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 About Reach the World
While volunteering in under-resourced public schools, Heather Halstead and Marc Gustafson became concerned about teachers’ preparedness to meet the demands of the 21st Century and students’ isolation from the global community. In 1998, they founded Reach the World, an education nonprofit headquartered in New York City. RTW’s mission is to help elementary and secondary school students and teachers to develop the knowledge, attitudes, values and thinking skills needed for responsible citizenship in a complex, culturally diverse and rapidly changing world.
The skill set required to prepare tomorrow’s citizens for the global age must go beyond “the basics” and even beyond the growing emphasis on math and reading. Reach the World believes that high achievement and investment in education are driven by an interdisciplinary, technology-rich curriculum – which most disadvantaged public school students are not getting. In fact, in about half of low-performing public schools, students little more than literacy and mathematics instruction.
Through its interactive website, Reach the World enriches the school and afterschool curriculum by connecting classrooms to travelers who are studying or exploring around the globe. RTW identifies volunteer travelers, manages web-based educational content posted by these travelers, and delivers technology and curricular support via graduate student interns, drawn from partners such as Teachers College, Columbia University. The National Geographic Education Foundation named RTW a Model Program in Geography Education, one of only six in the nation.
In 2009, Reach the World began partnering with the Institute of International Education’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program to engage a select group of its study–abroad scholars as volunteer correspondents for the RTW program. The Gilman Program offers awards for study abroad for U.S. undergraduate students who are receiving Federal Pell Grant funding, and was established by the International Academic Opportunity Act of 2000. In the future, RTW envisions working not only with the Gilman Program, but also with other college and university partners that share RTW’s commitment to community service and international exchange.
Reach the World has already affected more than 15,000 students and 600 teachers. The program is headquartered in New York City and has a chapter in Chicago, IL. RTW measures its impact on both teachers and students. Through participation in RTW, ninety-seven percent of students correspond with someone from another country, compared to eleven percent nationwide - a key factor in advancing geography proficiency. All RTW teachers deliver weekly instruction in foreign countries and cultures, compared to twenty-three percent nationwide.
Have you traveled? Has anyone shared their travel stories with you? Has this affected your worldview? If you can answer “Yes” to any of these questions, then you understand the mission of Reach the World. RTW is capitalizing upon an existing energy in our society – travelers – and turning it into an educational resource for all children and teachers. Through Reach the World, the age–old tradition of traveling and sharing stories makes the leap into the digital age – and for once, disadvantaged students are along for the ride.
For more information about Reach the World, please click on the following documents:
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