High school students from Cyprus are in the Northern Kentucky region learning about the community in efforts to help unify their country through peacebuilding.
The students are here through the nonprofit World Affairs Council of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The leadership program aims to allow for international exchange on peacebuilding and digital literacy. The high school youth leaders from Cyprus are learning from the local community’s schools, organizations and host families.
“They were selected by the U.S. embassy to come here and represent the country, to learn, and then go back to the country and be the peacebuilders,” said Melissa McDonald, Director of Global Education with World Affairs Council of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
Deniz, a student, said one reason she was interested in the program was that the students are a bi-communal group.
“We consist of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and that was an important reason for me to apply to the program because we come from a divided society, and this program gave me the chance to explore both communities in a different country with a different culture, so it was pretty interesting for me,” Deniz said.
The On-Demand Youth Leadership Program is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, administered by Legacy International in partnership with World Affairs Council – Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. They put out a request for proposal, and then the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati area is selected for a student group.
The students arrived on Sunday, Aug. 10, and will be in the area until Wednesday, Aug. 21, then go to Washington, D.C, for more programming and end with a meeting with the U.S. Department of State.
McDonald said the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati region is a prime location for this work because of the caliber of the local community, which includes nonprofits, school systems and business partners that are connected globally.
When LINK nky spoke with the students, they were at TiER1 Performance learning about using AI and ChatGPT responsibly.
Student Melis said that since they arrived, they have done workshops on topics like AI and participated in cultural activities, mainly focusing on discovering the region. They also met with students from different schools and learned about how they live and how their schools work.
Cise Mis is serving as a mentor to the students along with Doxia Mina. She is in her final year as a PhD student at Eastern Mediterranean University in communication studies. Mis said she would like to apply what she has learned in the U.S. to what she is learning at her university.
“I’m going to graduate very soon, and it will be very helpful for me to adopt, for example, the AI and other digital literacy,” she said. “Specifically, I am planning to go on with health communication, mainly as a specialist in health communication, which the misinformation is very common in health communication.”
The students also participated in activities like museum tours and even saw the Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals at Great American Ball Park.
“We immersed into the American culture pretty well, I would say,” said student Marilia. “We’ve met with American youth, and we’ve talked to them and exchanged ideas and had meaningful conversations, which I personally loved. The Reds game that we’ve been to last night was an experience that has marked our overall trip, so I’m really glad we did that. Also, the workshops were really fruitful in my perspective.”
Student Victoria said she wants to go into politics and is very interested in American politics. She said she became interested in studying abroad to learn more about digital literacy, American culture and the justice system.
“It’s something that is mind-boggling at this stage and at this age and where we are now; I think it’s very important to have an open mind about these things,” Victoria said.
Aside from learning about more serious topics like AI and politics, students said they were interested in getting to know American culture aside from what they’ve seen in Hollywood movies and through the media.
“Actually, getting to experience all of that seemed like a fever dream,” said student Evridiki.
The students also spoke about their surprises regarding American culture, from how people behave to how big cities are here.
McDonald pursued the career path she did because of her own experience studying abroad in France as a student at Holmes High School. Through her career working with the youth, she said she has learned that they are very interested in the future and in how they can shape it through their actions.
“We often think that leaders are older than us, but I think looking to the youth to guide us is the way,” she said.
