Kianna Rodriguez Morvai recently participated in the Global Experts Speaker Series offered at Ecole Alpha Secondary School – the four sessions hosting real-world UN officials boosted awareness of current global issues and the 70^th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. Kianna learned directly from the Director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, facilitated a session with a former Director of peacekeeping missions in Africa and the Middle East, and interacted with one of Canada’s top lawyers who lead the creation of a high level UN Task Force report on climate change.

These three ‘Lunch-and-Learn’ style sessions available to all students sparked her interest. So when she missed one of the sessions with a World Food Programme (WFP) representative, Kianna was disappointed. She wants to be a journalist. What she did next was request a special meeting with the speaker, and then after some research and question preparation, a supplemental conversation was set up between Kianna, her friend Kiara who joined in for moral support, and this experienced official of WFP.

The special meeting by Skype took place over lunchtime. Ms. Julie Marshall was extremely gracious to give up a half hour of her time to connect. All went well, with the students handling the interaction like professionals.

The interaction is a clear example of what’s possible. Global learning has its own unique options available to facilitate the in-depth, real-world, complex learning that we desire our youthful generations to experience and internalize nowadays. This valuable conversation, essentially a mentorship, is one of these ways that technology and dedicated educators can ensure students move forward in their capabilities, towards the skill or understandings they, with their parents, have planned out.

The 21^st Century has promised us the world in education. Teachers have their pick of methodologies to use according to the learning styles of their students, and a host of technologies to facilitate content, collaboration and creativity. The world is literally at our fingertips, and so it has become paramount to ensure that learning of a global nature is facilitated. The Burnaby School District has committed to offering students the opportunity to explore global learning.