World Education Connection

Why World Education Connection

There is no pursuit of equality if someone feels like they don't deserve it. If people do not feel connected to themselves - or feel seen, heard, and valued for who they are – it is difficult for them to understand they deserve equality and fight for it. We must understand the true power of human connection and our universal desire as human beings to feel seen, heard and valued. When we step into that powerful place, it is then that it cascades to other inter-connected areas of our lives. Connection to both our local community and our global brothers and sisters. We need to plant the seeds of connection early, with children globally, to empower them and make them realize their own strength & beauty, explore their areas of interest, pursue their curiosity – and do all this in a safe environment free of judgment. 

Empathy is the bridge to connection, and if we have no connection or empathy, then equality is less likely. Emma Seppala, Ph.D. shares “People who feel more connected to others have lower rates of anxiety and depression. Moreover, studies show they also have higher self-esteem, are more empathic to others, more trusting and cooperative and, as a consequence, others are more open to trusting and cooperating with them”. Like it or not, said Stanford economist Matthew Jackson, people’s fates are closely connected to their human networks. A limited human network, Jackson said, can hinder opportunities with deleterious effects in society. It helps explain why social immobility and inequality exist today. The evidence showing that increased inequality can decrease empathy is large and growing. Increase empathy and we may see a change inequality. Equality can be defined as, the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities. For children to pursue equality, is to teach them that they deserve it and for others to support equality, is to connect to others through empathy. A decline in social connectedness may explain reported increases in loneliness, isolation, anxiety, depression and inequality.

World Education Connection provides a bridge to learn empathy and the power of human connection. For children to understand and pursue equality, is to teach them that they deserve it. To feel like we deserve anything, is to believe that who we are matters, that we belong, and that we can do this by understanding our mutual desire as humans to feel connected. We create teams consisting of groups in the US and Tanzania. Pairing like ages, and using our WEC journal and live video, we connect those teams of kids. The journal prompts them to write about or illustrate what they like in nature, music, art, etc. giving value to them first as individuals, and when shared locally with their group, and finally with their global teammates. By valuing their own qualities, children learn to value similar and different qualities in their global counterparts thus sustaining human interconnectedness, and making the planet a more livable, loveable, equitable place. Seeing these commonalities helps teach them empathy and connect with each other. Our program gives them a safe space to be Seen, Heard and Valued, thus creating a space to support equality. We are Stronger Connected!

Students of Wickman Elementary School - What It Means To Be Seen Heard & Valued

Our solution serves after school groups and programs in the US and Tanzania. In the US we are targeting after school programs, in underserved communities. We know that lower income communities have lower school budgets, and consequently, the parents of many of the children in those communities seek additional resources, like afterschool programs, to help supplement the education and activities their children may not otherwise receive. Compared to US after school programs, the Tanzanian programs are clearly underserved when it comes to technology and resources, such as basic items (books, paper, pens, pencils, other) for afterschool activities, as well as any electronic resources such as tablets, or computers and the wireless networks and bandwidth to support them. 

Four years ago, when I launched World Education Connection, we were operating in classrooms in Southern California and in classrooms in Tanzania. The classrooms in California were located in middle income to affluent areas and operating out of classrooms equipped with all the technology tools to make a global connection very easy and a desk for every student to sit in. The children in Tanzania were huddled around a teacher’s cell phone to hear from their global teammate and some were sitting on a dirt floor or a simple bench with a surface to write on. This created for me a real sense of hierarchy, with the privileged kids feeling a greater sense of power in some way and the “poor” kids feeling like they needed something from them to improve their situations, thus contributing to a lack of value within themselves and supporting a relationship that was out of balance. It was then, I decided to pull our program out of classrooms.

We have also learned over the last four years, and are continuing to learn through our present connections with our contacts in Tanzania who work with their programs and lead them, how they are underserved. We have had meetings by phone that include both Tanzanian team leaders and US team leaders, and their needs have been and continue to be discussed.

We are relaunching in September of 2021, piloting our Journey to Connection journal for the global teams, and focusing on afterschool programs, both in California and Tanzania. By doing this, we not only will be connecting children that might both feel a greater lack of human connection and technology tools to facilitate these connections, but also deliver a relationship that might begin with more equality.

Our solution will address their needs by providing a program that allows them to see that they are valued, by having their voices heard through the process of working through the journal as well as connecting as described in the solution with their teammates, and the combined materials, and process, when carried out and followed over the duration of a school  year, will allow them to see and feel how they are valued as individuals, and make them feel valuable.

As stated before, where there is a lack of understanding empathy and an absence of connection, there is a greater presence of inequality. Children innately poses the seeds of empathy and a desire to feel connected. It is our responsibility to water those seeds and deliver tools of empathy and connection and see them grow. World Education Connection does this through the exploration of oneself and sharing and exchanging locally and globally. By doing this, it supports the continued pursuit of equality, through growth in empathy and a better understanding of how powerful and necessary connection is for all humans.

Wickman Kiva Kids - Early Stage model

I chose Growth, because I have invested several years in an early stage model program, with a previous successful program I developed called Wickman Kiva Kids and 2 successful years of operating and growing World Education Connection. I took some of the core areas of impact of empathy and social, emotional connection found in Wickman Kiva Kids and realized every child globally deserves to have those experiences and develop the tools of empathy and feel the power of connection. With a global, supportive team, we launched WEC in 2016 with 4 classrooms in California and 4 classrooms in Tanzania. Because we were successful, in 2017 we doubled that to 8 and 8. We stepped back to build out our Journey to Connection Journal and are getting ready to relaunch in September with 2 afterschool programs in California and 2 afterschool programs in Tanzania. 

Our solution provides a significantly improved approach to the problem because of both our live element as well as the use of our journal. I did my due diligence by outreaching to those already in the global education field and exploring the programs that were already out there. Most spoke about the access to technology difficulties, language barriers, and time difference. Because of this, I was strongly discouraged from pursuing a program that focused on the connection specifically. Relationships are hard. If we stop, when things get hard, we fall short of breaking through what needs to happen to develop a stronger connection. The “why” to WEC. There is no equality if we stop at what’s hard. By making face-to-face (video) connection a key element of our program, we have included an innovative approach to making stronger connections. In addition to being able to read about their overseas teammates through journal entries, seeing their commonalities, and realizing through the face-to-face/video interaction that, I may not look like them, my physical space may not look like theirs, yet I have so much in common.  Having the chance to make these connections early in children’s lives is the next best thing to being able to travel there, and see them in person, and has the ability to be catalytic in changing how they see “others”. Instead, they will know from this experience how much alike they are. Making that connection will help them learn empathy, and lead to equality.

Current year: 0

In 1 year: 80

In 5 years: 1,280

The average number of children that participate in these types of programs range between 15 – 30 children in the US and Tanzania. We plan to limit the number of participants in our relaunch in September 2021, with the journal, to no more than 20 kids per group and keep it to two groups in both the US and Tanzania. This will make the total number of kids participating in our relaunch to 80. A number small enough for us to accurately gather data and metrics to learn about the effectiveness of our journal and program. After that we envision doubling our enrollment each year for five years, and reevaluating our capabilities each year along the way. We want to be able to properly serve and manage as many children through afterschool programs as we can, making sure not to over-reach our capabilities as we grow our staff and funding. The numbers can be much larger, with sufficient funding and personnel support. It's a simple model, with great impact that can serve children in an country and because of that, the numbers can be endless. 

These questions were developed to allow us to measure our progress toward our goals. They are age appropriate for children we are working with. These are the available answers:

• A) Strongly agree

• B) Agree

• C) Neutral

• D) Disagree

• E) Strongly disagree

1. Have you raised your hand to answer a question, or volunteered to demonstrate a homework assignment, or offered to go in front of the class first on a day when a paper or project was to be read in front of the class?

• To what extent do you agree with the following statement: “I feel confident answering questions and/or volunteering to share my work in class.”

1. On Sunday evening, is the thought of school on Monday something you look forward to, or something you would rather avoid?

• To what extent do you agree with the following statement: “I am excited about being with my classmates.”

1. What does Connection mean to you? OR Who do you feel most connected to?

• To what extent do you agree with the following statement: “I feel a close connection with my classmates/teachers/family.”

1. Name one way you have shown another, or another has shown you empathy.

• To what extent do you agree with the following statement:  “I feel bad for kids who have less than I do.”

1. Have you met someone from another country? If so, what country?

• To what extent do you agree with the following statement: “I have a lot in common with people my age in other countries.”

Full time (volunteer) – 2

Part time (volunteer) – 6

Board members (volunteer) – 4

Advisors (volunteer) – 4

People who believe we are Stronger Connected and part of our movement – too many to count!

WEC seeks to provide a living wage for those who work for us.

Meet Deus Cosmos - WEC's Assistant Director and Manager covering Africa

WEC is a true global group of collaborators, each bringing our own individual skills. For an understanding of the power of connection and the gifts that come from diversity, equality and inclusion, is to understand all the hands that have touched WEC, making it successful to this point.

I bring many years of successfully running Wickman Kiva Kids. People have always been my passion, and seeing the value in all has always been part of who I am, ever since I was a young girl. 

My partner in Tanzania, Deus Cosmos, has a wealth of experience launching and supporting programs in Tanzania. Beginning as a young boy, he helped  launch and worked for years with Dr. Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots.

Operational Advisor Dave Erasmus out of the UK did a Ted Talk on the Power of Connection.

Dr. Tim Riesen, our Research Advisory teammate, has his own Data & Metrics company, going into volatile countries and gathering & providing information to governments about what is taking place when children disconnect and become targets for radicalization. 

WEC’s success has only been made possible by the global group of people involved, all who have had an experience with a connection that has made them stronger and because of that have invested time and work into making WEC stronger. Our success is proof of our “product”.

Intro to Anatomy of a Global Family

The success of WEC is rooted in diversity and equality. If those qualities are not represented in our leadership, program and how we build and grow, then we have no business operating. It’s that simple. Every team that works on a piece of WEC, is made up of representation of the countries we are working in; women and men, black and white. That will not change as we grow and scale.

Since our start, when we meet locally to build the curriculum, for example, we always invite administrators and teachers from Tanzania as well. When they cannot attend, all who were invited receive meeting minutes as well as the results of those meetings in order to get feedback and input we urgently need from both sides of the ocean. Trying to run and grow WEC without consistent participation and input by team members in both countries, would leave us with an out of balance non-representative program and organization. We feel strongly that we must model our goals and values in how we operate, and this is one important example. 

We are a global education program that focuses on the unique and special gifts we all have within. Gifts that possess value to ourselves, our local community and the global community. As shared before, the success of WEC is solely because of our diverse, equitable and inclusive global group, all possessing unique gifts that make us, World Education Connection, stronger because we are connected.

People have been both a passion and purpose

I chose to apply to Solve because I feel like WEC is on the cusp of really taking off. WEC has delivered impact over the four years and we've done it with a small team, rogue fundraising and sheer determination. We are in a place where, with the right guidance, support and sustainable funding, we can plant many more seeds of connection. We need a global movement of connection now. We need a coming together of local communities and global partners. We need a movement that gives hope for a better tomorrow for all and the journey begins with connection. 

Sometimes we have to have things taken away, for us to see it's value and see the deeper meaning of it. If there are two things we learned in 2020 and 2021 with the Covid global pandemic, it was that we as a planet are smaller than we think, and that we are all connected. When we disconnect people and have to isolate, people will go to great lengths to keep connection alive. World Education Connection needs to play a key role in keeping connection alive, and helping it flourish!  

Business model - WEC has struggled with creating a proper strategic plan. One in which every step we take builds on the last, and up to the next.

Financial - certainly learning how to pitch to investors; something we've never done. And as or more importantly, learning what are our best options for sustainable program funding, and how to go about securing it.

Technology - yes, software and hardware are very important. We've gotten by with what we and the participating teachers and/or schools have had in place, as well as paying for the local Tanzanian purchase and installation of three technology "packages" at three of the schools there. But, it seems likely that what we think of as appropriate and workable for our purposes, working with the right people at Solve MIT we may well learn that there are certain hardware and software solutions that are much better suited for our needs. 

I sometimes see WEC as a two piece program. One piece of it is, providing after school programs, in underserved communities around the globe, with a technology tool package to be able to link up with their global partner. The other piece is the journal we provide that guides the global teams along the way. Collaborating with a technology company to provide the technology tool packages would be wonderful. I am sure there is someone at MIT who can help with that. I know you also have a Brain and Cognitive science department that we would love to work with to help us bring a deeper meaning to the journal work our Education Specialists have created.

Right now, there are many people sprinkled throughout social media and beyond, that encourage people to live their “authentic” life. Their audience are adults who, at some point in their lives, realized they were not pursuing their passion or utilizing their gifts. What would it look like to bring some of those people together in one space and work with WEC to further build out a program that reaches children first and not fix broken and wayward adults. Some of those people operating in those spaces are Brene Brown, who would be a dream to work with, Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, Oprah Winfrey and the list goes on.

American Student Assistance® (ASA) is committed to helping students know themselves, know their options, and make informed decisions to achieve their education and career goals. If we were to ask students at various ages, “Do you know yourself”, would they be able to answer? We cannot have expectations of our children, if we do not provide the tools or have delivered the work, for them to authentically respond. WEC delivers the work that has kids exploring “How Does Music Move Me ” , “The Trees, The Sea, The Mountains and Me-How do I Connect to Nature”, “Step by Step is How we Climb a Mountain – Connecting to the things that are hard” and more.

Empathy and Connection must be a focus of learning, exploration and sustained to create positive, lasting change:

• To seek equality where there is inequality

• To remain open-minded

• To listen and re-learn about racism and other social problems

• To create kinder, more caring human beings

• To care for our planet and actively participate in climate change

• To achieve the United Nations’ Global Goals

If people do not feel connected to themselves – or feel seen, heard, and valued for who they are – it is difficult for them to care about anyone or anything else. How can children care about something or someone else if they don't feel they belong or matter themselves? 

WEC delivers a program that will support kids, in answering the question, “Do You Know Yourself?”

No, we do not qualify for this prize.