Last month, our publisher, Gerald Decker, reported that the readership of Cape Fear Voices/Teen Scene not only reside in United States, but around the world, with readers in Germany, Ireland, Indonesia, China and Australia.
Think about that for a minute. Germany is approximately 4,326 miles from North Carolina. Ireland is 3,559 miles away while Indonesia is 9,875 miles away. China is 7,479 miles from here and Australia (Syndney area) is a whopping 10,360 miles from where we live. But, despite the distance, people in those countries are reading stories from our students and seasoned writers.
In an effort to expose our teen writers to new cultures, we thought it would be beneficial to reach out to middle and high schools in these countries and forge a writing partnership between our teens and theirs.
Throughout the summer, Gerald contacted various schools who created their own school newspapers and asked them to partner with us in this initiative. We were lucky enough to be contacted by Peter Doherty, a teacher at William Clark College, a K through 12 co-educational College located in Kellyville, an area in the northwest section of Sydney.
Like Gerald, Mr. Doherty thought it would be a good experience for his middle and high school students to learn about and understand not only the differences of students their age in North Carolina, but also to discover the similarities they share.
During this school year, students from William Clarke College and our Teen Scene writers will write about a shared topic of interest; initially just getting to know each other—for example, how much do our students know about Australia and how much do the Australian students know about North Carolina? Does each group share the same types of educational studies? Are their school calendars and schedules similar? What group sports or extra curricular activities does each school offer to students? Or even, how do teenagers “talk”?
As the program progresses, we would like to pose more challenging questions to each group of students; possibly asking them to describe their local government or getting their thoughts on world events, like global warming or cleaning up our environments. The wonderful thing about a program such as this is that the possibilities are endless.
There is no doubt that the internet and the technology that we use has made the world a smaller place, and by smaller, I mean the ease with which we can be connected with people half way around the world with just the click of a mouse. Imagine what our students can learn from students their age who live in a different part of the world.
Efforts to engage schools in other countries continue as Mr. Decker and Mr. Doherty build the framework, parameters and processes of the program.
We are excited to announce our new International Section of Teen Scene. On the webpage, click on “Schools” and scroll down to the International tab. We hope you enjoy this new addition to our ever-expanding program and look forward to your comments.
