On Saturday, March 4 the Area Studies Centers at The Ohio State University concluded their sixth year of organizing the K-12 Global Fellowship Program. The Global Fellowship Program first started during the 2017-18 academic year with the goal of connecting teachers from across the state of Ohio in a series of discussion group sessions that focus on contemporary issues from a global perspective. Since 2020, this program has continued to be held virtually and has allowed the centers to reach more educators and students across the United States.

The theme for the 2022-23 program focused on “Global Youth Culture and Subcultures" and included regional sessions led by guest experts that focused on multi-disciplinary approaches to this year's theme. Regional topics included punk rock and politics in the former USSR and Yugoslavia, film and youth activism in Latin America, the global reach of K-pop and the subculture surrounding it, and the role of pop music in youth movements and resistance in Iran. In addition to attending the four regional topic sessions, the cohort was also given materials to read and prepare in advance of each session. To finish off the year, the cohort ended with a pedagogy session, during which they brainstormed about how to integrate the program topic into their own curriculum, teach and discuss complex topics in the classroom, and how to help students find reliable sources so that they can build strong, fact-based arguments.

The centers welcomed thirty-five educators from fourteen different states into this year's program. Their teaching covered a wide range of grade levels and disciplines including ESL, ELA, graphic design, history, mathematics, philosophy, Spanish, sociology, and more. For successfully completing the program, the participating teachers were given text, videos, and other resources and 1.65 Continuing Education Units (CEUs). The centers would also like to thank our guest experts Matthew Boyd (Ohio State U.), Mehrak Kamali (Ohio State U.), Pil Ho Kim (Ohio State U.), Laura Podalsky (Ohio State U.), Pooyan Moghaddassi, and Daniel Redman (Ohio State U.) for leading this year's sessions and discussions.

More information on the 2023-24 program and application will be released late April, 2023. For more information, please visit the Global Fellowship Program page on our website or email CSEEES' outreach coordinator, Alicia Baca (baca.31@osu.edu).