The Diversity Abroad Innovation Competition brings together professionals and students with creative and outstanding ideas and programs that advance diversity and inclusive excellence in global education. Both students and professionals are eligible to participate in the Innovation Competition.
The next competition will take place in 2022!
Apply for the 2020 Innovation Competition by December 2, 2019
The Diversity Abroad Innovation Competition, sponsored by CAPA The Global Education Network, brings together professionals and students with creative and outstanding ideas and programs that advance diversity and inclusive excellence in global education. Both students and professionals are eligible to participate in the Innovation Competition.
2020 Innovation Competition Winners
Domestic Exchange: Creating Global Experiences for Undocumented/DACA Students – 1st Place Winner
Kevin Graham, UC San Diego
The UC San Diego Domestic Exchange Program provides undocumented/DACA students with access to domestic travel experiences. This program is designed to positively influence their personal development and career outlook. The Domestic Exchange Program is an essential initiative for undocumented/DACA students as their immigration status does not allow for international travel. Exposure to academic life at different institutions will enable students to self-reflect and gain perspective on how their identity mobilizes in different spaces (states, social groups, fields of study, etc.). These insights and experiences will have implications for students’ career development. Participants would have the opportunity to build a network and to further understand the impact of their immigration status.
Once the program commences, a cohort of UC San Diego, Undocumented/DACA students will have the opportunity to travel to New York State. Each student participant will be exposed to academic life at the University of Rochester for one academic quarter. Within the duration of this timeframe, students will take courses related to their interests and majors. They will also actively participate in a series of professional and personal development workshops. The funding from the Diversity Abroad Innovation competition allows UC San Diego to provide each student with a travel grant to cover the cost of health fees, airfare, ground transportation, and winter clothing.
Increasing Black Male Achievement through International Experience – 2nd Place Winner
Lavar Thomas, Co-founder – Leaders of the Free World (LFW)
Leaders of the Free World (LFW) is an international experience and leadership development program for young Black men (18-27). The program focuses on creating dynamic leaders through access to global engagement opportunities and personal development experiences. The program is funded through institutional contributions, small grants, and individual donors.
Currently, Black men make up just 2% of all US study abroad participants, so LFW works to remove barriers to participation. The program integrates the paradigm-shifting experience of short-term study abroad, with mentorship, an identity-based curriculum, and leadership development training. These components are designed to improve academic retention while developing each student’s confidence, potential, and leadership capacity.
While the trip to Ghana has been postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19, the funding from the Diversity Abroad Innovation competition will allow the Leaders of the Free World program to increase their impact domestically and internationally. The program plans to partner with institutions in the US and Ghana to expand their virtual platform for cross-cultural dialogue, and encourage more young Black men to build their leadership skills through global engagement and intercultural exchange. The funds will also be used to support the current LFW cohort.
STAMPED – The Study Abroad Podcast – 3rd Place Winner
Charis N. Tucker, Founder – Travel Gene LLC
STAMPED: The Study Abroad Podcast launched during International Education Week 2019. This podcast was designed with two audiences in mind: international educators and underrepresented students. For international educators, the goal of STAMPED was to move our conversation (about BIPOC participation) from deficits to one of determination. The stories shared on STAMPED illustrate how our guests overcame barriers to make their study abroad dream a reality. For students, the hope is that they see themselves represented in the stories our guests so openly share. STAMPED is the first major project of Travel Gene LLC, a boutique tourism research and consulting agency where Black travel research and study abroad intersect! Funding from the Diversity Abroad Innovation Completion will provide upgrades to podcast equipment, support enrollment in training designed specifically for podcast hosts, and begin the development of a professional development course for industry professionals. Tune into STAMPED at anchor.fm/STAMPED.
2020 Innovation Competition Presenters
Increasing Black Male Achievement through International Experience
Lavar Thomas, Co-founder – Leaders of the Free World (LFW)
Domestic Exchange: Creating Global Experiences for Undocumented/DACA Students
Kevin Graham, Doctoral Project Specialist – UC San Diego
Diversity in Study Abroad: Intersections of Global and Local
Dr. Catherine Clark, Director of Study Abroad & Associate Professor – Averett University
Tia Yancey, Director of Community Engagement – Averett University
Aariyana Britton, Student – Averett University
STAMPED – The Study Abroad Podcast
Charis N. Tucker, Founder – Travel Gene LLC
The African Diaspora Consortium’s Globalization Student Exchange (ADCGSE)
Kim Nesta Archung, Senior Vice-President of Global Student Affairs – African Diaspora Consortium
WHY AN INNOVATION COMPETITION?
Now in its 4th year, the Diversity Abroad Innovation Competition aims to support a culture of innovation and recognize new ideas and solutions that can create positive change, break down barriers, and provide access and support to diverse and underrepresented students.
Selected presenters will compete during the opening plenary of the 8th Annual Diversity Abroad Conference in New Orleans. Presenters will be judged by a panel of experts in international education for awards of $1500 to $5000
Learn about past recipients of the Innovation Competition here.
AREAS OF FOCUS FOR 2020
Equitable and inclusive support for diverse and underrepresented student populations while students are abroad, including faculty and administrative support engagement
ELIGIBILITY
The Innovation Competition is open to all individuals engaged in activities related to relevant areas of focus. Proposals submitted by a group of applicants are also encouraged. This competition is available to those representing various types of institutions and organizations, including but not limited to: K-12, higher education institutions, international education organizations, private sector companies, etc. Professionals as well as graduate & undergraduate students are encouraged to apply.
SELECTION CRITERIA
Completed applications will be reviewed based on the following criteria:• Innovative and/or creative qualities of the project
• Potential direct impact of the proposed project on the field of global education
• Applicant’s demonstrated interest in and/or expertise on the proposed topic
TIMELINE
Competition Opens Monday, October 7, 2019
Proposal submission process open until Monday, December 2, 2019 11:59pm PST
Notifications sent during the week of December 16, 2019
Selected presenters register for the 8th Annual Conference by January 6, 2020
Selected presenters pitch their innovative project on March 15, 2020
HOW TO APPLY
Applicants should submit contact & project details via this form (optimal with Safari or Chrome) describing the following key areas:
- The applicant’s expertise and/or interest in relation to the proposed topic (250 words)
- The project which highlights innovations and/or creative qualities (300 words)
- How the project will measurably impact access and/or inclusion efforts in global education (300 words)
Applicants should also submit a two-minute video via email ([email protected]) which:
- Pitches the proposed idea, and
- Describes the plan for project implementation
Applicants should also submit a two-minute video via email ([email protected]) which:
The Innovation Competition is sponsored by CAPA: The Global Education Network
COMPETITION DATE & AWARD LEVELS
Selected presenters will compete during the 8th annual Diversity Abroad Conference, which will take place March 15, 2020 in New Orleans, LA. Presenters will be judged by a panel of experts in international education for awards of:
$5,000 (1st place)
$3,000 (2nd place)
$1,500 (3rd place)
Applying for the Innovation Competition represents a commitment to attend the 8th Annual Diversity Abroad Conference. The opportunity to apply is available only to those who plan to attend the conference for educational and networking purposes, and not to those who wish to attend exclusively for the opportunity to present in the Innovation Competition.
APPLICATION SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Application is closed for the 2018-2019 cycleAll proposal materials (application form and video) should be submitted electronically. Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals in advance of the deadline. Please contact [email protected] if you have questions.
The Diversity Abroad Innovation Competition, sponsored by CAPA The Global Education Network, brings together professionals and students with creative and outstanding ideas and programs that advance diversity and inclusive excellence in global education. Both students and professionals are eligible to participate in the Innovation Competition.
The 2019 Innovation Competition took place at the 7th annual Diversity Abroad Conference in Boston, MA. Seven outstanding presenters pitched their ideas to a panel of judges. The following recipients are the winners of the 2019 Innovation Competition. Inspired by their stories? Next year’s competition will open in the fall of 2019. Sign up here to receive updates.
The 2019 Innovation Competition Winners:
Teens of Color Abroad — 1st Place Winner & People’s Choice Award
Lamar Shambley, Founder, Teens of Color Abroad
Teens of Color Abroad is a non-profit initiative whose mission is to cultivate the next generation of globally conscious youth of color through language immersion study abroad programs. There is extensive research on the long-lasting academic, social, and professional benefits of studying abroad, yet, students of color, especially Black students, have been excluded from this experience. Our aim is to confront this racial disparity in college study abroad participation earlier by providing high school students of color, who are enrolled in foreign language courses, with culturally immersive language training programs that enhance global competency skills and mindsets.
In a partnership with Centro MundoLengua, a private international language school and educational tour operator, TOCA facilitates programs in Seville, Spain for groups of U.S. high school students of color. The scholars will take 3 hours of small group daily language instruction, live with a local homestay family, and participate in engaging cultural activities such as visits to historic museums and palaces, salsa and flamenco dance lessons, kayaking the Guadalquivir River, paella cooking workshops, and much more. Part of our curriculum is centered around the PISA Global Competency Framework which will provide a foundation for intercultural conversations between our participants and their homestay families. Prior to departure and upon returning from our trip, students will organize and run a series of “Bingo!” nights for the Spanish-speaking members of the Carter Burden Network, a New York City-based nonprofit leading the way in aging services. Learning to participate in interconnected, complex, and diverse societies is a necessity in 21st-century education. Young people want to engage with the world, but lack the resources. TOCA provides a unique opportunity that gives underrepresented youth a globally informed perspective while bolstering their linguistic skills.
Indigenous Storytelling from the Amazon: Reimagining Diversity and Inclusion from the Grassroots – 2nd Place Winner
Daniel Bryan, Executive Director, Pachasanya
Pachaysana is an Ecuadorian non-profit organization that creates intercultural education and study abroad programs with indigenous and other underrepresented communities of the Amazon and Andes. Over the years, we have learned that to truly break down barriers that systematically exclude marginalized communities, it is imperative to rethink diversity from the epistemological point of view. How we see and approach Diversity and Inclusion on our college campuses is shaped by a Eurocentric epistemology, excluding multiple ways of knowing and being that surely need to be integrated. This project reverses the dominant trajectory of the Diversity Abroad conversation. It grounds the center of knowledge creation in Amazon communities of Ecuador and then disseminates it to universities and study abroad organizations, encouraging them to rethink how they understand and operationalize diversity on their campuses or in their programs.
This project takes Pachaysana’s Team and students from the “Uni-Diversidades” office of the University San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) to two indigenous Amazon communities that have experience working with Pachaysana’s study abroad programming. During 2-week residencies in each community the team works to convert indigenous epistemologies into a performance and workshop. The community members then travel to Quito where they share with USFQ and other in-country study abroad programs with the goal of influencing their policies, curricula and pedagogies. The same workshop/performance will be offered at international student orientations, resulting in no less than 800 students, faculty and staff that will have access to the program during the academic year. Finally, Pachaysana and USFQ will create workshop videos and manuals in order to make the experience available to educational institutions abroad, especially USFQ’s 100+ international university partners around the world.
Rhode Island Global Education Project – 3rd Place Winner
Becky Spritz, PhD – Professor of Psychology and Public Health, Roger Williams University (RI)
Conor Largey – Student Youthworker St. Peters Immaculata Youth Club (Belfast, Northern Ireland)
Rev. Glenn Grayson – Executive Director, The Center that Cares (PA)
In Rhode Island, largely Latin X youth living in the Urban Core—Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Woonsocket, and Newport—lack access to experiential education programs known to improve academic, social, and emotional outcomes. Our vision is to reduce the achievement gap in Rhode Island by creating a coalition of educators, philanthropists, and community leaders, and create a formal model to provide youth in the Urban Core unique opportunities for global youth education.
Building on previous scalable global education innovations from Belfast, Northern Ireland and Pittsburgh, PA, Amizade will partner with Highlander Charter School to pilot a project for young people to engage and learn from the world. The first project will involve a small group of Rhode Island youth taking part in a full semester of pre-activities for high school students (mentored by university professors), followed by a brief summer immersion to Northern Ireland, and completed with a social action community project that the young people will create and implement in Providence on return, with actual project funding.
The power and innovation in this model is in transforming global education from being viewed as a luxury, to being viewed as a necessary experience in all young people’s education. The main goal, therefore, is to ensure that like math and science, global education gets a place in policymakers minds for being part of the building blocks of creating the next generation of Americans. At every turn of this pilot project, Rhode Island political and education leaders will be hearing stories and being exposed to the research. The end game is a formalization of innovative global education practices and more equitable opportunities in high schools not only in Rhode Island, but all over the country.
The 2019 Innovation Competition Presenters:
Catalyst Chicago: Service Learning and Community Engagement Program
Tessa Zanoni, Assistant Director, Office of International Affairs, North Park University
The Culture and Identity Envoy Project : Rome
Ewan Wayne Johnson, Student, Temple University
Empowering Diversity in the Fulbright Program
Fulbright Grantee and Alumni Advisor Board of Europe
Desmond Moffitt, Executive Director
Indigenous Storytelling from the Amazon: Reimagining Diversity and Inclusion from the Grassroots
Daniel Bryan, Executive Director, Pachasanya
Issues of Disability, Inclusion, and Accessibility: Locally and Globally
Alexis McKenney, Professor and Recreational Therapy Program Director, Temple University
Rhode Island Global Education Project
Becky Spritz, PhD – Professor of Psychology and Public Health, Roger Williams University (Providence, RI)
Conor Largey – Student Youthworker St. Peters Immaculata Youth Club (Belfast, Northern Ireland)
Rev. Glenn Grayson – Executive Director, The Center that Cares (Pittsburgh, PA)
Teens of Color Abroad
Lamar Shambley, Founder, Teens of Color Abroad
These seven teams presented their ideas during the opening plenary of the 7th Annual Diversity Abroad Conference for awards of $5000 (1st place), $3000 (2nd place), and $1500 (3rd place). A panel of experts from international education judged the competition.