This is a changing world, a challenging world... and the United States and its citizens, particularly its youth, are challenged as never before to keep up. Many foreign students outperform our students.

 

Standardized test scores support the notion that many young innovators from around the world are flooding the world scene with fresh ideas, fresh concerns and a deep understanding of the past to help guide their futures. The same tests suggest US kids are not keeping up.

 

It's also a troubled world and somehow, we must not only find a way to help our youngsters compete on the global stage, but to collaborate on it, too. There are too many great young people in those other countries to allow our young to ignore them or to marginalize them because of their national heritage. In addition, sadly, there are too many of them that seem to be potential enemies, too. Succinctly, then, our young people here and there seem to need something beyond a simple "STEM" (Science Technology Engineering and Math) approach to answer those challenges. They must be helped to become not just independent as proud scholars, but interdependent as global citizens too.

 

There is a special perspective for this proposal. We do not propose this outreach as benefactors for a lesser group. Instead, we propose it with the highest respect for our South African brothers and sisters. We see this as mutually beneficial "hand shaking,” one that achieves far more than just a better grasp of STEM content. As proud Americans and teachers, then, we do not go there as just having something to show, but more as listeners and partners with something to say and something to hear too.

 

If the heart, the power and the hope of STEM is its "connectedness" to the real world, then this outreach to South Africa's youth completes the journey of connectedness we have brought to Achieve. We are confident that American youngsters can rise to handle all their academic challenges. With the fresh, global perspective all these bright minds will provide, and with the gentle touch of their hands across the oceans, then, we are also confident that when our youngsters, and theirs, go to the global marketplace, they'll not only go there with deeper knowledge but with a greater chance for peace and understanding, too. There is no greater legacy for our combined sixty years of work.