2016 Award Recipients

iEARN-USA’s BRIDGE (Building Respect through International Dialogue and Global Education) Program will enable students in the United States and the Middle East and North Africa to engage in projects aligned with one or more of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Students will work on improving global quality of life in the areas of the environment, civic education, heritage, identity, and tradition, food security, and arts and media production.

In addition to a free, online open course for English and Arabic speakers, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) will select applicants for a special track that offers hands-on mentorship and peer-to-peer collaboration through a "civic tech" project.

Soliya’s Connect Program connects post-secondary students from vastly diverse backgrounds in the United States and the Middle East and North Africa in face-to-face, curriculum-driven, semester-long dialogue proven to foster understanding and build critical skills. Soliya will increase and diversify its community of young people who have built the skills, relationships, and confidence necessary to engage constructively across cultures.

The SUNY COIL Center develops and supports sustainable, campus-based exchange initiatives integrated into academic and international programs at participating universities. The Center will launch pilot virtual exchange courses connecting SUNY campuses with counterparts in Egypt, Lebanon, and Morocco, and will offer in-person professional development workshops.

The Christopher Stevens Global Ambassadors - building on UC Berkeley's existing Stevens Scholars program - will provide an opportunity, via vlog and virtual meeting environments, for Berkeley undergraduates to interact with a diverse group of peers in rural Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Jordan.

Wofford College will scale up a virtual exchange pilot to include Lebanon as well as Egypt, to integrate the exchange across disciplines, supplement it with research resources, expand the project’s reach, and conduct thorough impact evaluation.

The DYLEP will use innovative technology platforms to conduct an exchange and leadership development training entirely online for a diverse cadre of future Iraqi and American youth leaders through a curriculum focusing on global leadership, education, and engagement.