Students at Progress High School in Brooklyn videoconference with counterparts in the Kurdistan region in Iraq. (Photo via Greenpoint Gazette)
A group of high school students at Progress High School in Brooklyn recently held an eye-opening videoconference chat with students at a school in Irbil, capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Organized by the New York City and Amman, Jordan based non-profit, Global Nomads Group (GNG), the meeting allowed the students to learn how their counterparts go about their daily lives, reports Tanay Warerkar in Greenpoint Gazette.
It was Flag Day for the students in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region in Iraq, which lies a short distance from Mosul, the city at the epicenter of the battle earlier this summer, between the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the self-proclaimed state and rebel group and Iraqi forces backed by western governments, including the United States.
Despite thousands of miles between them, the conversation came easily to the high-schoolers as they discussed how students and education can play a greater role in eradicating and preventing forces like ISIS. The Williamsburg students were fascinated to learn how students coped with living under war conditions while simultaneously pursuing their studies.
GNG arranges “virtual” exchanges between students in 53 countries to promote dialogue and enhance understanding between students from diverse backgrounds.
“The youth we are connecting in Iraq are living the nightly news and have a war going on in their backyard,” said Chris Plutte, the Executive Director at GNG. “This program gives students in Iraq and Brooklyn an incredible opportunity to share their stories and to learn from their peers firsthand. This is what GNG is all about.”
And the students were thrilled for the opportunity. Conversations bounced from hobbies to favorite foods to more serious concerns. American students wondered how their Kurdish counterparts’ daily routines had been affected by the war. The Kurdish students were interested to learn the level of awareness the American students had about them prior to the war.
“It’s sad that we never heard about them before this,” said Amanda Vargas, a senior at Progress High. “They are such lovely people. Why do we not have more discussions like this?”
Find out what surprised some of the Progress students, and how they had to “unlearn” some things, at Greenpoint Gazette.