In December, in Literature class, the eighth graders wrapped up a unique project with a program called Level Up Village (LUV).

For this project the students read and discussed the memoir entitled I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb. The LUV curriculum provided activities to help the students explore the impact of education and leadership on communities. For example, in one of the activities, the students took an online quiz to determine their leadership style. Then, they explored how their leadership style might help them to do service to others.

This might sound like a typical literature class; however, what made it unique was that each student was partnered with a student in Jordan or Zimbabwe who was doing the exact same lessons! In order to share their experiences with one another, the students recorded three videos that they exchanged with their partner through the LUV online portal.

From these videos the students were not only able to discover more about their partners, but also to broaden their global perspective regarding the impact of education and leadership on different communities. For their last video, many of the students expressed gratitude for getting to know their partner and identified this unique project as one they will never forget.