Global Playground News

Diamond Rings for Vietnam

2012-01-18T21:51:00.000-05:00

As Global Playground continues to fundraise for Project Vietnam this holiday season, an extremely generous and personal donation has come along with the monetary donations.

Professor of Law Jayne Barnard recently donated three diamond rings to Global Playground’s efforts to build a primary school in Vietnam. Barnard taught both Doug Bunch and Doug Smith, now members of Global Playground’s Board of Directors, in her securities law classes at William & Mary School of Law and has been following her students and the success of Global Playground ever since.

The diamond rings come from three generations of Barnard’s family and include her grandmother’s engagement ring, her mother’s engagement ring and her own engagement ring. Barnard donated the rings after hearing Bunch’s pitch for the Vietnam project at a fundraiser in November.

“Doug was down in Williamsburg to make the pitch at one of my colleague’s houses,” Barnard said. “He said the line: ‘I will take your cash, I will take your checks, I will take your diamonds etc.’ He may have been kidding about the diamonds, but he planted the seed of an idea, and then I realized that I had three generations of diamonds.”

Barnard saw an opportunity to donate her family’s legacy to the education of children halfway across the world who will one day attend Global Playground’s school in Vietnam.

“It seemed to me that if Doug really wasn’t kidding, if he was willing to take the diamonds, then three items that represented a century of love in my family could go to a really good cause,” Barnard said. “It really made me feel terrific to be able to put my family’s property into one coherent contribution.”

Barnard has been following Global Playground since its inception.

“They have grown remarkably over such a short period of time,” Barnard said. “I am happy to be a financial supporter.”

Before delivering the diamonds to Bunch in Washington, D.C., Barnard let go of her family’s legacy in her own way.

“That afternoon as I was packing and putting the diamonds in my suitcase, I stopped and said wait a minute, let’s do this a little more mindfully,” Barnard said. “I pulled out a photograph of my grandmother and my grandfather, and I pulled out a picture of my parents on their wedding day. I looked over at one of my favorite pictures of my late husband, John, and me at our daughter’s wedding. I had a little moment with my grandparents, my parents, and John, of course. We all decided to let the rings go.”

“We are extraordinarily grateful to Jayne for her contribution,” Bunch said. This is perhaps one of the most heartfelt, meaningful contributions we’ve ever received.”

The diamond rings belonged to Barnard’s grandmother Marian who married Walter Barnard in 1911, her mother Mary who married Clayton Barnard in 1937, and Professor Barnard herself who married John Tucker in 1983. The diamond rings will now be a part of Global Playground’s Vietnam project.

*This is the first of a series of articles about how individual donors are making thoughtful, unique contributions to Global Playground even in tough economic times.

Young Professionals in Foreign Policy interview Doug Bunch

2011-12-08T00:17:00.000-05:00

Young Professionals in Foreign Policy interviewed Doug Bunch, Chairman of Global Playground, for their November Career in the Spotlight article. The article discusses the process of starting a nonprofit, working successfully in the nonprofit sector, and the future influence of nonprofits in foreign policy.

YPFP is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to “foster the next generation of foreign policy leaders by providing young professionals with the knowledge, skills, exposure, and relationships to tackle critical global challenges over the course of their careers,” according to their website. They are comprised of about 100 volunteer young professionals, a board of directors, and counselors who work to further their mission of promoting and fostering collaboration and communication among young foreign policy leaders.

The article can be found here.

Students pied for Global Playground

2011-11-17T14:31:00.002-05:00

Walking to class, a paper plate covered in whip cream suddenly smacks you in the face. While you are now thinking about how you are going to explain this to your professor, you have simultaneously contributed to Global Playground’s efforts at enhancing education through their many projects.

The College of William & Mary’s service fraternity APO Nu Rho Chapter hosts one major philanthropy event each semester. The fall philanthropy, A-Pie-O, allows students to pay $4 to get members to pie their friends. All of the proceeds for the fall philanthropy are being donated to Global Playground.

“It was really cheap because whip cream and paper plates aren’t that expensive,” Aidan De Sena, Vice President of Philanthropy for APO, said. “We thought you could just get your frustration out by pieing people, and it would be fun to see your friends pied.”

The idea to donate the funds to Global Playground came from a challenge from Global Playground Chairman Doug Bunch. This amount will be matched by a $5000 donation from an alum of the College, A. Joseph Jay, III, ’03, J.D. ’06, and the money will be used to fund a Global Playground Teaching Fellowship for a William & Mary student.

“Global Playground is trying a challenge grant, if you raise five thousand they will donate five thousand,” De Sena said. “There are a couple of organizations on campus working on raising five thousand dollars, and Drew [Stelljes, Director of the Office of Community Engagement and Scholarship] asked APO individually if we could raise one thousand.”

The event raised about $300.

“It was a silly event but I think it was so different from anything else that that is why it was successful,” De Sena said.

APO Philanthropy committee member Sarah Klotz first learned about Global Playground in her Leadership and Community Engagement class. She helped orchestrate the event.

“If we could secure a spot for a William & Mary student that would be incredible, especially because Doug graduated from William & Mary and started [GP] with people from William & Mary, so it would be really nice to continue that connection,” Klotz said.

In addition to the A-Pie-O fall philanthropy, De Sena and other students on campus are planning a spring farmer’s market philanthropy event. They will work with students and the Williamsburg community to create a farmer’s market fundraiser with proceeds going to Global Playground.

“We think we can generate a lot of money from the farmers market, if we can use it as a way of bridging the gap between the community and the campus,” De Sena said. “We are hoping to have performers from campus to show what our campus has to offer to the community.”

Global Playground Intern Taylor Nelson and Beta Theta Pi Vice President Nick Hampson are also helping De Sena to coordinate the event.

“Right now we have been having meetings with Colonial Williamsburg and the Merchant’s Association to get that ready for the spring,” De Sena said.

Global Playground launches fundraising for Vietnam

2011-11-17T14:19:00.000-05:00

Global Playground launched fundraising efforts for the upcoming Vietnam project on Nov. 7 with a kick-off event at the College of William & Mary hosted by Professor of Hispanic Studies George Greenia and Tom Wood.

In one evening, with a mix of faculty, administrators, Williamsburg community members, undergraduate and law students in attendance, Global Playground raised $8,168. The event was sponsored by Vinson & Elkins LLP, a law firm in Washington D.C., who donated $5,000.

“We had about 45 people there, which was excellent,” Greenia said. “It really shows how people rise to a level of personal commitment.”

The fundraiser emerged from a conversation between Global Playground Chairman Doug Bunch and Greenia in D.C. in September.

“Doug did most of the organizing, things came together very quickly,” Greenia said. “We realized between Doug and I when we built our complimentary list that there were scores of people involved with Global Playground in Williamsburg.”

President of the College of William & Mary Taylor Reveley, former Vice President for Student Affairs Sam Sadler, Student Assembly President Kaveh Sadeghian, and many other notable members of the campus community attended the event. Both Bunch and Domestic Fellow Ryan Drysdale visited Williamsburg for the fundraiser.

“It was one of the first opportunities I had had for the students to interact around a cause not only with other students, but with other professors, other administrators, and with other members of the community,” Sadeghian said. “It was a novel way for students and members of the community to engage with a cause relative to the way that we have typically done this on campus.”

Greenia agreed that it gave students a chance to learn in a different way.

“Its extremely valuable for undergrad and grad students to see how these things happen and how they are run so when it is their turn they see how to step in,” Greenia said. “You learn to be comfortable in that situation and know that it is okay to ask for money. You see what inspires the generosity of others.”

Greenia noted the recent success of Global Playground as an aspiring message to people and students on campus who hope to start successful projects of their own.

“I have been here for thirty years, and I have seen a number of student initiatives that emerged with great expectations and great commitment, but sort of folded when people graduated and moved on,” Greenia said. “This is a rare instance where it has only grown since it has been out of college.”

Reveley was also impressed with Global Playground’s growth.

“Global Playground’s recent efforts in Vietnam seem to be off to a very promising start,” Reveley said. “This project has the potential to do an enormous amount of good. It comes as no surprise, in light of Global Playground’s splendid track record, that its recent fundraiser in Williamsburg went extremely well.”

The guests in attendance at the event spoke to the wide range of people that are attracted to Global Playground on this campus and in the overall community.

“It was created by William and Mary students and continues to attract the interest of a broad spectrum within our undergraduate and graduate communities, from classical studies, to government, to religious studies, to modern languages, to the law school; it has earned the active support of an astonishingly large number of faculty and administrators as well,” Greenia said.

Although this was Greenia’s first direct involvement with Global Playground, he admires the organization.

“Their reach is truly global, which means it retains its flexibility and responsiveness to specific local situations without becoming engrossed in a single social or political situation,” Greenia said. “The mission focus is savvy and tight: education and children, period.”

Global Playground begins fundraising for Vietnam project

2011-11-01T09:06:00.002-05:00

Global Playground has launched fundraising efforts for the latest project in Vietnam. With the help of Global Community Service Foundation, Global Playground plans to build a four-room primary school in the central mountain village Khe Sanh in Quang Tri province, Vietnam.

The school will provide a safe learning environment for 140 students in grades 1 through 5 with a total of eight teachers, but the school is expected to grow. Currently, the students who will benefit from the new school study in two shifts in a day on a flood-prone area at the edge of an erosive riverbank with crumbling walls and broken furniture.

“They have to study in a flood-vulnerable down-graded 2-room school,” Central Vietnam Representative for Global Community Service Foundation Tam Xuan Nguyen said. “They are studying in an unstable mood as the school is quite weak now and the yard is muddy from the flood. Some kids have dropped school for a while because of these factors.”

Nguyen, currently stationed in Dong Ha, Vietnam, works for GCSF. GCSF is an NGO incorporated in both the United States and Vietnam that works to alleviate poverty in Southeast Asia by establishing sustainable, community-based projects “focusing on improving access to health care, education, and income-generation activities,” according to their mission statement. Tam sees the benefits this school can provide for the community every day.

“The new school will help to decrease illiteracy rate for the local children in ethnic minority areas by encouraging more young children to attend school. Their parents will feel comfortable sending their children to a better school like that,” Nguyen said. “The school will be a pride for the local people.”

While Vietnam does have a literacy rate of 90 percent among boys and girls, the ethnic minority groups that live in more isolated parts of the country suffer from educational inequality. The main problems these ethnic groups face include annual flooding that causes the schools to close, widespread poverty, unexploded landmines from the Vientam War, and the remnants of Agent Orange which causes a host of health problems.

This school aims to help the Pako and Van Kieu ethnic groups.

“It will help decrease the rate of school dropout among students. More children will complete the primary education and have better chance to enter into middle school education and high school education,” Nguyen said. “This will bring a brighter future for the little village because the younger generation will have higher education than their parents.”

The new school will consist of four classrooms, a toilet, 72 desks and chairs at a total cost of $46,368. The community plans to contribute materials and land for the construction of the school, but fundraising in the United States will be a major component to the success of the project.

“We chose this school to help because it includes all of the factors such as ethnic minority, education, life quality, rural areas, and disaster vulnerability,” Nguyen said. “The school will not only bring better schooling conditions to the ethnic minority children but also provide safer place for education and cultural nurturing, and equality in sex and education opportunity.”

Fundraising for the project is currently underway. Global Playground will hold a fundraising and awareness event at the College of William and Mary on November 7.

“This will be the fifth project in Global Playground’s five-year history, and it will extend the network of Global Playground to another needy part of the world,” Global Playground Executive Director Edward Branagan said. “This project will present another opportunity for a future Fellow to engage the students in Vietnam in cross-cultural dialogue with other children in the world.”

Global Playground Featured in Building Tomorrow Blog

2011-10-19T23:58:00.000-05:00

Global Playground was mentioned in a recent blogpost from Building Tomorrow with an update on two children studying at one of the schools supported by Global Playground in Buwasa, Uganda.

Click here to read the post.

Six countries, six languages, 1000 kids and counting: one Virtual Playground brings them all together to learn, play, laugh, and grow.

2011-10-13T21:50:00.013-05:00

Instead of only seeing each other in magazines, Global Playground’s Virtual Playground allows kids around the world to share their lives with each other directly. To support the ongoing development of its Virtual Playground and cross-cultural initiatives, Global Playground this month submitted an application to the Ashoka Changemakers / Google joint Citizen Media competition in global innovation. Global Playground believes this is an excellent opportunity to share its greater vision and plan for development of the Virtual Playground. Having already reached many milestones in the pursuit of this important goal, including the recently launched Moment of the Week and the Teaching Fellows blogs, the Ashoka Changemakers competition provides an opportunity to take the Virtual Playground to the next level.

The Virtual Playground holds to a single vision: to give children around the world a place to learn, play, and work together through online games, lessons, and activities, cultivating relationships that will help forge a more united planet. The Virtual Playground will serve children from 6-18 years old who live in different countries, speak many languages, and emerge from vastly different cultures. Some students have grown up with access to technology, others have not. Some have extensive experience in a school, others are attending a school for the first time. For children in resource-poor countries, the opportunity to acquire computer skills, to become familiar with information technology and social media, and to interact, teach, and learn from other children with similar concerns and solutions is critical to granting them access to a world of ideas, people, and education. For youth who already have greater access to technology, the Virtual Playground provides an opportunity to gain cultural awareness, broaden global perspectives, and demonstrate the similarities in children across the planet, thereby engendering a vital and rarely afforded paradigm shift in their world view, one that can help foster cooperation, learning, and support across borders, languages, and societies.

The model offered by the Virtual Playground replaces passive absorption of sometimes irrelevant information and creates a rich, immediate, and direct cultural exchange among youth globally. Current efforts to increase cultural awareness and connect children with the world around them are limited to the distribution of magazines, the discussion of books and pictures, and the viewing of random websites. The Virtual Playground places interaction, learning, play, and connection directly into the hands of children around the world. Instead of passively looking at pictures, students capture images in their home neighborhoods and share them with each other. Instead of reading about foods, behaviors, and customs, children in these countries can cook together, describe their day’s activities to each other, and even play a virtual game of soccer. Children in Honduras will solve algebra problems with children in Cambodia. Children in Uganda will make art and write stories with children in the United States. Through the Virtual Playground, children will transcend the current paradigm of passive recipients of facts and images in favor of actively using information technology and social and digital media to interact with each other, learn together, and co-create.

With sufficient funding, Global Playground anticipates full connectivity to the Virtual Playground at all Global Playground schools by year-end 2013 and active participation at all Global Playground schools, including those in our expanding network, within five years.

You can view Global Playground’s Ashoka Changemakers / Google Citizen Media competition entry here.

Global Playground's New Teaching Fellows

2011-07-05T18:42:00.002-05:00

Global Playground has selected two new teaching Fellows for the upcoming school year: Hana
Livingston and Adam Levin. Hana will replace Ryan Drysdale, who is finishing up his yearlong
teaching fellowship at Huay Puung Mai School in Thailand where Global Playground unveiled a library in early 2009 and made a contribution of technology during spring 2010. As for Adam, he will be the first Global Playground teaching Fellow at a technology center in El Progresso, Honduras that Global Playground constructed in partnership with Students Helping Honduras in 2010. Both will spend a year living abroad and advancing Global Playground’s mission.
Upon graduating in May from Loyola University Chicago with a B.A. in International Studies and minors in English, French, and Asian studies, Hana was inspired to apply for a Global Playground fellowship due to her interest in education and international development.
“Connecting children in developing countries to those in developed countries through education is an incredible way to foster tolerance, empathy, and the ability to see things from another, unfamiliar perspective. I believe that empowering our children through education is the key to creating a better world,” said Hana, who has worked as an educator in both the United States and China.
After graduating from The College of William & Mary in May with a major in International Relations and a minor in Hispanic Studies, Adam saw a Global Playground fellowship as an opportunity to combine all of his interests. Due to his experiences in Argentina, where he was involved with human rights issues related to Argentina's most recent dictatorship, and in Central America, where he worked for Habitat for Humanity, he sees education as a way to give people a voice. In particular, Adam believes that "access to education and the opportunity to connect with youth from all over the world will allow Honduran youth to develop their own voices, which will ultimately give them the skill-set to do whatever it is they want to do."
One important part of their role as Fellows will be to help students in Thailand and Honduras connect electronically with students at Global Playground’s other project sites around the world and with students in the United States. Both Hana and Adam understand the importance of this cross-cultural dialogue and hope that it will promote a sense of tolerance, understanding, and curiosity within and among this global community of youth.

Board Members Smith and Bunch Honored with Inaugural Reveley Award

2011-05-20T18:24:00.001-05:00

Chairman Doug Bunch and Secretary Doug Smith are co-recipients of the Taylor Reveley Award from the William & Mary Law School Association. The Taylor Reveley Award is given to alumni for outstanding commitment to public service. Bunch and Smith have received the award for their work on behalf of Global Playground.

Read more...

Global Playground Celebrates Five Years of Creating Educational Opportunities in the Developing World

2011-05-13T14:12:00.004-05:00

Five years ago, Global Playground was just a dream – a dream that one day, kids from all over the world could play on a virtual playground where they would be free to be kids. A dream that schools could be places where kids would be free to explore their curiosity and engage their peers halfway across the world in cross-cultural dialogue. Five years later, that dream has become a reality.

Since its inception in May 2006, Global Playground has provided educational opportunities to over twelve hundred children in four countries. The organization’s projects have spanned the continents of Africa, Asia and South America, making possible the education of children in developing countries and promoting the importance of cross-cultural exchange.

As its first project, Global Playground partnered with Building Tomorrow, a non-profit organization with experience building schools in Uganda. Together, the two organizations built an eight-room primary school that accommodates approximately 325 children in the greater Kampala region of Uganda. The school gives students the opportunity to advance to a grade level of P7 (about 7th grade) in a part of Africa where the average child only has about 3.5 total years of schooling.

Global Playground’s second project was a middle school in Cambodia. Working with American
Assistance for Cambodia, and with matching funds from the Asian Development Bank, Global
Playground built a five-room school in Cambodia’s Kandal province. Since its opening, the Cambodian Ministry of Education has maintained the school, empowering the local community in which Global Playground operates.

In January 2009, Global Playground moved quickly, and completed the construction of a library in
Northern Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province in only seven weeks. After raising the funds needed to
build the library, Global Playground then enlisted the help of the Samsara Foundation, a non-profit organization whose efforts are focused on education in the region, to construct the library. Today, Global Playground’s first Teaching Fellow, Ryan Drysdale, is living and working at the school on a one-year assignment to further the educational opportunities of the school’s students and connect the students with schools here in the United States. You can follow Ryan’s blog on Global Playground’s
website to learn more about his experiences.

Global Playground’s most recent undertaking was completed last spring in Honduras in the small
community of Villa Soleada, near the city of El Progreso. More than 200 children benefit from GP’s new technology center, which houses five new computers, educational software, broadband internet and a full-time tech instructor. Students in Villa Soleada are using the center to engage in cross-cultural dialogue with students in New York, Connecticut, and other parts of the U.S. and with students at GP’s other project sites around the world.

In addition to building schools, libraries and technology centers, Global Playground recently launched its Virtual Playground, an internet tool that enables students from all of GP’s sites to interact with each other and with students in the U.S. “We don’t just want to build schools. We want to connect children with children,” said Edward Branagan, Global Playground’s Executive Director, in a recent interview. Virtual Playground enables this connection through blogs, Skype, and photo and video sharing via an online platform. Teachers in the U.S. are strongly encouraged to explore GP’s Virtual Playground to discover for themselves how their students can interact with other students in developing countries. More information and a Teacher Toolkit (PDF) can be found on Global Playground’s website.

Global Playground is proud of the organization’s first five years of bringing educational opportunities to the developing world, and looks forward to growing and taking on new projects. This month, Ryan, Edward, and Global Playground board members Doug Bunch and Doug Smith are in Southeast Asia, checking in on the projects currently in place as well as investigating new project sites. Global Playground is always looking for volunteers, donors, teachers and schools, and partner organizations interested in helping the organization accomplish its mission to raise awareness and share resources with people of the developing world to create educational opportunities where they do not exist. If you have an interest in becoming involved, please visit Global Playground’s website or contact Global Playground at info@theglobalplayground.org.

GP Launches Virtual Playground

2011-03-21T17:21:00.007-05:00

Joy George is an eighth-grade language arts teacher at Beverley Manor Middle School, which serves more than 800 students in rural Augusta County, Virginia. Through GP's new Virtual Playground, Mrs. George's students, as well as students in Connecticut and in Missouri, have gained the unprecedented ability to learn about other cultures through direct communication with other students half-a-world away.

So far Mrs. George's students have shared stories about their own lives with students at Global Playground's Huay Puung Mai School in Thailand. Since Global Playground's founding in 2006, its leadership has always had a vision that went beyond merely building schools in the developing world -- they envisioned a world, for example, where students in New York City and rural Uganda could share stories of their lives with each other. The Virtual Playground is Global Playground's newest initiative that utilizes Internet technology to allow for cross-cultural exchanges between students around the world.

Much of the early conversation on the Virtual Playground has centered on food. Mrs. George's students saw pictures of students at Huay Puung Mai preparing their own food and images of the types of food the Thai students eat. "The faces of the students as I showed them photos of raw water buffalo and how the students cooked their own food was hysterical. I wish I had a video camera!," commented Mrs. George.

Mrs. George's students responded to the Thai students, writing a description of their own surroundings, the subjects they study in school, and the foods they eat.

Mrs. George's students described how food is prepared for them, either by parents or cafeteria workers and delved into details about what is typically eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They also described "special occasions," such as summer carnivals and fairs in Augusta County where fried chicken and funnel cakes are served. Christmas in Augusta County consists of lasagna, macaroni and cheese, green beans, ham, and peanut butter pie.

"The students ask nearly every day if Thailand has responded and when we are going to post again," said Mrs. George. "The thing about kids is, they are so willing to be friends. I am not sure when that changes as we grow up, and how we very subtly allow prejudices to take over our lives," commented Mrs. George.

Any educators who would like to have their students participate in the Virtual Playground, please e-mail info@theglobalplayground.org.

Update on First GP Teaching Fellow

2011-03-16T08:28:00.009-05:00

Ryan Drysdale is Global Playground’s first Teaching Fellow, and has now served for five months at Huay Puung Mai School in Thailand, where Global Playground opened a library in early 2009 and contributed technology in 2010.

Reflecting on his experience teaching English, Ryan described one memorable interaction where he observed that a group of students was beginning to understand English better. He wrote, "While learning vegetables, the students would say 'I like eating carrots.' Compared to American students, they love every vegetable. They asked what I liked to eat, and I rattled off some basic foods. Then I slipped in 'I like eating students.' The look of terror on their face was priceless and the pride I felt for the students understanding English was refreshing. After relishing in those feelings, I explained I was joking. It was another day or two before those specific students would come near me."

Summer vacation for students at Huay Puung Mai will begin shortly. During the two-month hiatus, Ryan will meet with Books for Thailand, an organization providing free books to local schools that are in need of more books. He will also join a Global Playground delegation that will be visiting Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam to explore new projects and to check on existing ones.

Ryan worked hard with his fellow teachers and students to attain "Dream School" status from the government under Thailand's "One District, One Dream School" initiative. Established in 2003, this initiative seeks to ensure that each of Thailand's districts has one high-quality school. Huay Puung Mai School was evaluated on factors that included infrastructure and subject-specific presentations; the conferring of this status will have major financial implications for the school.

Huay Puung Mai's latest accolade shows just how far it has come. Five years ago, this school's enrollment was a fraction of the 350 that it is today. The school had no high school, and no opportunities for boarding; today, about one-third of Huay Puung Mai's students board at the school. Students who previously did not have access to education now have the opportunity to attend high school and possibly even college.

While in Thailand, Ryan has actively blogged on GP's Web site and contributed to the Global Playground Twitter feed. Indeed, modern technology has revolutionized the very nature of such an overseas experience versus a generation ago. In his blog, Ryan writes of reading the world news on his iPod, which is only possible because Huay Puung Mai School is equipped with wireless Internet. This digital access, along with the cameras, Skype headsets, and webcam that have recently been purchased for the students at Huay Puung Mai School are the building blocks of GP's Virtual Playground. The students at Huay Puung Mai will be able to "play" electronically on the Virtual Playground with youth around the world.

Global Playground is currently seeking teaching fellows for a year of service in Honduras and Thailand.

Global Playground featured at "Active Citizens Conference"

2011-02-22T17:39:00.003-05:00

Global Playground participated in the William & Mary Active Citizens Conference, held on February 11 and 12 at The College of William & Mary's Mason School of Business.

Global Playground's Executive Director, Edward Branagan, and Chairman, Doug Bunch, helped facilitate the pre-conference workshop on "Starting a Non-Profit Organization" and gave a presentation entitled "What Can the Developing World Teach Us ?: Integrating Cross-Cultural Dialogue into U.S. Education."

Global Playground's goal at this conference was to raise awareness and to urge college students to active citizenship and involvement in the world. About two hundred students from several universities attended the conference .

During the presentation, Global Playground showed its student- photo exhibition, comprised of digital pictures taken by students in Cambodia, Honduras, and Thailand. "These pictures offer a glimpse into the lives of children in developing countries and reveal salient topics that can be discussed in U.S. classrooms," said Branagan. Such pictures can illustrate the values of a society, raise cultural awareness and curiosity among young children, and offer a "springboard" to delve into broader global issues such as the environment, health, poverty, and sanitation, added Branagan.

Chris Persels, a William & Mary student who attended the workshop commented that it offered "invaluable, actionable information needed to establish a non-profit corporation and institutionalize a vision for change."

Stonington High School Continues Support of Global Playground

2010-11-10T20:49:00.014-05:00

Stonington High School, located in southeastern Connecticut, continues its strong support of Global Playground. The school's Global Playground club, the first of its kind in the United States, recently netted $100 for Global Playground by selling "personalized" pumpkins to teachers and students.

The club's next fundraiser will involve the sale and delivery of candy-cane pencils, with personal notes attached, during the holiday season.

The club arose because teachers at the school decided to take advantage of the numerous opportunities to supplement their lesson plans through Global Playground's connections around the globe. Check out those opportunities here.

You may also read more about the club's activities and the dynamic group of students comprising it in our news archive.

First GP Fellow Lands in Thailand

2010-10-22T14:50:00.005-05:00

Ryan Drysdale, Global Playground's first fellow, has arrived in Thailand to begin his year of service. Ryan will be teaching at Huay Puung Mai School, where Global Playground unveiled a library in early 2009 and made a contribution of technology this spring.

Ryan is maintaining a blog and Tweeting to engage children here in the U.S. and at Global Playground's schools abroad in cross-cultural dialogue.

Global Playground Featured in Online Magazine

2010-10-20T18:32:00.007-05:00

Global Playground's mission, history, and vision have been highlighted in a feature by Sarah McCabe, a freelance contributor to the online magazine Suite101.com.

Click here to read Sarah's article!

Global Playground Fellow Launches Blog

2010-10-08T14:42:00.006-05:00

Global Playground's inaugural fellow, Ryan Drysdale, and Chairman, Doug Bunch, have departed for Haiti to visit sites for a possible Global Playground project.

Upon Ryan's return on October 11, he will finish preparations for his October 19 departure to Thailand.

Ryan has begun blogging at: fellow.theglobalplayground.org. Check it out for frequent updates, as a new chapter in Global Playground's history begins.

Stay Tuned!

2010-10-05T16:17:00.002-05:00

Chairman Doug Bunch and GP's first fellow, Ryan Drysdale, will be in Haiti this weekend scouting new project sites. Be sure to check back soon for updates.

Global Playground's First Teaching Fellow

2010-09-09T20:18:00.017-05:00

Global Playground's first fellow, Ryan Drysdale, has begun his year-long fellowship. Mr. Drysdale will depart for Thailand in mid-October to teach for one year at Huay Puung Mai School, where Global Playground unveiled a library in early 2009 and made a contribution of technology this spring.

In preparation for his fellowship, Mr. Drysdale and Global Playground's Chairman, Doug Bunch visited the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington on Sept. 9. Mr. Bunch and Mr. Drysdale met with Mr. Sek Wannamethee, Charge d'Affaires (and acting Ambassador), and Ms. Nuchjaree Klongsungsorn, First Secretary at the Embassy.

Upon graduating in May from the University of Iowa with a B.A. in International Studies, Mr. Drysdale was drawn to Global Playground because it "not only built schools and learning infrastructure, but connected these students to the world."

"I focused more on health, microfinance, and environmental sustainability in school. I wanted some exposure to education,” said Mr. Drysdale, who earned a minor in Political Science and certificate in Sustainability at Iowa.

Mr. Drysdale is currently being trained in Washington by Global Playground's leadership for his upcoming fellowship. He has begun to learn Thai and hopes to have a "firm foundation" in the language upon arrival.

An important part of his role will be to help students at Huay Puung Mai School connect electronically with students at Global Playground's projects in Cambodia and Uganda, as well as at the recently completed Project Honduras, to which Global Playground also plans to send a fellow this fall.

After completing his fellowship with Global Playground, Mr. Drysdale hopes to study international development at the graduate level.

Women's Professional Group "Networks" for GP

2010-08-07T12:11:00.007-05:00

City Girls World is a networking organization comprised of young professional women living and working in the Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. areas. On July 28, this group hosted a happy hour, attended by about fifty people, at the BRABO restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia's "Old Town" district.

Global Playground's Event Planner, Kirsten Gilbert, explained: "City Girls World had been wanting to do a charity happy hour for some time and chose Global Playground to be the first organization they worked with." She added, "What is unique about this event is the majority of the planning was actually done by City Girls. Global Playground was almost more an honored guest."

The event's primary purpose was to introduce the City Girls World network to Global Playground. Prior to the event, Christie Mims, City Girls World's co-founder, posted an interview with Doug Bunch, Global Playground's Chairman, on her organization's blog, which is read by a large audience and also integrated with social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. During the interview, Mr. Bunch focused on key aspects of Global Playground's mission.

New Video Highlights Project Thailand

2010-08-07T11:42:00.016-05:00

Global Playground's Web site now features a new video produced by Julie Rios Little, an independent filmmaker who graciously serves as Global Playground's Film Coordinator. The video focuses on Project Thailand, and is co-narrated by herself and Doug Bunch, Global Playground's Chairman.

The 80-second video captures the beauty, both human and natural, of life in northern Thailand, as well as the great educational need that exists in the region.

Ms. Rios Little, who also created the video on Project Cambodia, has previously produced work for Georgetown University, Medicare, UNESCO, UNICEF, USAID, and the U.S. Department of State. She saw volunteering for Global Playground as an opportunity to "keep connected to those kinds of causes," now that she is working in video production full-time and not always producing projects of this nature.

Personally, Ms. Rios Little has found working for Global Playground to be rewarding, as her own children love to see how she edits the videos. In the process she says, "they get to learn about other kids around the world and the types of educational resources these children have access to."

Project Honduras Launch!

2010-06-09T10:00:00.006-05:00

Global Playground's new technology center near El Progreso, Honduras opened on May 28th. It includes classroom space and a computer lab containing eight computers with Internet access, says Doug Bunch, Global Playground’s Chairman.

The technology center is part of a larger learning center that will be a central part of Villa Soleada, a community that is now home to about 45 families. The learning center is “probably the nicest facility in the whole community,” says Mr. Bunch. The prominence of this learning center fits with Global Playground’s goals. “Global Playground envisions its mission as being central to people’s lives in communities like this one,” explains Mr. Bunch.

Global Playground's technology center will serve not only the youth of Villa Soleada, but those of the nearby community of Las Brisas; more than 200 youth will immediately benefit from its presence. Its completion was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, with dancing, food, and singing. Members of the community spoke, as did Mr. Bunch, who elicited excitement from the youth in the crowd by announcing that they would soon be able to communicate with students at Global Playground’s other projects in Cambodia, Thailand, and Uganda. Local youth commemorated the occasion by planting a tree and erecting a plaque dedicating the technology center "to the children of El Progreso and their friends around the world."

In a matter of weeks, these youth will be able to communicate with students in the U.S., as well as students at Project Thailand who recently received five new computers from Global Playground. Students will be able to interact in real time, over the Internet, using Skype, a popular video- conferencing platform. These youth will be "put in touch with the rest of the world. It's an incredible opportunity," says Mr. Bunch.

Mr. Bunch travelled to Honduras for the opening ceremony accompanied by Jason Maga, a Global Playground volunteer, and was inspired by the "overwhelming response" to the new technology center. The ribbon-cutting event was even captured on local television. And in an especially auspicious show of support, an extremely rare circumhorizontal arc (more commonly known as a rainbow cloud) appeared directly above the learning center hours after it opened, marking the beginning of what Global Playground hopes will be a transforming learning experience for the children of El Progreso.

Global Playground Improving Students' Access to Technology Around the World

2010-06-09T09:00:00.002-05:00

Recently, Global Playground has contributed a total of 17 new computers to Project Cambodia, Project Honduras, and Project Thailand, all for student use. This represents a very important step toward Global Playground's goal of utilizing Internet technology to allow students across the globe to communicate and share information with each other.

These computers are another step toward truly building a "global playground," where students from Asia, Africa and Latin America use the Internet to communicate and build friendships with each other, as well as with students in the U.S. The recent arrival of new computers at Projects Cambodia and Thailand is timely, as Project Honduras opened on May 28th.

Global Playground's donation of computers has not only increased student access to new technology and learning opportunities; it has helped create an exciting and safe learning environment for students who previously did not have one. The Huay Puung Mai School in the Mae Hong Song province of northern Thailand, also known as Project Thailand, is but one example. Five of Project Thailand's computers were contributed to this school's library. Thai students immediately engaged with the new technology, as the school was already wired for Internet access. During June, students from Honduras and Thailand will begin to communicate with each other as well as with students in the U.S. as a result of this technology.

In addition to providing computers for Project Thailand, Global Playground also financed computer software; contributed books for the library; provided a backup generator to ensure a reliable source of electricity; and provided a more secure library door to improve secure access to the computers. Furthermore, a cement walkway was built to cut down on dust and prolong the life of the computers.

Global Playground has financed computers at these project sites to help foster intercultural communication and learning between students around the world. As Global Playground Chairman Doug Bunch explained, "we knew that putting project sites in touch with each other would be critical to fostering meaningful cross-cultural dialogue among children in those countries."

A Wonderful Evening Under the Stars

2010-06-09T08:06:00.010-05:00

On April 30, 2010, Global Playground hosted its fourth annual Gala, “An Evening Under the Stars.” The event, held at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, raised funds for Global Playground’s projects as well as awareness of how to improve children’s access to education around the world.

The fundraiser was highly successful, with over $4,000 donated for ongoing projects in Uganda, Cambodia, Thailand and Honduras, as well as future projects. Over 140 guests enjoyed drinks and appetizers as they met Board members, leaders of partner organizations and student volunteers such as Steven Dellibove, an Eagle Scout candidate who chose Global Playground as the main beneficiary of his Eagle Scout project. Participants also learned how to get involved with Global Playground and perused a photography exhibit displaying beautiful framed pictures of Global Playground's projects. A number of event participants purchased photographs, with all proceeds going toward future projects.

The highlight of the evening was a live video conference via Skype with children in El Progreso, Honduras who will benefit from Global Playground's new technology center. The students thanked Global Playground for improving their access to education. Through the live video conference, both event participants and the Honduran students learned first-hand how technology supported by Global Playground can facilitate exciting and educational cross-cultural exchange.

Every aspect of the event - from the beautiful venue to the abundant food - was provided through generous donations of friends and family of Global Playground. Global Playground especially thanks the Carnegie Endowment, William & Mary's DC Office, Naovarat Branagan, and Peroni for their support of the Gala. The event could not have succeeded without their generous and meaningful contributions.

Eagle Scout Leads a Donation Drive for Project Honduras

2010-04-29T18:29:00.010-05:00

A northern Virginia Eagle Scout candidate has chosen Global Playground’s Project Honduras as the beneficiary of his Eagle Scout Leadership Project.

The Boy Scouts of America’s highest honor is the rank of Eagle Scout. Eagle Scout candidate Steven Dellibove is a member of Troop 295, sponsored by Old Bridge United Methodist Church in Woodbridge, Virginia. A ninth grader at South County Secondary School in Lorton, Virginia, Mr. Dellibove has worked to help Global Playground raise funds and gather supplies for the construction of its technology center in El Progreso, Honduras.

The Eagle Scout Leadership Project is an opportunity for Eagle candidates to supervise the completion of a project, while fellow scouts perform the legwork. Mr. Dellibove explained, "Scouting is based on service, leadership and knowledge….This project was a great way to get away from the 'normal' Eagle project. Most people believe that an Eagle project should be building something. I wanted to be different." Primarily, this Eagle project entailed collecting school supplies to be sent to Honduras; however, some people were so moved by the scout's efforts they donated money for the purchase of supplies or made a donation through the Global Playground website.

Mr. Dellibove was connected to Global Playground through his eighth-grade English teacher, Mariaelena DiBenigno, who is now Global Playground's Director of Cross-Cultural Initiatives. Last year, Ms. DiBenigno's students worked on a "Books of Hope" project; these youth wrote books that were shared with students.

Projects like Mr. Dellibove's continue to inspire and support Global Playground's mission. Doug Bunch, Chairman of Global Playground, said "Steven is yet another example of people who are doing extraordinary things on behalf of Global Playground, and on behalf of children halfway around the world."