GCP Influences Launch of New Global Citizenship Institute at Partner School

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Aug 28, 2014
by Tanya Yilmaz
GCP Influences Launch of New Global Citizenship Institute at Partner School

Success after partner institution launches its own Global Citizenship Institute aimed at high school level

Global Citizenship Institute at St. Marks School

To paraphrase a quote by Anatole France: ‘When a thing has been done and done well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.’ This tongue-in-cheek dictum was the precept of an exciting joint venture between St. Mark’s School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and the Global Citizenship Program (GCP)* at Salzburg Global Seminar culminating in the launch of a new program, the Global Citizenship Institute at St. Mark’s which is intentionally modeled after the GCP.

St. Mark’s School became a partner institution of the GCP in 2011 and at the time was the first high school to send teachers to this program which usually is for higher education institutions only. Soon the idea was born that St. Mark’s would emulate the program by adopting and adapting it for the high school sector. The actual planning process took more than a year and involved a small team of champions from St. Mark’s as well as GCP staff in a consulting capacity. This work was generously sponsored by Bruce Wilson, a St. Mark’s board member and close friend of Salzburg Global who firmly believed in the potential of this joint endeavor and in the need to teach the lessons of global citizenship at high school level.  

The great moment came in early July when 33 students and 8 teachers from both private and public high schools based in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California, the UK, and Australia convened at the St. Mark’s campus for the inaugural Global Citizenship Institute. The GCI was led by St. Mark’s School faculty – all of whom are GCP alumni. Building on their experience in Salzburg, they have a similar understanding with regard to the defining ideas of global citizenship and how to make it tangible in the classroom. This spring, Laura Appell-Warren, Director of the GCI, participated in one of the GCP student sessions which gave her some further insights in terms of engaging youngsters in envisioning borderless citizenship.    

From the Salzburg Global side Astrid Schroeder, GCP Program Director, and Adam Beeson, former Salzburg Global staff member and now teaching at a high school, attended the week-long meeting in Southborough offering presentations and providing advice when needed. Peter and Hedy Rose, both long term GCP faculty, came as guest faculty. Two GCP student alumni, Kanza Naqvi (San José State University) and Jeremiah Lindgren (Kingsborough Community College) served as interns.

A beginning has been made and indeed a very successful one with plans for a second edition of the Global Citizenship Institute next summer already in the making. And what is more, the precept of ‘take it and copy it’ has worked and the GCP can now proudly call itself an incubator of global citizenship education also at high schools.  


*Since its own launch in 2004, the GCP at Salzburg Global has gained a significant subject expertise on global citizenship working with partner institutions to bring students, faculty, and administrators to Schloss Leopoldskron. The main goal of the Program is to initiate institutional change by forming long-term relations with these partners. It is designed to help build a critical mass of change agents on campus who introduce notions of global citizenship to the classroom and in fact into every aspect of campus life.