Develop Global Youth Leaders in NYC and DC!

Dear Friend,

With the holidays fast approaching, Global Kids Leaders have been busy wrapping up the first half of the school year. Global Kids is also thrilled to report that our footprint in New York City and Washington, DC continues to grow, and we are working with 41 public schools and over 2,500 youth on a weekly basis! While each site is unique, we continue to offer programs that come from our regular menu, which include in-school residencies, Afterschool Leadership clubs, the Human Rights Activist Project, the Online Leadership Program, and College and Career Readiness. Below are some highlights from the past few months that we are happy to share with you as the year comes to a close.

• Global Kids held its second GK5K Run/Walk Event in October, and it was a great success! Our students and supporters raised over $40,000 to help fund our College and Career Readiness Program. We look forward to making this an annual event, and hope you will be able to join next year! For photos of the event, please visit our Flickr page by clicking here.

• This semester, we have added three new public high school sites in Washington, DC that include Anacostia High School, Ballou High School, and H.D. Woodson High School. We look forward to offering our afterschool youth development programming four days a week to over 225 underserved high school students, and support them in developing leadership, communication, cross-cultural, global competence, and other critical 21st Century skills.

• A cohort of 30 Global Kids Leaders from Curtis High School in Staten Island are traveling to Philadelphia for an overnight college trip this week! As part of our College and Career Readiness Program, the students will tour the campuses of Drexel University, University of Pennsylvania, and Temple University, meet with admissions officers and student-led organizations, and do some sightseeing in the historic city. Other recent college tours include those to Adelphi University, Baruch College, and John Jay College.

• The College and Career Readiness Program held its first College Application Party in October. Roughly 40 students from seven high schools were joined by volunteers from Time Warner Cable, and together they worked on completing the various components of their college applications, including personal statements, resumes, financial aid applications, and more.

• Two Global Kids Leaders involved in the Human Rights Activist Project are representing Global Kids at the 5th Sustainaware Global Partners Meeting in Gaeta, Italy and at COP21, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris, France. During their ten-day trip to Europe, they will meet with local youth organizations and continue their work on raising awareness of climate justice and empowering their peers to get involved with environmental activism. The two students are working on blog posts for the Global Kids Tumblr page about their experiences, and we'll be sure to share those with you next time!

As always, these transformational experiences and opportunities that Global Kids is able to offer our students are only possible thanks to support from friends such as yourself, for which we are truly grateful. We are looking forward to the exciting things that are brewing for the new year, especially the Annual Youth Conference in April, and cannot wait to share all the details with you in our next report.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from all of us at Global Kids!

Best wishes,

Ana Sofia