I recently visited the Village Deli on Kirkwood to hear about a nonprofit program called Books and Beyond that has teamed up with IU's Global Village Living-Learning Center. I had heard of the Global Village but didn't really know much about it or where it was. Since I also live in a Living-Learning Center, I was kind of curious.
Well, Google led me to some enlightening information about the LLC. Like Collins, it is a small community that requires its members to apply, pay a $100 activities fee, and take the Q199 introduction to residence life class. Its members also organize what are called "Village events," not too unlike the event programming that happens at Collins. The main difference, it seems, is that the Global Village is aimed toward people who study international relations or languages, and who are planning to study abroad.
Frankly, I had never heard of Books and Beyond, but I knew it had something to do with volunteering internationally. Having been a part of a volunteer trip in Costa Rica with Collins the past two years, talk of other international programs like these always pique my interest a little bit. So, I Googled that too, and found some helpful information. Students in the Global Village work with high school students at Newark Collegiate Academy, a TEAM charter school in New Jersey. The school's goal, along with other TEAM schools, is to have all of their students, all of whom are either African American or Hispanic, go to college. These two groups work together to produce and publish children's books, which are sent to students in Rwanda as models for them to create their own books. These books are sent back and sold in the United States, and the profits then go back to Rwanda.
All of the collaborative steps involved in this project seems to be geared toward improving kids' lives all across the board. How cool! The people I met at the meeting, including the students from Newark Collegiate Academy, all seemed to be friends, and very enthusiastic about the program.
I apologize for the information overload, but I had to share my findings! For more information about either the Global Village at IU or about Books and Beyond, check out these websites:
rps.indiana.edu/llprograms.cfml
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