Moorestown Friends School recently launched a Global Certificate program, a new and innovative way for students with a deep interest in and curiosity about global issues to pursue a custom pathway through the Upper School experience.
This unique credentialing program, the first of its kind in South Jersey, offers global scholars an interdisciplinary approach to considering global issues, engaging with the global community and reflecting on their role in an interconnected world.
“If you are learning about topics that pique your interest or you see a challenge happening in the world that you want to be engaged with and help find a solution to, your voice matters as a young person,” said Julia de la Torre, head of school at Moorestown Friends.
“Our hope is that as you graduate from a program like (this), you enter college much more primed and ready to go deep on these issues from your freshman year.”
By encouraging inquiry-based learning both in and out of the classroom, students commit to curricular service and extra-curricular experiences through the Global Certificate program that deepen their understanding of the world and the active role they play in contributing to the global community.
Tenth-grade students are eligible to apply, and participants will complete nearly three years of globally connected course work, service hours, travel and co-curricular activities. Targeted faculty advising will happen throughout a student’s experience in the program and they will be among learners who will see themselves as global citizens.
The program culminates in a comprehensive academic portfolio and presentation in the student’s senior year and is a tangible result of a strategic plan that emphasizes the importance of connecting the institution’s Quaker values and beliefs to the world. It was officially approved by the school committee in May 2022, following more than three years of planning and an interruption due to COVID.
A few years ago, Moorestown Friends introduced a Lower School language program, while Middle and Upper School students have access to intensive learning for one week each March so students and teachers can engage in an in-depth study of a specific subject, often involving off-campus research.
That long-standing tradition dates back to the mid-1970s and allows teachers and students to break out of the structure of formal class periods and traditional study for a time of experiential learning.
Two years ago, 13 Upper School students and three faculty members explored Switzerland and Germany at a three-day global leadership summit in Berlin dubbed “Creating a Sustainable Future.” Intensive learning students traveled to the Dominican Republic two years ago to perform community service, and last year, de la Torre led a group of students to Patagonia, a region in South America shared by both Argentina and Chile.
Next summer, MFS students will travel to Ecuador and Costa Rica for an environmental conference.
“For me, watching kids become a different version of themselves in a global context is really exciting,” de la Torre noted. “They develop a confidence that might look really different than it does at school. They form friendships with kids who are not necessarily a part of their social circle. They feel comfortable approaching people who they don’t even share a common language with …
“Sometimes we think that our way of doing things is the only way or the best way, and being able to learn about other ways that other cultures have approached similar challenges and the kind of innovative solutions that they’ve come up with rooted in their own culture, is something that is powerful for a young person who is learning about the world.”
To learn more about the Global Certificate program or for more on the Friends School strategic plan, visit www.mfriends.org/global-certificate/.
