Project: Change is back for 2019-20! The Project: Change scholarship is one of the best tools AFS has to prompt a solid discussion with teachers and administrators. There are a few changes/updates to note for this year which are described in detail below:

For Educators

Like last year, the Project: Change scholarship opportunity has an accompanying lesson plan that can be shared with educators, BUT, the lesson plan now has content-specific lesson ideas so teachers can engage their students in this project for a full unit of study rather than just a 1-2 day lesson (although that is still an option too). With those new and more in-depth lesson ideas, we have engaged in a partnership with iEARN to allow teachers to teach this unit COLLABORATIVELY with classrooms around the world as a virtual exchange too…FOR FREE! iEARN has created a process for educators who want to engage their students in the virtual exchange portion of Project: Change can have a free temporary membership to iEARN’s Collaboration Centre to learn how to engage their students in virtual exchange projects. The full lesson plan document with all accompanying handouts are all accessible by one click on the new website.

Also, we have put together a one-page handout specifically designed for educators and students. To that end, if you will be at any sort of event with or at a school (club fair, underclassmen college fair, etc…), you can print these documents and put them directly in the hands of the person who can engage with Project: Change.

If educators would like to have ideas like Project: Change delivered directly to their inboxes, the Educator Inquiry form was just updated. The newsletter will come out about 3-4 times per year, so the teachers are not committing to something that will overrun their inboxes if they sign up using that online form. Please reach out to your personal network of educators and introduce them to the educators@afsusa.org email address and the new inquiry form so they can truly become part of our network.

Project: Change General Updates

1. No voting on projects to determine finalists. Instead, all essays will be reviewed by judges to determine finalists. Finalists will need to complete a full study abroad application to be considered for the award. Why? Voting is time and cost-intensive, and it has not driven significant traffic to other programs. Our marketing strategy here focuses less on wide-spread network effects of voting (which, again, have not shown to drive applications to Global Prep) and more on getting educators to use and promote P:C.
2. Only 1 full scholarship for the chosen Global Prep program to the best applicant (merit based on project proposal essay). 2 runners-up will get $2,000 partial scholarships for Global Prep. Partial scholarship winners can combine with all other funding except Faces of America. Why fewer scholarships? It frees up some of our budget to have other marketing-driven scholarships.
3. Returnees are ineligible. Why? We still want to broaden our reach, bringing new, qualified leads in the door and creating new student/alumni advocates by funding their trip.
4. We will have a pre-departure webinar on change-making, led by ICL and the program’s Group Leader. We will not make specific promises about what happens on program. Generally, we will say that the winner will learn about principles and practices of responsible, sustainable international development and change-making, and learn more about the Global Goal(s) in country.

Please contact marketing@afsusa.org with any questions. Thank you!