Two weeks before the United States military launched its "shock-and-awe" strike on Baghdad, high school students in Bloomfield, Connecticut, went to their international studies class where, thanks to the work of the New York City-based nonprofit organization Global Nomads Group (GNG), these students were about to get the most memorable social studies lesson of their lives. Teachers turned on the television and began an hour-long live videoconference with Iraqi teens at a Baghdad high school

Some of the U.S. students’ family members had already been deployed to the Middle East for the impending conflict, and many of the Iraqi students believed the U.S. government was pining after their country’s oil reserves. But when the students began communicating, says GNG co-founder Christopher Plutte, "they realized they had so much in common. They all played soccer, and they all listened to Eminem. They had this common bond beyond the political or cultural differences. At the root of it all, they were just kids and for just a moment, they turned off the TV, closed the book, and went directly to the source."

At the end of the hour, Stacy, a 15-year-old from Bloomfield said, "here in the U.S. it’s kind of sad we don't get a good perception of the Iraqi people. We see the politics of it, not the actual people living their day to day routine." And Sari, a 16-year-old Iraqi girl, came to a similar conclusion: "The media has the biggest role in making false ideas about people. I don't like riding camels and you don't look like cowboys."

Founded in 1998 by four college friends, GNG uses videoconferencing technology to promote cross-cultural dialogue and understanding among the world’s youth. Plutte, 30, who grew up in California, says his own high school experience taught him little about the world beyond his home. "I left high school thinking that Africa was a country, not a continent with 53 independent countries," he says.

He also notes that American youth scored second to last among nine countries in the National Geographic Society’s Global Geographic Literacy Survey. "There is a gap in American education that needs to be filled."

That’s why the four friends decided to bankroll GNG off of their American Express cards, working part-time jobs to pay them off. Now, eight years later, GNG is receiving support from public figures such as Jimmy Carter, and their new spokesperson, actor Michael Douglas.

"It all comes down to a chance to make a difference."

With that to guide them, the group chooses its broadcast destinations based on their relevance to key global issues. Their newest program, Currents, tackled the AIDS epidemic worldwide. Taped during the fall of 2005 in a partnership with Semester at Sea, Currents followed U.S. college students as they traveled by ship to countries as diverse as Venezuela and Vietnam to witness the effects of HIV and AIDS on young people.

"Within the time frame of just one semester you can really look at a subject on a global scale," Plutte says of the high school students who were connected to U.S. schools via videoconference from each of the ship’s nine stops. "Students here were able to learn the unique stigmas in each country. For instance, in South America If you walk in to get an AIDS test, you’re branded as a homosexual. In South Africa, it’s generally accepted that anybody can get HIV, but only the poor people develop AIDS because the wealthy people can buy their own meds. Then you go into India, where the number of AIDS patients is going to surpass Africa in the next ten years, and you have students who have had no sex education courses."

Past programs have not been any more timid in their focus, and include bringing together Christian, Muslim, and Jewish students to discuss their diverse holiday traditions; allowing American, Australian, Indian, and Pakistani students to meet to propose solutions to terrorism after 9/11; and sharing the stories of teenage genocide survivors in Rwanda.

"When we spent time with genocide survivors in Rwanda, kids in rural areas like Kansas, Texas, and Ohio wanted to raise money for the orphans." Some created programs to help their new Rwandan friends, such as "Wear-Your-Hat-to-School Day" - a program where students could wear their hat in class (usually a no-no) as long as they donated a dollar to the project.

But Plutte is the first to admit that GNG has, at times, encountered some resistance at the schools, especially in response to the HIV/AIDS and Iraq broadcasts. "Many administrators where reluctant to have their students talk about how to protect oneself from contracting HIV," he says. "And with Iraq, a few people questioned why we would connect our American youth with the ‘enemy.’" But still, there is more positive feedback than negative —— especially from progressive educators who want to provide a platform for their students to discover the world."

Perhaps one of the most powerful moments for GNG was the follow-up broadcast with the students in Baghdad, six weeks after the war in Iraq began. Despite the obvious danger, a GNG crew flew to Amman, Jordan, and traveled by car to Baghdad. "We felt that we had to go back and make sure these students were fine and allow this communication to continue," says Plutte. The Baghdad school wasn’t in session, but GNG located about a dozen students from the last videoconference and gathered them on the roof of a private home for the broadcast. As the students in Bloomfield looked on, they could see buildings smoldering in the background. "There was this sense of relief that everyone from the first broadcast had survived the war," says Plutte. "And then there was also some time for the Iraqi kids to clarify themselves from the first time they spoke, now that they could share how they really felt about Saddam Hussein." This time the broadcast was streamed live on the Internet, and students from dozens of other U.S. high schools watched the encounter.

For Plutte and his fellow founders, when it comes to the future of GNG, the sky is the limit —— both for the organization and the potential for student learning.

"What are you going to do with what you witness? Are you going to keep that in your journal, or your scrapbook? Or are you going to take that information and try to do something with it? For me, and for the team that I work with, I think we’ve seen so much that you can’t just sit there and forget about it. We have to let other young people know about it - and hopefully at the end of the day, motivate these young people to be part of the change."

Recently, after seeing footage from GNG’s Rwanda project, a high school student at an inner city school in Cleveland, Ohio, says he was forever changed. "I didn’t realize how good I have it," said the teenager, whose own family lives near the poverty line. "My mom used to tell me people would die to be in my shoes, but I didn’t realize it until I met these kids in Rwanda." Plutte says he’ll never forget that moment.

"This is coming from a kid who has absolutely nothing," he says. "And for him to say that —— that goes beyond any paycheck we can ever get."

-Sarah Jio

How It Works and How to Get Involved

GNG —— funded through a variety of sources, such as the technology company, Polycom Worldwide, private foundations and donors, and a nominal $100 — $150 fee from participating U.S. schools —— sends a crew to an international location, where their cameras focus in on the lives of students in a particular country. Sometimes the videoconferences provide a classroom-to-classroom exchange, other times GNG distributes live remote broadcasts to schools around the world.

This spring the organization will bring its cameras to Mozambique.

If your are interested in supporting Global Nomads Group, or if you are a teacher or the parent of a high school and you would like more information about the organization’s programming, visit www.gng.org.

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