300 Educators from 61 countries have just graduated from their AFS Effect+ for the Classroom program, supported by the Cyril Taylor Charitable Foundation.
The AFS Effect+ program began in October 2022 and focused on building the educators capacities for developing global competence education in classrooms, which will impact over 15,000 students annually. Educators completed a certification course in global competence, requiring more than 20 hours of virtual coursework and live zoom sessions. After earning the AFS Global Competence Certificate educators were encouraged to utilize the AFS Educator Toolkit to introduce their students to the UN SDGs and develop global competence within their classrooms.
Educators who participated in this program were invited to submit student projects for the 2023 Sir Cyril Taylor Young Leaders Award, which provides international recognition for a social impact project on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) developed in their classrooms.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 Sir Cyril Taylor Young Leaders Award: a group of students from Sunbeam School Varuna, Varanasi, India, under the guidance of educator and program participant Pratiksha Sahu, for their project: Manzil – The Smart Wheelchair. The project focused on designing a wheelchair that reduces inequalities while still being low cost and highly functionable.
Honorable Mention project winners include:
- The Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion, III Secondary School of C. K. Norwid, Kielce, Poland – Educator Mentor: Katarzyna Pelc
- Sustainability Center, The British Co-ed High School, Patiala, India – Educator Mentor: Sukhmani Kaur
- SEED “Sustainable Environmentally-conscious Economic Development”, Colegio Colombo Británico, Envigado, Colombia – Educator Mentor: Ayde Johanna Pabon
Watch the full Award Ceremony, including the presentation of the winning project and the honorable mentions here:
The ceremony featured words of congratulations and encouragement from the Cyril Taylor Charitable Foundation Board Trustee, William Gertz, and AFS Intercultural Programs President & CEO, Daniel Obst who congratulated all participants on their achievements. The 2023 Sir Cyril Taylor Young Leaders Award Ceremony left everyone that attended feeling very inspired by the collective efforts of all the educators. The impact of the program and the participating educators could be felt in the profound words shared by all the speakers.
This was the third year of the AFS Effect+ for the Classroom program, and it has previously been recognized in 2021 by UNESCO-APCEIU as a Best Practice in Education for International Understanding/Global Citizenship Education. In total the program has engaged with 750 educators over the three years of the program, which has been made possible by the support of the Cyril Taylor Charitable Foundation. Stay tuned for the 2023-24 Effect+ for the Classroom Program launch this September by following the program website here.