Harwood travel program lands $134,000 in federal funding

The recent $1.7 trillion omnibus federal spending bill passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden contained millions for dozens of Vermont initiatives including $134,000 to begin growing Harwood Union High School’s International Travel Study program. 

Harwood students in Rwanda on the last trip made in 2018. Courtesy photo

For two decades Harwood has run an annual travel program giving students an immersive educational experience in Rwanda. Since 2009, the school has worked with the Vermont Folklife Center to incorporate digital storytelling through student-led inquiry and ethnography on these visits. After a three-year hiatus, that resumes with an upcoming trip during the school’s winter break at the end of this month. 

This federal funding is meant to jumpstart a seven-year effort to expand the program to form new exchange partnerships with public schools in the United States and other countries, according to the project proposal. 

Harwood English teacher Steve Rand who has led the Rwanda program, said the Rwanda travel program is a model that can be used elsewhere. “Our goal is to increase the number of participants, immersion experiences, and exchanges annually over the next seven years,” he said. 

The proposal envisions exchanges with students from other states and countries -- including Rwanda -- spending time in Vermont with collaborative storytelling at the core of what the exchanges produce. 

“Initially, funds will be used to identify and establish new relationships, plus we'll be hiring ethnographers and filmmakers to train staff and students and design collaborative storytelling projects at Harwood and elsewhere,” said Superintendent Mike Leichliter. “Ideally, we would like to introduce new partnerships each year over the next several years.” 

Focused now on the upcoming journey to Rwanda, Rand said work to grow the program will begin in earnest later this year. Ultimately, Rand says he hopes the program would become sustainable as part of the curriculum offered at Harwood with the aim for it to have a lasting impact on student learning.