Visit to St. Johnsbury Academy (Vermont, USA)

The excitement to visit a high school in the States and interact with high school students was there from the beginning. However, the trip to St. Johnsbury Academy (www.stjacademy.org/page.cfm) in Vermont was much more than we would have expected. Five of us - me, Anu, Roozbeh, Temitope and Damilola - were the guest speakers at the academy for a few days. We had a chance to do formal presentations to larger number of  students, as well as engage in talks and discussions during their classes. The topics we touched included environmental challenges, women issues, youth participation, health concerns, culture. It was incredible how knowledgable and smart the students were, the depth of the questions they posed, and the curiosity they expressed about global issues and various cultures. Hopefully this experience was as interesting and useful for the students as empowering it was for us.