Many international educational training programs focus on college students. Why do you think it’s important for students from diverse backgrounds to have international experiences earlier than college?

Because they won’t get to college! Many of these students won’t get to college if they don’t [participate in international programming]. It’s pretty plain and simple that most of the students we work with, marginalized youth, are not getting the support at the high school level to even go on to four-year colleges. On top of that, it may not even be an option in their mind to pursue any kind of international educational opportunities if college isn’t seen as an option. There are many reasons why it’s important for young people to be exposed earlier on, but for the obvious one is that it supports them getting into college.

Many of our students are first-generation going to college, over 60% of our students are first-generation, and many of them don’t have the support, at home or at school, for how to navigate the higher education system. So I think you’re really missing out if you’re not focused on the younger students, the pipeline. In fact, almost all of the One World Now students, when they do go onto college, then continue to study these critical languages and go abroad. They’re already fired up about international education in a way that they definitely would not have been had they not had this exposure in high school. Also, they may not even go onto college [had they not participated in this kind of programming].

Kristin Hayden, One World Now! President and Founder

http://www.oneworldnow.org/whats-going-on/news/article/diversity-network-leadership-interview-series