With growing Middle Eastern, Muslim, and Arabic populations at Arundel High School, Barbara Dziedzic supervised the development of a district-wide conference to explore issues of identity, culture, and faith. Planned in collaboration between the Muslim Student Association and the International Student Service Office, the project allowed students to investigate the world, recognize perspectives, communicate ideas, and take action through collaboration with teachers, parents, peers, and community members.
Tackling tough issues, Barbara and her students are standing up as leaders and are compelling others to respect and respond to the needs of their community. In her recent blog post, “Muslim, Amercian, Idenity...and the power of imperfectly wonderful youth [6],” Barbara highlighted invaluable lessons learned at the conference including impact on the school, local, and regional levels through the engagement of authentic and courageous conversations. “The tragedy of course is, too often people avoid settings like this, afraid that it will reveal their ignorance and they will be judged for it. What we must realize is the first person who fails, laughs, and asks for a hand up, gives everyone else permission to do the same,” Barbara said.
The project was made possible through an alumni small grant award under the Teachers for Global Classrooms [7] Program of the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) [8], administered by IREX.