Licking Heights students are thinking globally and acting locally — right in their own school district.
This year, nine Licking Heights students completed the requirements for a Global Scholars diploma. They earned their diploma during the April 23 graduation ceremony at Otterbein University.
The Global Scholars Diploma (GSD) program is an experiential student program through the Columbus Council on World Affairs. It is a three-year program open to all central Ohio school districts and provides students with the opportunity to network with local global community leaders, learn about cultures and current global issues and complete their own project to solve an issue of their choice. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the program.
“Opportunities like Global Scholars are so important because not only does GSD teach students skills like how to work with other people to accomplish a goal, how to contact and work with organizations outside of the school setting and how to organize a major project, but it also opens their own thinking,” said Amy Obhof, world history teacher at Licking Heights High School and the district’s on-campus advisor for the program. “We say in the program that we ‘Connect Globally, Act Locally.’ Students learn all about what is happening all over the world and how that impacts us here in central Ohio.”
Most students chose to complete projects that positively impacted the district, like improving literacy, spreading positivity at the high school and protecting the environment. This was the biggest class of Global Scholars the district has ever had. Participants and projects included:
Obhof emphasized the transformative journey students experience through the program. “The best part of working with our Global Scholars is seeing their tremendous growth over the course of the three years of the program,” she said. “They go from shy underclassmen to confident young adults who have learned that they have the power to take on the world.”
In addition to their individual projects, students gained invaluable life skills. “I hope that students have learned confidence in themselves,” Obhof explained. “That they are capable of doing anything and achieving any goal that they set for themselves. The program is so much more than the academic content and the issues themselves.”
Global Scholars participants are even eligible to earn scholarships through the Columbus Council of World Affairs and a $19,000 renewable scholarship at Otterbein University. Obhof expressed immense pride in this year’s graduates, stating, “I am so very proud of our GSD graduates who are part of the 10th Global Scholars graduating class!”
Information submitted by Licking Heights Local Schools.
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Licking Heights students earn Global Scholars diploma
Reporting by Special to Pataskala Standard / Newark Advocate
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
