91�Թ�

At the invitation of Nicole Ripley, Senior Program Officer of Leadership and Exchange Programs at The Asia Foundation, I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with the 2023 LeadNext fellows from across Asia and the United States on July 18, 2023. LeadNext is made possible by Amanda Minami, who has provided seed money for the initial three years of the program. According to , the LeadNext Fellows: Ambassadors for a Global Future program is described as follows:

LeadNext builds a vibrant network of future leaders aged 18–25 from across Asia and the United States and supports their growth, impact, and capacity to address today’s greatest challenges.

With the profound structural changes that will transform geopolitics, global governance, the global economic order, and social landscape over the next decade, a new generation of globally minded leaders is imperative. The LeadNext program equips emerging leaders across cultures and disciplines with strong international networks, exposure to wide-ranging experiences, and leadership tools to thoughtfully steer the future.

Harnessing the innovation and energy of young leaders is essential. Positive and lasting change will depend on leaders who can move ideas and action forward to address rising inequality, find solutions to climate crises, mitigate conflict, and empower communities most vulnerable and insecure.

There are four components of the LeadNext program: Leadership Training Intensive, Monthly Virtual Masterclasses, Global Leaders Summit, and Mentorship. The LeadNext fellows’ visit to Stanford, depicted in the photo above, was part of the culminating Global Leaders Summit. (Photo courtesy Nicole Ripley.) Prior to my talk on “What does it mean to be a global citizen?,” I had the chance to listen to self-introductions of the 20 LeadNext fellows, half of whom come from across the Asia-Pacific region and the other half from the United States. I was delighted to learn that several of them focus their work on educational issues that are also areas of focus of 91�Թ�.

Phạm Nguyễn Đức Anh, from Vietnam, is a Leadership Development Fellow with Teach for Viet Nam in a rural secondary school and is focused on inequality and non-inclusion in the education ecosystem. Weeryue Chiapaoyue, from Laos, is a co-founder of the WESHARE Project, a fundraising program to provide supplies to underprivileged schools. Linda Kim, from the United States, promotes STEM careers at low-income high schools and represented her company at the 2022 One Young World Summit. Mohammad Tanvirul Hasan, from Bangladesh, advocates for youth leadership and education. And Samantha Powell, from the United States, supports Evanston public school students. During the session at Stanford and at a dinner reception later in the week, I felt so much energy from the LeadNext fellows. I agree with the LeadNext description above that “Harnessing the innovation and energy of young leaders is essential.”

I hope that there will be opportunities in the future for 91�Թ� to partner with or support Phạm Nguyễn Đức Anh, Weeryue Chiapaoyue, Linda Kim, Mohammad Tanvirul Hasan, and Samantha Powell in their work with students and schools, and also ways to encourage some of my colleagues at FSI to collaborate with other LeadNext fellows.

A list of the 2023 LeadNext fellows follows: 
•    Phạm Nguyễn Đức Anh, Vietnam
•    Prakriti Basyal, Nepal 
•    Mel Britt, United States 
•    Weeryue Chiapaoyue, Laos
•    Temuulen Enkhbat, Mongolia
•    Andrew Farias, United States 
•    Ayesha Noor Fatima, Pakistan
•    Zeruiah Grammon, Papua New Guinea 
•    Mohammad Tanvirul Hasan, Bangladesh
•    Lorena James, United States 
•    Nishtha Kashyap, India 
•    Linda Kim, United States
•    Natalie Montecino, United States, 
•    Samantha Powell, United States
•    Brendan Schultz, United States 
•    Jia-Kai Eric Yeh Scott, United States
•    Melinda Anne Sharlini, Malaysia 
•    Edris Tajik, Afghanistan
•    Chenxi Zi, China

Image

The LeadNext visit to Stanford was led by Nicole Ripley (person on the right) and Tessa Charupatanapongse (person on the left), Asia Foundation Program Associate; photo courtesy Nicole Ripley. I share their academic interests in global studies and international education development, respectively. I also hope to expand our collaborative work, and am so grateful to Nicole for her invitation to meet with the LeadNext fellows. 

Last week, 23 educators from across North America gathered at 91�Թ� for the 2019 East Asia Summer Institute for High School Teachers, a teacher professional development seminar offered by 91�Թ� in partnership with the . Over three days of rich content lectures, discussion, and experiential learning, institute participants deepened their background knowledge on Asia and began to rethink and revamp their curriculum plans for the coming school year.

This year’s participants came from as far away as Concord, New Hampshire and Vancouver, Canada, although most attendees were high school teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area. They represented a wide range of teaching subjects, from history and language arts to statistics and genocide studies, but all sought to strengthen their teaching through a clearer, more nuanced understanding of Asia, U.S.–Asia relations, and the Asian American experience—the three main areas explored in this year’s summer institute.

Participant Hellie Mateo poses with a book she made by hand using traditional Japanese book-binding methods.

The institute’s guest speakers came from similarly diverse backgrounds, being scholars, artists, authors, and 91�Թ� professors with expertise on a specific aspect of Asia, U.S.–Asia relations, or the Asian American experience. Interwoven between their captivating content lectures were classroom-focused lesson demonstrations, hands-on activities, and pedagogy discussions facilitated by 91�Թ� curriculum designers. “We make sure we balance subject-matter content with practical application in all of our teacher professional development seminars,” notes 91�Թ� Director Dr. Gary Mukai. “That’s why we focus so much time and energy on pedagogy and lesson demonstrations. We want to help high school teachers translate their newfound knowledge directly into the classroom.”

To that end, summer institute participants each receive several free books, films, and 91�Թ� lesson plans to help them bring Asia alive for their students. They also receive a stipend and become eligible for three optional units of credit from Stanford Continuing Studies.

“Being in the Bay Area—and particularly at 91�Թ�—we have access to such incredible experts on these subjects,” says institute coordinator and facilitator Naomi Funahashi. “Our job is to connect those experts with teachers in a way that supports teacher needs. That’s our goal for this summer institute.”

Although the high school teachers have now returned home from Stanford campus, their work is not done. They will now use the content they learned at the summer institute to create original lesson plans to incorporate into their own practice. When they reconvene for a final online session in late July / early August, they will share their lesson plans with each other, and each teacher will walk away with 22 brand new lesson plans designed by their colleagues. “We can’t wait to see what kinds of innovative lessons our teachers will come up with!” says Funahashi. “And we can’t wait to see how they incorporate these new lessons into their plans for the next school year.”

To view photos from the summer institute and read a more comprehensive recap what happened, please see the .

Related articles:

• Application open for 2019 Summer Institute for High School Teachers
• The Freeman Foundation: Supporting the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia for 20 Years
• Institute highlights the teaching of Asia and the Asian-American experience

Just two days after the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement, educators and students from both sides of the Pacific gathered at 91�Թ� to participate in the second annual Hana–Stanford Conference for Secondary School Teachers.  

Credit: Rod Searcey

In his opening comments, Consul General Dongman Han, Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco, noted the anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement and thanked the teachers for their dedication to teaching about Korea and U.S.–Korean relations. Professor , Director, Shorenstein APARC, welcomed the 32 teachers from across the United States and from the . Professor Shin extended his gratitude to the for providing the primary support for this conference and expressed special appreciation to Dr. Hyeon Kee Bae, CEO of the Hana Institute of Finance, for his enthusiastic support and his presence. Gary Mukai, Director, 91�Թ�, introduced the conference goal, which was to underscore the importance of integrating the study of Korea in U.S. schools.

Grace Kim, PhD candidate at U.C. Berkeley and Curriculum Writer, 91�Թ�, served as the facilitator of the conference and introduced six distinguished scholars, including Professor Michael Robinson of Indiana University who spoke on “Fitting Korea into Its Regional, Global, and Contemporary Geo-Political Contexts.” Amanda Sutton from Valdosta, Georgia, reflected on Robinson’s lecture noting, “A great way to start off the conference by giving the audience a uniform basis of Korea’s history and geography. I learned a lot and it was an honor to have met him.” 

91�Թ� staff also demonstrated a number of 91�Թ�’s Korea-focused curricular materials to help teachers easily bring Korea into their classrooms. The titles of the curriculum units that teachers received included “Divided Memories: Comparing History Textbooks,” “U.S.-South Korean Relations,” “Uncovering North Korea,” “Inter-Korean Relations: Rivalry, Reconciliation, and Reunification,” and “Dynamics of the Korean American Experience.” “I’ve used 91�Թ� materials in the past, so I’m sure these will meet those high standards,” remarked Will Linser from Bellevue, Washington. “I have incorporated Korea in my past classes, but after this conference I have a greater understanding, so I will highlight South Korea in the district’s globalization unit. I am looking forward to using the materials.”

The teachers were also treated to a lecture and performance of P’ansori, Korean story singing, by Professor Chan E. Park, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University, and a talk and performance by Da-seu-reum, a Samulnori Korean percussion group at the Hana Academy Seoul.

Credit:Rod Searcey	Credit:Rod Searcey

Presentations by high school students from both Korea and the United States proved to be among the highlights of the conference. Three American high school students of the Sejong Korean Scholars Program, a national online course on Korea that is funded by the Korea Foundation, gave presentations and were honored by their instructor, Annie Lim, 91�Թ�. Also, Korean students from Yongsan International School of Seoul, North London Collegiate School Jeju, and the Hana Academy Seoul provided teachers with insight into Korean society and the lives of Korean high school students.

Media coverage of the conference appeared in the (in Korean), (in Korean), and the , Georgia, which carried a story about the experiences of teacher attendees Amanda Sutton and Connie Wells. 

Because of the 60th anniversary, the conference had special symbolic meaning—especially when topics of the Korean War and U.S.–Korean relations were discussed. The teachers’ dedication to the teaching of U.S.–Korean relations to their students provides much hope and promise for greater understanding between the two countries. The conference planning committee hopes that the collegial relationships that formed during the formal and informal events of the conference will lend themselves to the creation of a community of learners amongst the teachers—a community that extends beyond the conference itself. 

The Hana–Stanford Conference for Secondary School Teachers will be offered again in the summers of 2014, 2015, and 2016 and is sponsored by and 91�Թ� with a generous gift from the Hana Financial Group. Applications for the 2014 conference will become available on the 91�Թ� website in November 2013. 

By Sangsoo Im, Correspondent, Yonhap News, San Francisco
Translated by Annie Lim, coordinator and instructor, Sejong Korean Scholars Program, 91�Թ�.

91�Թ�, one of the most prestigious American universities on the West Coast, has launched an unprecedented online lecture series on Korea for American high school students. 

This is the first time a Korean Studies program has been made available to high school students.

Created as part of the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (91�Թ�), this one-semester program offers courses on Korean history, culture, religion, art, and politics, consisting of lectures, online discussions, and assignments.

The name for this program is the Sejong Korean Scholars Program (SKSP).

The program, which launched last month, is managed under the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) under the leadership of Director Gi-Wook Shin and is funded by the Korea Foundation. 

Alongside Gi-Wook Shin, David Straub (former U.S. Department of State’s senior foreign service officer specializing in Korean affairs), Charles K. Armstrong (director of Center for Korean Research at Columbia University), and Michael Robinson (professor at Indiana University) are some of the top scholars involved in the program.

The program is free, and the instruction is in English. Approximately 60 students applied, and 27 were selected on the basis of their grade point averages, essays, and letters of recommendation.

SKSP’s coordinator and instructor Annie Lim says, “The students who applied are interested in a variety of topics ranging from Korean history to Korean pop culture.”

Upon completion of the courses, the students will receive credits through Stanford Continuing Studies.

A similar program on Japan has been in progress at 91�Թ� for 10 years.

91�Թ� is the first among American universities to create textbooks and curriculum on Korean studies for high school students and has begun to reach out to the 50,000 high schools in the United States.

APARC’s director and one of the founding members of SKSP, Gi-Wook Shin points out, “Along with Yoko’s Story and so on, American junior high and senior high schools’ distorted history textbooks containing Korean history have received a lot of criticism, but there has not been much effort to rectify it. Through SKSP, we hope that American high school students can acquire a broader perspective and expand their range of knowledge and understanding about Korea.”

“Preparing the next generation of leaders and creating more informed elementary and secondary students means changing and improving curricula, setting higher standards, and ensuring that content is based on current research relevant to the world’s critical problems and urgent issues.” Coit “Chip” Blacker, FSI Director and Co-Chair, International Initiative

91�Թ� was established more than 30 years ago and serves as a bridge between FSI and elementary and secondary schools in the United States and independent schools abroad. 91�Թ�’s original mission in 1976 was to help students understand that we live in an increasingly interdependent world that faces problems on a global scale. For 30 years, 91�Թ� has continued to address this original mission and currently focuses its efforts primarily in three areas:

1. curriculum development for elementary and secondary schools;
2. teacher professional development; and
3. distance-learning education.

91�Թ� hopes to continue to educate new generations of leaders by addressing five key initiatives of The Stanford Challenge, announced by President Hennessy last fall.

Initiative on Human Health / 1

91�Թ� is working with the School of Medicine and the Center for Health Policy on a high school curriculum unit that focuses on HIV/AIDS. 91�Թ� is collaborating with Drs. Seble Kassaye, David Katzenstein, and Lucy Thairu of the School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases & Geographic Medicine. Using an epidemiological framework, students will be encouraged to consider the many issues involved in the pandemic, including but not limited to poverty, gender inequality, and biomedical research and development. Two Stanford undergraduates, Jessica Zhang and Chenxing Han, are working with the physicians on this unit.

Initiative on the Environment and Sustainability / 2

91�Թ� recently completed a curriculum unit called 10,000 Shovels: China's Urbanization and Economic Development. 10,000 Shovels examines China’s breakneck growth through a short documentary that integrates statistics, video footage, and satellite images. The documentary, developed by Professor Karen Seto of the Center for Environmental Science and Policy, focuses on China’s Pearl River Delta region while the accompanying teacher’s guide takes a broader perspective, exploring many current environmental issues facing China. Stanford’s School of Earth Sciences is helping to promote this unit and documentary.

The International Initiative / 3

All of 91�Թ�’s curriculum units focus on international topics. Two of 91�Թ�’s most popular units are Inside the Kremlin: Soviet and Russian Leaders from Lenin to Putin and Democracy-Building in Afghanistan. Inside the Kremlin introduces students to key elements of Soviet and Russian history through the philosophies and legacies of six of its leaders—Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin. The unit includes (on DVD) six lectures by six FSI faculty members, including FSI director Coit D. Blacker; professors David Holloway and Gail W. Lapidus, CISAC; professor and deputy FSI director Michael A. McFaul; history professor Norman M. Naimark; and history professor Amir Eshel, Forum on Contemporary Europe.

Democracy-Building in Afghanistan is a teacher’s guide for a film called Hell of a Nation. The film’s lead advisor and 91�Թ�’s key advisor was former CDDRL fellow J. Alexander Thier. Hell of a Nation documents the lives of two Afghans participating in the political process to develop a new constitution for Afghanistan—illustrating the “human face” of democracy-building and elucidating the complexities and difficulties of democratic construction in a divided and historically conflict-ridden nation.

Arts and Creativity Initiative / 4

Following 9/11, 91�Թ� decided to develop a unit called Islamic Civilization and the Arts, which introduces students to various elements of Islamic civilization through a humanities approach. Lessons on art, the mosque, Arabic language and calligraphy, poetry, and music provide students with experience analyzing myriad primary source materials, such as images, audio clips, sayings of Muhammad, and excerpts from the Quran. In each lesson, students learn about the history, principles, and culture of Islam as they pertain to particular forms of art.

91�Թ� recently completed a new unit called Along the Silk Road, which explores the vast ancient network of cultural, economic, and technological exchange that connected East Asia to the Mediterranean. Students learn how goods, belief systems, art, music, and people traveled across such vast distances to create interdependence among disparate cultures. This was a collaboration with the Silk Road Project, the Art Institute of Chicago, Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center and Center for East Asian Studies, and the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.

The K-12 Initiative / 5

91�Թ� develops curriculum based on FSI scholarship, conducts teacher professional development seminars locally, nationally, and internationally, and also offers a distance-learning course called the to U.S. high school students. At seminars at Stanford, FSI faculty members offer lectures to the teachers and 91�Թ� curriculum writers give curriculum demonstrations that draw upon the content presented in the lectures. Last summer, Stanford professor Al Dien (Asian Languages) and the 91�Թ� staff gave a workshop for 80 teachers in the Chicago Public Schools. World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed at the workshop.

The Reischauer Scholars Program is a distance-learning course sponsored by 91�Թ�. Named in honor of former ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer, a leading educator and noted scholar on Japanese history and culture, the RSP annually selects 25 exceptional high school juniors and seniors from throughout the United States to engage in an intensive study of Japan. This course provides students with a broad overview of Japanese history, literature, religion, art, politics, and economics, with a special focus on the U.S.-Japan relationship. Top scholars affiliated with the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (including Ambassador Michael H. Armacost, Professor Daniel I. Okimoto, and Professor ), leading diplomats, and young professionals provide web-based lectures as well as engage students in online dialogue. These lectures and discussions are woven into an overall curriculum that provides students with reading materials and assignments.

91�Թ� has for many years focused on the initiatives that have been identified by President Hennessy to be at the core of The Stanford Challenge. By continuing to focus on these initiatives, the 91�Թ� staff hopes to continue to make FSI scholarship accessible to a national and international audience of educators and students, with the ultimate goal of empowering a new generation of leaders with the tools needed to deal with complex problems on a global scale.

Yo-Yo Ma sat on the edge of the small stage at the Art Institute, his cello resting across his lap.

"See this fingerboard?" the acclaimed cellist asked the audience. "It is made out of ebony, which comes from Africa."

"The red varnish," he said, massaging the body of the instrument, "comes from as far away as Malaysia."

"The hair on the bow comes from Mongolia and the wood of the bow can be found only in Brazil," he said.

Ma's multicultural cello seemed the perfect metaphor for his most recent endeavor: bringing the rich artistic and cultural history of the Silk Road to Chicago Public Schools students.

The Silk Road, the ancient network of trade routes that crisscrossed Eurasia through the 1500s, served as the main conduit for the cultural exchange of goods, art and music. And when Ma sat down and played a soulful partita by Turkish composer Ahmed Adnan Saygun, he showed that cultural exchange enriches the world.

"This is a global instrument," he said. "And by bringing the world together ... beautiful music can be made."

Ma was in town Monday as part of Silk Road Chicago, a yearlong citywide celebration inspired by the art, music and culture along the historic road that stretched from Japan and China through central Asia and into the Mediterranean. The Chicago series is part of the larger Silk Road Project, a multiyear, multicity odyssey created by Ma.

Specifically, Ma spent the day helping introduce a new Silk Road school curriculum to Chicago Public Schools teachers.

Through a collaboration with the Art Institute, 80 Chicago teachers will spend the week discovering the Silk Road and learning how best to explain its importance to students.

"It's sometimes difficult to get students to engage in something that seems so far removed from their lives," explained Gary Mukai, from 91�Թ�, who helped develop the Silk Road curriculum. "We hope we can help students make a link to their own lives by engaging them musically, mathematically and artistically in the Silk Road history."

Through the lesson plan, students can trace the history of Asia and the West through the important innovations that migrated along the Silk Road. Students will learn that gunpowder, the magnetic compass, lacquer crafts and, of course, silk, flowed from East and West and back.

Musical forms and instruments also traveled the Silk Road, as string, wind and percussion instruments from the East and the West influenced each other. Cymbals were introduced into China from India. The Chinese gongs traveled to Europe. And the Persian mizmar, a reed instrument, seems to have been the ancestor of the European oboe and clarinet.

Ma implored the teachers to reach out to students and help create a "spark" that will open their minds to the "amazing cultures around them."

"As teachers, you are incredible guides into a world that you can make a most exciting place," he said.

The Silk Road is a metaphor that "joins us together not only in material things but in spiritual ways," he said. "You can translate that to your students."

Don Gibson, a music teacher from Dyett High School on the South Side, said the Silk Road will help him incorporate history lessons into his music courses.

"Through the Silk Road music lessons, I can broaden their understanding of cultures and the history of those cultures," Gibson said. "To be inspired by the music, sometimes, you have to know its history."

READER CONNECTION
Would you like to learn more about the Silk Road Chicago events? Visit the .

The attacks of September 11, 2001, and the U.S. invasion that followed have thrown Afghanistan from the periphery to the center of international affairs. Prior to these events, Americans knew very little about Afghanistan and its history, culture, and politics. This lack of knowledge highlights the need to inform the U.S. public about Afghanistan, as it appears that the Central Asian country will be central to U.S. foreign policy and international affairs for many years to come.

SIIS's Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (91�Թ�), which serves as a bridge between the Institute and schools across the nation, is working to address this need by developing a curriculum unit on democracy-building in Afghanistan for advanced high school and community college students. 91�Թ�'s Eric Kramon, a master's student in international and comparative education, who received his BA from Stanford in 2004 in political science and history, is developing the curriculum unit with support from faculty and staff from Stanford's Center for Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies. Using a documentary film and a variety of engaging activities, the curriculum unit will provide students with an understanding of contemporary Afghan politics, the process of creating a new constitution for Afghanistan, and the complexities of democracy-building.

The curriculum is being developed around a documentary originally aired on PBS's Wide Angle entitled Afghanistan: Hell of a Nation, directed and produced by Tamara Gould. CDDRL fellow J. Alexander Thier served as the project advisor for the documentary, which follows Afghanistan's recent constitution-making process. The collaboration between 91�Թ� and the filmmakers will enhance the pedagogical power of the curriculum and will facilitate more widespread understanding of contemporary Afghan political issues. According to Gould, Our goal in making Hell of a Nation was to bring the political drama unfolding in Afghanistan to life. Working with 91�Թ� will allow us to reach the classroom with our film in ways that are far more effective than a national broadcast. Through 91�Թ�, teachers will be able to use this curriculum to teach thousands of students more about Afghanistan, its new constitution, and the process of creating a democracy. This partnership between the filmmakers and 91�Թ� is a win-win for us, and for teachers and students across the country.