One strong voice for women educators in Haiti : Haiti Educator and Leadership Institute Day 1

We have spent 24 hours in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. What an incredible 24 hours it has been!

There were 29 who traveled from Toronto and Montreal yesterday. We met six who had traveled separately to Cap and today the last four participants arrived bringing our team to a total of 39.

Some spent the morning going to Catholic mass while others shopped at a local market. This afternoon the different groups worked on final preparation for the Educator and Leadership Institute.

This included four groups:

• Teacher and Principal professional training (18)
• Children's science camp and university student ESL program (13)
• Technology and teaching (4)
• Research and administrative support (4)

In tonight's debrief session we were asked to consider one word to describe the first 24 hours in Haiti. People chose words like:

• Overwhelming
• Friendly
• Hot (!)
• Welcoming
• Contentment
• Happy

We have been joined by a number of key Haitian partners. Central to our efforts in Haiti is a partnership with College Regina Assumpta. This was a school I was first introduced to when I made my first exploratory trip to Cap-Haitien six years ago. It has been an incredible partnership primarily because of two very strong female leaders: Sr. Vierginat and Sr. Yannick. The motto of their school is based on empowering young Haitian women. And they live this out every day.

An illustration ... when we arrived at the airport yesterday, we were held up at Haitian Customs for a long time because of the computer equipment that we brought with us. We were getting nowhere in our "negotiations" that these resources were being used for professional learning and were NOT being given (or sold) to Haitians.

The doors to the airport were closed. Then Sr. Vierginat demanded to come in. The officers quickly complied. Sr. Vierginat is not one to take lightly! She soon was in control of the situation in a very dignified, and forceful, manner. This morning we received all of our materials with no further issues!

We are delighted to be working with strong partners like Sr. Vierginat. Our goal is to build the capacity of another generation of empowered Haitian leaders through education. Why education? This infographic tells a compelling story:

Educator and Leadership Institute: Haiti 2017 Begins!

This morning, 29 of our Educator and Leadership Institute participants are leaving from Toronto and Montreal to go to Haiti. A team of six is already in Cap-Haitien and four more will join us tomorrow. As of tomorrow night, our total team of 39 will be ready to engage with our Haitian partners in a great week of professional learning!

Stay tuned to this blog for daily details. If you are a Twitter user, use #LaurierHaiti to get frequent updates. We are also taking over the Wilfrid Laurier University Snapchat "story" for a few days this week and that will provide another way to see what we are doing in Haiti.

A country, a university, and a person: How community builds capacity

Fiver years ago we met Samuel Charles, a young man studying in his final year of high school in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. Samy joined Laurier's week-long ESL program and made a significant impression as a young man with a deep desire to change his community.

Samy continued to be involved with the Laurier University ESL programs in Haiti over the next few years. We followed Samy's education, now in the local state university hoping to study medicine, with interest. We also observed the challenges of attending a university that seemed to lack the capacity to provide a solid education to its students.

Three years ago, Samy and I had a discussion about what it would take to attend a university with a bona fide medical program. Samy indicated that there were a few universities in Port au Prince, five hours away by car, that did have good reputations. I asked Samy to explore the programs while I returned to Canada to see how we could fund his move to a private university.

I came to find out that one of my Laurier students had a personal connection to Haiti: Her mother-in-law, Yvonne Martin, was a nurse from our community who had been killed in the 2010 earthquake (click here to read the story at the time). A scholarship fund had been set up in memory of  Yvonne to support young medical students in Haiti. I was soon in touch with the person who coordinated the program and not long after this we had a commitment to support Samy if he got into medical school.

Samy did indeed get into medical school (placing 7th out of 1,500 on the entrance exam) which was a significant accomplishment for someone who had been in some challenging school contexts (I visited Samy's high school and counted 110 students in senior classes). The scholarship paid his tuition and Laurier students and friends paid for his monthly room-and-board. An incredible story of how members of diverse communities supported one person's capacity for a better life.

But that's not the end of the story.

Samy worked hard in his first two years of medical studies. As a result, he was short-listed for a special one month program that would allow him to study at McGill University in Montreal, all-expenses paid. He passed multiples sets of interviews. In early June, he found out that he had been one of three Haitian students selected for the program.

Now the story comes full circle. 

Samy spent July at McGill and then came to the Waterloo Region this past weekend to connect with some of the Laurier students and friends who have sponsored him over the years. He was able to meet with deans from Laurier who have enabled the Laurier program in Haiti. He also met with business and tech leaders who have supported the program.

And, last night at our house, he met two of Yvonne Martin's sons (and family  members), as well as Marilyn McIlroy, the Canadian nurse who coordinates the medical scholarship.

An incredible story of community and capacity. 

Why do we do what we do in Haiti? To support the capacity of a whole generation of Samy's to build a better future for themselves AND for their community. 

There is a reciprocal benefit to this work: It also builds the capacity of those of us in Canada to be more globally-minded, compassionate, and caring. It builds a better future for ourselves and for our community.

This blog is entitled "glocal perspective building." Likewise, the story of Samy is a story of glocal perspective building.

Exciting developments for teacher and principal professional learning in Haiti

We are less than two weeks away from this year's Educator and Leadership Institute in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. In today's blog, I will share four exciting developments.

1. Registrations: Preliminary registrations indicate that this year's ELI will be double the size of last year's professional learning (from 200 to 400). We are also seeing an increase in the variety of schools being represented and the geographic spread of these schools. ELI is indeed impacting educators from across the country.

2. Program: We are doubling the number of courses offered at this year's ELI (from 6 to 12). We are also adding specialized workshops in technology. The summer camp that accompanies the ELI is also expanding (from 100 to 200 children). Our ESL program for university students will also be expanding.

3. Research: Last year, we started a research project that examined how ELI supported the Haitian participants' sense of teaching efficacy (confidence in their teaching to lead to improved student outcomes). This year, we have a research team that is accompanying ELI and will be examining how teaching practices have changed for participants, opportunities for fostering women's empowerment, and how we can use basic access to technology to support teachers and school leaders.

4. Partnerships: We are seeing a significant increase in collaborative work in ELI. The Ontario College of Teachers has donated supplies, Wilfrid Laurier University has supported a "technology fund" to help teachers in Haiti, corporations and individual elementary schools have raised funds to support ELI, and Desire2Learn is sending a team of three top leaders to support ELI. In Haiti, new partnerships of schools are facilitating the growth in the number of registrants.

We are excited about what will happen at ELI. We are more excited about the 20 year effect that ELI will have on students in Haiti.

Our goal is to support the professional capacity of 1,000 teachers + 100 principals to impact 100,000 students.

We are well on the way to meeting this goal.