impacts on education expand internationally. World Savvy has had the great fortune to partner with these regarded leaders and benefited from their diverse perspectives. 

We will promote International Education Week on our Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook page throughout the week. World Savvy will also join the festivities with EXPLR Media webinar on November 16. Our very own Shumit DasGupta, Professional Learning Facilitator, will lead the session, which focuses on the video “We Create Together,” about a STEM program that brings Jewish and Muslim kids together in Gaza. The video — complemented by a corresponding lesson — explores how to use content as a vehicle to increase student engagement by building connections between content and each other. 

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Global Education Leaders 

Madiha Murshed

“Despite income levels, social backgrounds, types of schools, and language or cultural differences, there are archetypes of teachers that hold true across national boundaries. In coming back and working here, I realized that east and west are not so far apart as they sometimes seem.”

Madiha’s contributions to global education are remarkable — from co-founding World Savvy with Dana Mortenson to now serving as the Managing Director of two schools in Bangladesh. Madiha recently opened the Aurora International School in Bangladesh, which teaches an international curriculum designed to build global competency skills for all its students. Since 2008, she has served as the Managing Director of Scholastica, a well-regarded English-medium private school in Bangladesh. Madiha graduated from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in 2002 with a Masters in International Affairs and a concentration in Economic and Political Development. She received a Bachelor’s Degree, Magna Cum Laude, in Development Economics from Harvard College in 1999. Since May 2006, Syeda Madiha Murshed has served as Executive Director of SPEED, a training center in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

Dr. Muhammad Khalifa

“How can we reform education without understanding the realities of the people we serve?” 

Dr. Muhammad Khalifa is a leading expert in changing how school leaders enact culturally responsive leadership and anti-oppressive schooling practices. He has published four books and over 50 other publications in some of the most highly rated journals in education. His most recent book, Culturally Responsive School Leadership (Harvard University Press, 2018), is a top-seller and is being used in over 100 leadership training programs across the U.S. and Canada, as well as other parts of the world. Dr. Khalifa also regularly partners with school districts to conduct equity audits using research-based practices to help school leaders eliminate systemic disparities in schools and society. He is currently starting a new non-profit (TEECH), which would develop culturally responsive teachers training teachers to empower community-based settings. Dr. Khalifa was formerly the Robert Beck Endowed Professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and is currently a professor of Educational Administration and the Executive Director of Urban and Rural Initiatives at The Ohio State University. He also is a former district administrator and science teacher in Detroit Public Schools and a leading expert on educational reform in African and Asian contexts.

Dr. Khalifa has served on our Global Advisory Board here at World Savvy and has partnered with us in our work with schools. We are fortunate to benefit from his incredible wisdom.

Dr. William Gaudelli

“Being a global citizen means being aware of diversity in your community, learning to live at peace with one’s neighbors, and to appreciate the diversity that exists with people around you. I think as well as being concerned about the biosphere and the way in which we interact with the earth and its resources coupled with an awareness of how power operates on the planet.”

Dr. William Gaudelli is a prominent international scholar whose research focuses on global citizenship and teacher education and development. His career spans 30 years as a classroom teacher, researcher, professor, and seasoned administrator. He has published over 60 scholarly pieces and three books. In his latest book, Global Citizenship Education: Everyday Transcendence, he analyzes global citizenship education in various global locales. Dr. Gaudelli is a frequent keynote speaker at international conferences and guest lecturer at multiple universities worldwide, including China, Italy, Israel, Thailand, Japan, India, Poland, Hong Kong, Germany, and South Korea. He has participated in panel discussions and conferences with UNESCO, UNAI, UNAOC, WFUNA, and many professional organizations.

World Savvy is proud to have co-founded the Global Competence Certificate (GCC) program in partnership with Dr. Gaudelli and the Asia Society. Bill is currently serving as a Dean and Vice Provost for Innovation in Education at Lehigh University. 

Petteri Elo

“Education cannot be mainly about learning and reproducing facts.”

Petteri Elo is a renowned Finnish educator and educational consultant who has worked with educators worldwide on hands-on pedagogical and curriculum development. He turns his innovative and experimental practices with his students into engaging and thought-provoking training concepts for educators worldwide. As a trainer and consultant, Petteri is praised for his passion, energy, and expertise in curriculum development/implementation and innovative pedagogy from various viewpoints. Petteri’s way of combining theory and practice brings life to the critical goals of 21st-century education. 

World Savvy is thrilled to have been selected to present with Petteri at the upcoming SXSW Edu conference on March 7-10, 2022. World Savvy’s Chief Program Officer Mallory Tuominen and Petteri Elo will co-present a session titled, Phenomenon Based Learning for Local Citizenship. The session will explore how phenomenon-based learning centers students in the learning process and supports global competence development. 

Dina Buchbinder Auron

“Every person in the world is an agent of change. Wherever you are, there is something you can do to improve your community, your city, your country, your world.”

Dina Buchbinder Auron is a social entrepreneur that has introduced an innovative, action-oriented international education model called Education for Sharing (E4S) to systems that have long struggled with passivity and rigidity. E4S mission is to form better global citizens from childhood through the power of play. Since its inception in 2007, E4S has worked with over 1.3 million children, teachers, and families with important results in Mexico, the United States, Guatemala, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Panama, and New Zealand. Dina is an Ashoka Fellow and an emerita member of the BOD of the International Youth Foundation. She is a Vital Voices Lead Fellow, a WEF Global Shaper, and an Edmund Hillary Fellow. She is also a Hubert Humphrey Fellow in Urban Planning at MIT and holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Education for Sharing and World Savvy both focus on developing global citizenship among K-12 students and are planning collaboration in 2022.

For World Savvy’s second installment of the Changemakers Series on September 22, 2021, CEO Dana Mortenson sat down with award-winning New York Times journalist, author, and Solutions Journalism co-founder David Bornstein. It was a dynamic and encouraging discussion about how journalism might be transformed to focus not just on today’s most pressing issues, but also on possible solutions – and solutionaries. This trailblazing work in our current climate of polarization could not be more timely or critical for engaged citizenship.

Imagine, for a moment, waking up each morning, making your coffee, and then settling in to read the news. But instead of an endless stream of information about the world’s issues, you open the newspaper (or your web browser) to stories covering fascinating and encouraging solutions that address some of the day’s most urgent issues – and ways you can join to create change. Wouldn’t you feel a bit more hopeful and maybe empowered, while still informed about the issues of today?

David Bornstein thinks so. 

Throughout this hour-long discussion, David shared Solutions Journalism’s mission and growth and how they are revolutionizing the field of journalism by engendering trust, advancing local and global solutions to the issues that matter most to people, and bridging political divides by focusing more on what is being done right in communities and driving collaboration across difference. Learn about all of this – and more – by watching the full video of David and Dana’s discussion here!

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World Savvy envisions a future where all people, young and old, are empathetic, civic-minded, engaged global citizens. Where they can collaborate across cultures, communicate across difference, and solve complex problems. And we believe this vision starts with education – with preparing a generation of empathetic and engaged young leaders ready to address complex, real-world challenges.

This year, in an engaging series of online conversations, we’re highlighting changemakers and thought leaders across sectors who share this vision. Just like Amanda Ripley and David Bornstein have done, they will inspire us all to know more, care more, and do more for a more sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world. In this six-part series, we’ll learn from journalists, activists, civic and nonprofit leaders, young changemakers, and more. 

One thing remains certain in a world fraught with unknowns — students need connection more than ever; connection with teachers, connection with peers and connections to the content they are engaging with on a daily basis. 

Evidence shows that relationships are critical in school reform efforts. Higher levels of trust and collaboration have been associated with a greater openness to innovation and improvement [1]. Connections between and among students also matter. Through collaboration with peers and teachers, students are able to critically analyze the world in which they currently live, the historical and social connections to that world, and imagine a future of hope and possibility. Further, collaborative problem-solving provides students with experiences that better prepare them to be problem solvers and citizens as they matriculate through school and into careers. 

World Savvy’s work is grounded in a set of Evidence-Based Principles that leverage nearly 20 years of experience embedding Global Competence in K-12 teaching and learning. The first of the four principles is Cultivating Connections. Our goal is to identify and nurture connections across individuals and issues to make learning personal and relevant.

What this looks like in the classroom:

• Personalizing learning to center students’ strengths, needs, and interests
• Emphasizing connections across issues and subjects
• Exploring and nurturing connections across identities
• Constructing meaningful opportunities for collaboration

World Savvy is kicking off our school year with several new team members who have a collective total of over 80 years of experience in the field of education. Meet the team below and hear more about the ways in which they prioritized building connections in their classrooms.

1. Lay the foundation by establishing strong classroom culture with imagery and exercises.
   From KK Neimann, who joined World Savvy as the Director of Professional Learning in June.
   
   “Back-to-School was always my favorite time! As a 6th grade Humanities teacher, my students were new to middle school and coming from many different elementary schools, so it was essential to spend a lot of time building community with kids.”
   
   “To begin that process, we spent a lot of time exploring and understanding our Classroom Culture. I had a gigantic poster up that started with “In this classroom, we will…”, and kids worked in groups to discuss the behaviors that could go along with the items on the list. What does it look like to “Form opinions based on facts and exploration”? What does it look like to really “Listen” and “Collaborate” and “Be patient with ourselves and others?” The classroom walls were filled with examples of the kind of thinking and feeling I wanted them to do in my space. One poster was a quote from James Baldwin – “You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with YOU, not with its idea of you.” Another came from Minnesotan author Sun Yung Shin and said, “Tell me the truth of the matter. When I don’t understand, I will not protest or judge or correct, I will simply listen harder. I am here to recognize you as my fellow human being with a story.” Another said “Listen to understand, not to respond.” I used these posters as models for how we would all show up in my space, and we looked to them all the time for guidance.”


2. Build connections with an identity circle.
   From KK Neimann, Director of Professional Learning.
   
   “Once our Classroom Culture was set and understood, I built connections through an Identity Circle exercise. Everyone in the room, including me, identified and shared the identities that are important to us. I talked through my circles first as a model for students, and then they got to sit at their tables and think through their own identities. Kids shared what they were comfortable sharing, and their circles included things like gender, race, nationality, religion, age, sexual orientation, birth order (“I am the oldest child.”), sports they play (“I am a soccer player”), hobbies and talents (“I am a musician”), and so on. As I circulated around the room, I got to chat and connect with kids about their circles, and in turn, they chatted and shared identities with their peers. As a group we discussed how identities can change over time, how some of our identities are misunderstood or stereotyped, and how it would feel if someone chose our circles for us or ignored one of our circles. It is a powerful exercise; everyone feels seen, and everyone feels they know their peers better. In addition, they learn that everyone has identities that are important to them, and to really understand someone, we have to try and know all their circles.”
   
   “I will miss engaging in these activities with students this year, but I am excited to work with teachers and support their efforts to connect with their own students and create communities where everyone feels seen and valued. It is only from that place that kids can learn.”


3. Create opportunities for students to build connections outside of the classroom.
   From Molly Dengler, who joined World Savvy as a Professional Learning Facilitator in MN in June.
   
   “As a special education teacher and administrator across different settings, I created opportunities for my students to cultivate connections with the greater school community to be seen for their strengths, provide leadership opportunities and combat the isolation that can sometimes occur in a special education setting. One student with autism practiced functional and social skills through an internship with our facilities manager which included passing out lunches. My self-contained 1st and 2nd grade class created awareness around school recycling procedures and performed weekly inspections by completing a scorecard for each classroom to ensure that the recycling was not contaminated.”


4. Talk about communication preferences to build a stronger team.
   From Whitney McKinley, who joined World Savvy as a Professional Learning Facilitator in the Bay Area in MN in June.
   
   “Communication was always a cornerstone of my classroom community, whether I was teaching math, science, or art. In order to work together and grow as a team, we not only needed to communicate, we needed to understand how our communication styles and preferences interact with those of others. The beginning of the year is a great time to start building communication pathways, to better understand each other, and to learn how we like to give and receive feedback. In the first weeks of school our team would explore simulations, complete personality tests, share personal communication preferences, and most importantly, reflect on how these experiences would influence our work together. By acknowledging and understanding communication differences early on, we were able to lay the foundation for rich discussion and productive feedback as the year progressed.”


5. Don’t do it all. Build cohesion by empowering students.
   From Shumit DasGupta, who joined World Savvy as a Professional Learning Facilitator in the Bay Area in November of last year.
   
   “As a high school science teacher, I always struggled with the sheer amount of ‘stuff’ needed to do; proper labs, creating models, and generally keeping the classroom functional. We had a year of labs ahead of us, and I was just one person. The solution? As many parents and elementary school teachers could probably tell you, it was ‘make the kids do it.’ It sounds obvious at first, but putting the onus and responsibility of maintaining the classroom offered students to be vested in the community — they controlled where materials lived, tracked it through a spreadsheet, made sure all the classroom pets and organisms were taken care of, and fell into a routine when they arrived to class. Not immediately, and not without practice, but establishing this practice in the beginning of the year was entirely worth it. This simple cornerstone — the expectation that students needed to do their part so that we could get to the fun business of doing actual science — added a cohesiveness to the classroom experience that can’t be replicated with a list of rules or an addition to the syllabus. Once we worked out the kinks in the system, it was an unspoken ritual that wasn’t verbal, didn’t need prompting, and added a sense of comfortable routine to the start of every class.”

World Savvy partners with schools and districts to integrate global competence in K-12 teaching, learning, and culture. This is a dynamic process that isn’t a one-size-fits-all program model, so our partnerships demand responsiveness. Our work is anchored in four overarching principles: 

1. Cultivating connections 
2. Promoting active, interdisciplinary learning
3. Fostering Knowledge-to-Action
4. Reflecting and adapting

Today’s blog featured the first of four principles. We will dive into the remaining three over the course of the school year. Stay connected!

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[1] Bryk, Anthony S and Barbara Schneider. (2003) Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for School Reform. Creating Caring Schools, Volume 60, Number 6, pp. 40-45. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educationalleadership/mar03/vol60/num06/Trust-in-Schools@-A-Core-Resource-for-School-Reform.aspx