Sightings | Alumni Profile
Inspiring Kids to Become Global Citizens Two
alumni empower today's youth through unique, life-changing
international immersion experiences
by Laura Ertel
Anyone can take a bunch of kids on an international
trip.Dave Shurna and Julie Ivker Dubin want to take them
on a life-altering experience.
Almost from the moment they met as graduate students at the
Nicholas School, Shurna and Dubin knew that together they
could create an organization that would make a difference
in the world by empowering young people to be good global
citizens.
The result of their brainstorming is Global
Explorers (GEx), www.global
exploers.org, an international immersion experience
for middle and high school students that emphasizes science,
culture, leadership and service. The comprehensive educational
experience includes a sixmonth preparatory curriculum, professionally
led international workshops in environmentally and culturally
diverse locations, and followup service projects in students’
home communities.
The 1999 graduates spent the better part of their
Nicholas School experience brainstorming ideas for the new,
nonprofit organization. “The bottom line,” says Shurna, “was
that we wanted to offer students a complete educational experience,
not just a trip. We wanted to provide a lifechanging experience
that broadens students’ world views at an early age. As we
thought about different ways to do that, Global Explorers
started to emerge.”
The GEx concept builds upon the pair’s previous
experiences providing international and environmental education
for kids. Shurna had worked largely in environmental education
for youth, while Dubin worked for many years with the Children’s
Environmental Trust Foundation, another nonprofit organization
that ran similar international immersion experiences. When
that organization went out of business two years ago, the
time was right for Shurna and Dubin to hatch their plan.
The pair spent an intense six months in Colorado
laying out Global Explorers’ organizational structure and
putting together a grant proposal. When the Walton Family
Foundation awarded a start-up grant of $300,000 in early 2003,
they were on their way. Both left their jobs to focus fullforce
on Global Explorers. They secured 501c3 nonprofit status,
developed marketing and curriculum materials, established
field sites and introduced the program to American teachers.
Duke-honed skills
To create Global Explorers, Dubin and Shurna drew upon many
of the skills they’d learned at Duke. They had taken classes
that emphasized conservation and biodiversity— issues that
provide an avenue for GEx to steer students into discussions
about the role they can play in the world.
“Our coursework at the Nicholas School gave
us that big picture of the important issues related to conservation
throughout the world,” Shurna says. “It gave us confidence
that what we were doing would play an important role in that
bigger picture effort, and the knowledge that this was a great
use of our education and a great way to contribute to the
world.”
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