Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Summer Institute

Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Summer Institute

Wake Forest University

One of two 2013 Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Summer Institutes is offered at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for 45 students, ages 16-18. The Institute will host 35 students from Europe along with 10 competitively-selected teens from across the United States. The four-week Institute will take place June 30-July 27, 2013.

The American statesman and diplomat Benjamin Franklin is the inspiration for this program. He was a man that prized religious tolerance over intolerance and social mobility over class privilege, and was a firm believer in free speech. Mr. Franklin practiced what he preached by establishing, editing, and writing newspapers expounding on this principle. Wake Forest University will provide participants training in leadership development through activities that advance the goals established and followed by Mr. Franklin in his lifetime.

The overarching theme of this Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows (BFTF) Summer Institute will be global issues, with a transatlantic focus. Through this lens, the participants will explore democratic practices, civic engagement, social entrepreneurship, conflict resolution, critical thinking and analysis, respect for diversity, and youth leadership. Activities will include case studies, group discussions, role-plays and simulations, workshops, leadership and media training, collaborative project development, community service, and educational travel to Philadelphia and Washington, DC. All participants will live in homestays with American families for a portion of the program, and will spend most of the rest of their time on campus at Wake Forest. Follow-on activities in their home communities are a critical component of the program as the alumni apply what they have learned in a productive way.

By the end of this intense four-week program, the participants should be able to:

• Implement procedures for solving problems through communication and constructive group discussion;
• Demonstrate a better understanding of transatlantic relations and issues;
• Understand how young people interact with the media, both as consumers and producers of information;
• Understand how freedom of expression imposes both rights and responsibilities on citizens;
• Gain a new perspective on learning, networking, transatlantic perceptions of each other, the communities they live in, and the broader media culture;
• Share their knowledge with their peers, featuring electronic-based communication skills, problem solving, and team building; and
• Take a leadership role in developing and implementing follow-on projects that support diversity, community activism, and effect positive change.

Project Activities

Orientation

Wake Forest University (WFU) will provide a welcome orientation kit for the American and European participants. The materials will be e-mailed to all participants and will be available online prior to the beginning of the program. The materials will contain an overview of the program, provide needed forms (informational, health, housing, etc), and introduce staff members.

The Pre-Arrival orientation will feature the sharing of program schedule and activities; introductions andexchanges with the administration and staff; suggestions for traveling, packing, and safety; and an introduction to culturaldifferences.

The Arrival orientation will include a welcoming program to cover the details of the program, the schedule,and basic activities. During this on-site orientation, administration, faculty, and staff will introducethemselves in person to Fellows.

The cultural orientation will include visiting multiple cultural sites and events in North Carolina and during the study trip to Philadelphia and Washington, DC. The greater Winston-Salem community is rich with cultural experiences. WFU will schedule three cultural events: (1) Sunday visits to multiple houses of worship of various faiths in Winston-Salem; (2) An International Dinner, which the Fellows prepare for host families and invited guests at a localchurch; (3) A Fourth of July picnic for Fellows and host families.

Educational Activities

The classes and other educational activities will focus on social entrepreneurship,public advocacy, and new media skills. The Institute will teach Fellows ways to incorporate new communication technologies in developing and promoting social entrepreneurial efforts to address problems in their home communities.

By the end of the Institute, each Fellow will assume the role of a social entrepreneur by identifying a problem facing his or herhome community or nation and developing a plan to address the problem. This plan will provide the foundation for follow-on activities after the Institute. The activities to achieve these goals include:

• Three classes during the first week of the Institute: (1)Comparative Constitutionalism-taught by Dr. John Dinan, Professor of Political Science at Wake Forest University,(2) Citizenship and Conflict -taught by Dr. Alessandra Von Burg, Assistant Professor of Communication and Interim Director of American Ethnic Studies at Wake Forest University, and (3) Practices of Social Entrepreneurship-taught by Len Neighbors, Lecturer and Associate Director of Debate at WFU and owner of three small-businesses. These courses provide the theoretical foundations and the academic knowledge necessary to develop socially conscious and civically responsible entrepreneurial endeavors.

• Two short classes in the last 9 days of the program. One class develops new media skills and introduces Fellows to the fundamentals of documentary film. The second class teaches Fellows how to utilize data to identify local problems. The skills from both short classes will help the Fellows to understand and reflect on their volunteer activities, civic engagement opportunities, and ways to promote their follow-on ideas.

• Workshops that build upon classroom instruction for Fellows to develop plans for intervention into their home communities. The topics of the workshops will be determined by Fellows’ input in pre-arrival surveys.
• Development of participant-produced videos and documentaries, created in conjunction with one of the classes taught by an expert in documentary production, as part of the educational and promotional materials that will help advance their social entrepreneurship projects.
• Construction of participant blogs, podcasts, Twitter accounts, specific electronic applications for mobile devices and other forms of new media to display the experience and the themes of various workshops.
• Participant-organized public forums on current events and U.S. and international political issues,open to the local community to enhance interactions among the participants and the citizens of thehost community.
• Short lectures by various experts with specific skills in (1) foreign policy, (2) community outreach,(3) new media development, (4) funding and grant seeking, and (5) ethical media practices.
• Lunches with WFU faculty and other members of the community to allow the Fellows to have morepersonal encounters with experts in various fields and to learn about their research, teaching andprofessional development.

Class Instruction

The institute will have three academically structured class sessions in the first week of the program and two shorter classes during the third week. The first week of classes introduce Fellows to foundational concepts of democratic practice, citizenship, and entrepreneurship. The two shorter courses provide more hands-on instruction that will help prepare Fellows for the workshops in the final section of the Institute: (1) A short course on documentary film and new social media, taught by Chris Zaluski, MFA student in the Documentary Film Program at WFU and Founding Director of Wrought IronProduction; (2) A short course on local social entrepreneurship taught by a representative from Forsyth Futures, a local non-profit community research organization.

For the final section of the Institute, Fellows will be placed in 5-6 different topic-based workshops, consisting of 7-8 Fellows each. The workshops will emphasize practical skills to create, develop and actualize a specific project and will serve as the laboratory to practice

the theoretical skills learned in the classes. At the end of the workshop period, Fellows will share their proposals and ideas with the rest of the Institute at an end-of-the-program assembly. All workshops will:

• Focus on social entrepreneurship, participation, and interaction with local community partners to develop the skills necessary to implement similar projects in the students’ county of origin upon their return.
• Application of the theoretical material learned during the first week of class into the development of social entrepreneurship projects, assisted by the ongoing interaction with faculty and mentors.
• Development of critical research skills necessary to advance public advocacy and civic engagement.
• Development of specific digital material (web-episodes, blogs, Twitter accounts, applications for mobiledevices, online newsletter, a blueprint for a social campaign or other events) to be used as models forfuture projects.
• Create opportunities for interaction with local community members and additional Wake Forest students and staff.

Daily Events

The Fellows will begin each day with a full Institute assembly, where announcements aboutthe daily schedule and activities and special topics will be addressed. The daily activities will change throughout the program, with classes, the study trip, the short classes and workshops, and the civic engagement segment.

Site Visits and Community Service

A six-day study trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., is a key component of the Institute. The participants will visit the Constitution Center and Independence Hall in Philadelphia and key venues in Washington, where they will also have a program event at the U.S. Department of State.

Community service opportunities will occur through social entrepreneurial workshops.During the workshops, the Fellows will work with community partners to identify ways to help improve the conditions of the community.

Travel, Housing, and Other Logistics

Fellows and mentors will be housed in a Wake Forest University on-campus residence hall during a portion of the Institute. For ten days of the program, Fellows will live with local families for a homestay. For the study tour to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., participants will stay in hotels and dormitories.

Follow-on Activities

Follow-on activities are intended to reinforce the concepts imparted during the Institute. Fellows will leave the Institute prepared to develop and inaugurate socially engaged entrepreneurialprojects. WFU will assist the Fellows in their follow-on activities in their home communities. Before the Fellows depart WFU, they will discuss and develop initial design for follow-on projects, as they work in workshops and engage the local community during the program.

April 2013

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