EIL Intercultural Learning

As I sit here, at home in Ireland, a smile begins to form across my face as I try to put to words what was one of the most enriching and enjoyable experiences of my life. It has now been just over a week since I, as part of the Irish delegation, arrived back to the Emerald Isle from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont where we, as five EIL travel award winners and our exemplary group leader Ruth, took part in the Governor’s Institute on Current Issues and Youth Activism camp along with 55 other Vermont high school students.

Our first glimpse of what our lives would be like in Vermont came when we were picked up in the airport by one of the staff members, Joe, he was intelligent and friendly and those two words are a brief summation of the type of people we met over the two weeks. After our hunger was cured at Village Pizza we drove up the forest lined road to the SIT campus. Excitement soon took over from jet-lag as we settled in our rooms and Melissa, another great staff member, gave us a walking tour of the charming New England style campus with breathtaking views over the surrounding verdurous countryside.

The next day the other participants arrived and soon the intense 12 days of activities began. We took part in a mock congress, a mock town council and a mock UN Security Council on the crises in Darfur and Zimbabwe. We also participated in various topical workshops, some of the ones I chose included workshops on networking, fundraising, human trafficking, public speaking, the water crisis and organisation skills.

A number of speakers came and spoke to us during the camp for instance Anna Mullany spoke to us about counter recruiting in US High Schools; Colin Robinson spoke to us about liveable wages in Vermont, as an activist he wanted to change minimum wages to liveable wages as people could not meet their needs with just a minimum wage. Greg Prince gave a lecture on how to challenge authority especially in the education system. This led to an interesting discussion on whether teachers should share their opinions on certain issues with students or merely present both sides of the argument. Jeff Unsicker gave a talk on trying to make Vermont nuclear free which he did in a balanced way. Students from C.L.E.A, a local student organisation against child labour gave a presentation. One of the most enlightening and lively presentations came from Mollie Christie who spoke about HIV/AIDS. We also benefitted from a talk on diversity and social change by Dottie Morris. Adam Weinberg, the SIT Provost spoke to us about politics and issues and the work of EIL. This talk was followed by Joan Mandle on democracy in which she illustrated the source of funding for political campaigns and she was an advocate for publically funded campaigns. Richard Berkfield and Liz Sheehan spoke about global and local food systems. Vermont Senators Peter Schmulin and Bernie Sanders also took the time to speak with us and it seemed that they cared about the opinions of the young which was heartening. Needless to say a great number of interesting speakers visited us and opened our eyes to many of the issues our generation faces.

Over the course of the camp many interesting and stimulating conversations were opened these included discussions on the health and education systems in America and we were able to compare European and Irish systems. We also discussed the impact and legacy of Michael Jackson, whether war is necessary, gender differences and whether we are overly influenced by what society deems appropriate for female behaviour or male behaviour, the US prison system, social inequality and life in a military family. These varied discussions broadened our knowledge and developed our capacity to articulate our opinions and at the same time listen to others share theirs in a safe environment

We all chose issue groups in which we would study our chosen issue in detail over the two weeks. There were five issue groups to choose from: climate change, politics, leadership, global children and social justice. I chose climate change as I am deeply passionate about this issue. In this group we discussed local, U.S and global dealings with this problem and how we as activists can try to change the way our communities are acting towards this issue. We also went on fieldtrips; we visited the Omega factory which employs an environmentally friendly policy. I was particularly impressed by the building which is made from locally sourced timber and by the manager of the company who told us that they dehumidify the air in the building and then use that water to flush the toilets. We also visited a local sawmills. Another occasion saw our group visit a local high school which was completely inspiring. The high school had solar panels and a small wind turbine on the roof of the school. They were also in the process of building a new gym which would be carbon neutral. The school was a boarding school and some senior students could apply to live in log cabins in the surrounding woodland on the school grounds. The students who lived in the cabins would have to get up at the crack of dawn to heat the fire to ensure that they had hot water for their showers. Some of their energy needs came from solar panels so they would have to study the weather forecast as they couldn’t waste too much energy playing music etc. if the weather would be overcast in the coming days. The school also had its own farm and students had to do some farm duties at some stage over the school year. The school was amazing and I was proud to see an Irish flag hanging in the cafeteria of the school along with other flags representing the international students in the school. In this issue group we also went on a nature walk and we created a simulation of the upcoming Copenhagen conference. It was a wonderful group to be a part of and I learned a great deal. Our teachers, John and Alan, were highly qualified and were always willing to share their knowledge and expertise and to listen to us.

One of the best aspects of this camp was that amid the knowledge fuelled serious discussions and workshops, there were many fun activities incorporated into the intense scheduling. We enjoyed various team building activities and wisdom trees. Wisdom trees were a chance to learn something new that wouldn’t normally fit into the camp schedule, we were given options each time and some of the wisdom trees included cricket, volleyball, food decoration, slum dog millionaire, early childhood development, the conflict tin Palestine, martial arts, hip hop and crop circles! Some of the evening activities also included a hand drumming workshop, a scavenger hunt, an improv and drama night, a barn dance, a dance night in which we learned the dancing of the Savoy theatre in New York in the 1930’s and a campfire. I loved them all especially the discovery of the joys of smores at the campfire. This smore-enduced joy led our group to a rousing rendition of the fields of Athenry, which somehow just sounds better on sporting occasions.

The forum theatre gave us all a chance to use our creative sides, we had a number of outlets we could choose from to do this in, and they included drama; photography; puppet theatre; community garden; music and fabric art. I chose to hone my acting skills and in this group we created a play which had a gameshow setting and was called ‘Are you Smarter than America?’. It was great fun and my Spanish was useful for my part as Mexico, Ruth also took advantage of her Russian.

One of the most memorable days was the 4th of July. It began with the reading of the declaration of Independence in Brattleboro and followed with us marching in the town parade. We waved our banners with pride while chanting and singing ‘1 we are the students 2 we’ll raise our voices 3 we’re here to fight for peace and justice’ and ‘show me what democracy looks like-this is what democracy looks like’. Ruth’s, Edith’s, Simone’s Varghese’s and my sign was unquestionably the least controversial among the other signs looking to stop the war in Iraq, promoting social justice and trying to get people to buy local, ours merely stated ‘Happy 4th of July from Ireland and India’. I particularly liked Laura’s sign saying ‘Ireland is not un the UK’ which was contrary to what some American participants previously believed. When the parade concluded we met Senator Peter Schmulin and then had lunch on the Town Common. When this was finished we went to local strawberry fields and picked strawberries which we ate at Townshend Dam in-between the time spent swimming and playing Frisbee. It was an idyllic setting which was perfectly complemented by ice-cream on the journey back to the campus. After dinner it was time to give our presentation. Each of us gave a ten minute presentation on different aspects of Ireland. I spoke about history while Edith spoke about culture-the Irish language, literature and sport- Connor spoke about Education, Ben spoke about politics and Laura spoke about Northern Ireland. We were very well received and our American counterparts were incredibly interested. We followed this by a céilí and it was great to see 60 Americans dancing the Walls of Limerick, they particularly enjoyed the lúscadh! After our presentation the day concluded with a spectacular display of fireworks in Brattleboro.

My experience at the Governor’s Institute could be described in any number of superlatives and I am so grateful to EIL for giving me this opportunity. It was life-changing and inspiring. Not once did we feel excluded and the participants and leaders embraced our differences and welcomed our international perspectives. It gave me new ways to look at issues, it broadened my intellectual appetite and I now want to learn as much as I can about how different societies operate, about politics and economics and how the problems of the world can be solved. I may sound overly idealistic but how can things improve without aiming to improve them? This camp inspired and empowered every one of the participants to make change. We discovered what we are passionate about and we were given the skills necessary to deal with these issues.

We all made lifelong friends in Vermont and we could have been employed by Bord Failte with the amount of invitations we gave to people to come and visit us in Ireland. We will all miss the cookies, volleyball with Varghese, Yoga with Jo and the games of Taboo in the basement of Bolton but most importantly we will miss the people and we will carry the experience of GIV with us as we become greater activists wherever the road takes us all in the future.

I would like to thank all of the staff at GIV, Ruth who was a great leader, the other four delegation members for being great fellow participants and especially to the EIL team- Fiona, Kevin and everyone else who was involved in making this such an unforgettable experience. I would encourage anyone reading this to apply for a travel award as I am certain it would be as beneficial to you as it was for me.

We can change the world!

Emily McCormack, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath.

Vermont Delegation 2009