PRIZES JURY
Ralph Begleiter
Former CNN World Affairs Correspondent; and Rosenberg Professor of Communication, Distinguished Journalist in Residence, University of Delaware

Ambassador Stephen W. Bosworth
Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

Gaston Caperton
Governor of West Virginia (1989-1997); and President, The College Board

Congressman Michael N. Castle
U.S. Representative, Delaware

Milton Chen
Executive Director, The George Lucas Educational Foundation

Robert Hormats
Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs (International)

John M. Engler
Governor of Michigan (1991-2003); President & CEO, National Association of Manufacturers

Charlotte K. Frank
Senior Vice President, Research & Development, McGraw Hill Education

Antonia Hern�ndez
President and CEO, California Community Foundation

James B. Hunt, Jr.
Governor of North Carolina (1977-1985, 1993-2001); Asia Society Trustee

Helene L. Kaplan
Senior Counsel, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Kurt Landgraf
President, Educational Testing Service

Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering
Senior Vice President, International Relations, The Boeing Company

Richard Riley
Former US Secretary of Education

Morley Safer
CBS News Correspondent

Frank Wisner
Vice Chairman, External Affairs,
American International Group, Inc.

 

 

2007 Excellence in
International Education Prize Winners

This year’s winners, who each receive $25,000 at a luncheon ceremony held at Asia Society’s New York City headquarters on March 10, 2008, are:

ELEMENTARY/MIDDLE SCHOOL PRIZE
Sunset Elementary School, Miami, Florida

Sunset Elementary School is an urban magnet and neighborhood school that, for the past 20 years, has offered a unique International Studies magnet program to its diverse student population. The program offers an inquiry-based, global curriculum focused on the topics of civic responsibility, cultural and environmental awareness, and knowledge of the global economy. Coursework includes foreign language programs in Spanish, French and German and instruction in math, science and social studies in these languages. The International Studies program is delivered in alignment with the curricula of the Ministries of Education of Spain, France, and Germany, and students are assessed through both state and international tests of academic achievement and language proficiency. In addition to these languages, Sunset began to offer courses in Mandarin in 2007.

LISTEN: Asia Society's Shari Albright speaks with Sunset Elementary's principal, Aline Sarria, on how the school has developed an effective global studies curriculum and learning outcomes. Dr. Sarria also offers some advice to schools just starting the process.

To see more models and to access tools, see the Asia Society publications on internationalizing schools.

HIGH SCHOOL PRIZE
Eugene International High School, Eugene, Oregon

Eugene International High school is a teacher-developed school-within-a-school across three high school campuses in that serves approximately 1,300 students in grades 9 to 12. Established 20 years ago, the required core curriculum centers around culture, history, economics, and political and belief systems. Each grade level focuses on a particular region of the world through coursework and students develop a culminating research project and engage in internationally oriented community service during their senior year. Students are required to take at least three years of French, Spanish, Japanese or German, and Eugene also offers the option of immersion study in Spanish or French through which students take four content classes in their target language in conjunction with four years of language classes. The school will soon add a Chinese language immersion option through a new collaboration with the Center for Applied Second Language Acquisition at the University of Oregon. Graduates earn either an International Baccalaureate degree or an International Studies Certificate of Advanced Mastery, the latter of which was developed by Eugene and has since been adopted by the state of Oregon.

LISTEN: Courtney Leonard of the Eugene International School, discusses her school's inspirational mission, structure, student experiences, and teacher leadership roles with Shari Albright.

To see more models and to access tools, see the Asia Society publications on internationalizing schools.

 

MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY PRIZE
Reischauer Scholars Program, Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE)

The Reischauer Scholars Program is a college-level distance learning course for high school students that provides a broad overview of Japanese history, literature, religion, art, politics, economics, education and U.S.-Japan relations. The course, which has been offered since 2003 to students from 29 states, is offered through 10 sessions held over six months and is taught by senior scholars, diplomats, and other experts from the United States and Japan. Students are engaged through lectures, readings, and online discussions, as well as through video and PowerPoint presentations that creatively display maps, statistics, images, and digitized primary resources to support their learning. Those who successfully complete the course receive college credit.

LISTEN: Asia Society's Vivien Stewart talks with the Reischauer Program's Gary Mukai and Naomi Funahashi on what makes this distance education course different from many others, and why it is a model for other university and district online learning courses. To learn more about this program, please visit their website.

STATE PRIZE
Ohio

Ohio’s State Board of Education is the first in the country to engage in a systematic international benchmarking study. The state’s Creating a World Class Education System in Ohio compares its educational system to others globally and makes recommendations for policy changes. The Board has also revised its state curriculum standards to increase the amount of international content in which students are expected to demonstrate proficiency. A strong partnership between the Ohio State Department of Education and The Ohio State University is creating new opportunities for students to study world languages. The June 2007 Language Summit led to the publication of Ohio Languages Roadmap for the 21st Century, a report that presents a vision for the development of a multi-lingual workforce through opportunities for language learning combined with job-related technical and academic skills. The State Legislature also created a Foreign Language Advisory Council, which, in December 2007, released a foreign language plan for students enrolled in pre-school through university.

LISTEN: Ohio School Chief Susan Zelman outlines for Vivien Stewart how Ohio has internationalized its curriculum through aligning learning objectives and outcomes, creating high-impact partnerships, and through stimulating political will. Dr. Zelman offers advice for other states who are getting started in this work.

For more information and tools on getting started, please see Asia Society publications for state policymakers: States Prepare for the Global Age, and A World-Class Education volumes I & 2.

 

YOUTH PRIZES
On November 6, 2007, five American high school students were each awarded $10,000 college scholarships for proposing solutions to some of the world’s toughest challenges. Students were asked to create a written, audio or video feature about a challenge affecting both their local community and a community abroad, to compare and contrast how the two communities address the issue, and to examine the lessons each could learn from the other.  Meet the winners.