As I stood on 43rd and Lexington Ave with ten Spanish high school students eating typical (and outrageously delicious!) New York style pizza, the linguistic, academic, and social impacts of the Global Classrooms Program were confirmed for me. The students excitedly spoke about the motions, points, and resolutions they had made, the blocs they were forming with other delegations, and the friendships they were establishing with people from all over the world. The nerves they were feeling the morning before the first debate session had disappeared, and what remained was a group of confident, intelligent, and determined future leaders of the world. It was rewarding and heart warming to see their hard work, which began in the Preliminary Conferences in Madrid, come to fruition at the International Model UN Conferences, and it filled me with pride to see everything they were capable of accomplishing at such a young age.

For me, the entire GC process has been filled with that sense of pride both for the students and the Teaching Assistant’s that helped prepare them. The dedication of all parties involved is what allows the program to be so successful. It creates a space for students to learn to think critically, work in groups, and become more globally aware, all in a foreign language. Participating in GC allows the students to develop invaluable life skills like communication and mutual understanding, which will be essential as they pursue different career paths in the future. It exposes the students to countries, issues, ideas, and positions they may have never heard of before; as a result, they learn to be more understanding, open-minded, and tolerant contributing citizens to society. GC teaches these young minds that different is not inferior, that change requires sacrifice, and that all voices are important in global conversations.

As an optimistic young person, it was beautiful to see a group of young students create thoughtful resolutions to mediate the unification of many countries in conflict, albeit fictional. As a future educator, it was inspiring to see the academic and linguistic evolution throughout the conferences. As an American, it was a privilege to watch my country host an event in which people from all over the world come together with one goal; to help create globally conscious, confident, intelligent, and insightful future leaders. I would like to thank the Fulbright Commission, the Comunidad de Madrid, and the participating high schools for their work to make the program such an important experience for me. Its positive contributions to the students and teachers were clearly seen in the conferences rooms in the Hyatt Grand Central Hotel, from the top of the Empire State Building, and in the pizza joint on 43rd and Lexington Ave.

Anthony J. Harb, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, 2015-2016