Causes

Community & economic development Education International affairs Philanthropy & capacity building

Posted by

John E.

Founder & Executive Director

Our mission

Global Learning Across Borders exists to educate and inspire new generations of people to become responsible, engaged global citizens in their local communities and beyond.

What we do

We create life-changing cultural immersion and service programs in the developing world for US high school and college students.

Currently, Global LAB programs run in India, China/Tibet, Vietnam, Cambodia, Morocco, and Argentina.

Programs range from 10 to 90 days and are designed to facilitate intercultural awareness, leadership development, and empowerment to make positive social change relating to pressing global issues.

Our fastest growing program--the International Leadership Program (ILP)--uses a selective nomination and application process to identify cohorts of 15-20 low-income public high school students in NYC.

We then work with ILP cohorts from January - June, using New York City as our classroom to explore South Asian diaspora communities and the arts, culture, and belief systems of India and the Himalayan region.

The ILP curriculum also incorporates leadership training; social media/photography/video workshops; and fundraising skills, as we challenge each student to raise $1,000 toward their program cost of $6,000.

In July the ILP students and faculty advisors travel to Dharamsala, India for one month of intensive cultural immersion.

Students live in homestays with Tibetan exile families; participate in Independent Study Projects with local mentors; and engage in community service work.

Upon returning to NYC, ILP students receive storytelling/presentation training and college application coaching, prior to celebrating at their ILP graduation ceremony.

Our nearterm goals include creating a mentoring program involving young professionals in NYC, as well as expanding an internship placement program for ILP alumni.

The longer term goal is to expand to run parallel programs focusing on India, China, and parts of the Middle East and Africa.

We also intend to replicate the ILP program to other urban areas in the US, as the reality of low-income students being left out of international education opportunities exists across the country.