Integration Through Education (ITE)

By: Lauren of Korea International School

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Peace justice and strong institutions, Parternships for the goals
Going through high school and participating in various kinds of events created to spread awareness of pressing social events, I became aware of two things.

Number one: as these kinds of events were voluntary, not many people elected to show up (or those who did were already those who felt passionately about the subject). The students and faculty who were indifferent towards the social issues we were addressing or fixated in their own perspectives—aka the ones we truly wanted to impact with our discussions—simply did not participate.

Number two: these kinds of events occurred solely for high school students, and there were not many opportunities for middle schoolers to become involved.

Seeing these two issues, I created ITE to find a systematic way in which younger students could become more involved in current events and humanitarian initiatives. Through ITE’s advisory lessons, this kind of awareness is integrated into students’ school lives. Furthermore, as our lessons are targeted towards younger students, we encourage growth and awareness from even before high school to better prepare them for the world beyond.

Our efforts have shown clear results so far. Both middle school teachers and students have reported the students being engaged in the current events being taught through our lessons, and increasing passion as a result. More discussions are being held about important subjects such as the BLM movement and indigenous rights. Although it was a bit difficult to adjust an already busy MS advisory schedule to introduce our lessons, we have firmly laid the groundwork for our lessons to continue in future years.

As we continue with this initiative, we hope that others will begin to expand opportunities for learning to younger ages in a way that most effectively reaches all individuals and perspectives.