2003 Fall draft - Uwpiaa.org

A Week in the Life
Day In and Day Out with the WorldSmart Students
by Sheila Walsh Dettloff, 84D, Communications Chair, UWPIAA BOG
We’ve all heard about the
WorldSmart program by now. We
know it focuses on building global
leadership skills using six elements:
international travel, an internationally
diverse student body, regional
learning opportunities, community
service, host family living, and the
proprietary WorldSmart leadership
curriculum. But just what will the
120 students do from day to day?
What will a typical week be like for
them? Here’s the answer.
Day 1: Travel Day – We all know
what that means! Whether on a
plane, bus, train or car, one day will
be spent getting to the next city on
the agenda. Bus head and all.
Day 2: Curriculum Day – This will
be completely internally focused,
with no community interaction. It
will be dedicated to the WorldSmart
curriculum, whether through staff
lectures, demonstrations, visiting
professors or individual learning.
Days 3 and 4: Community
Connections Days – These days
could involve either the community
coming to the WorldSmart students,
the WorldSmart students going out
to the community, or a combination
of the two. For example, local high
school students might come in on
Day 3 and brainstorm with
WorldSmart students on the specific
needs of their community. Day 4
would see both the local and
WorldSmart students going out into
the community to fulfill at least one
of the needs that was discussed. It’s
much like the former community
involvement days, but in most cases,
with more interaction with people in
the city.
Day 5: Regional Learning/Community
Celebration Day – A large part
of the day would be used to maximize
learning about the area, visiting
local sites of historical or other
interest. In the afternoon, the
students would come back together
for a rehearsal, followed by the
Community Celebration (see sidebar
for more specifics on the Community
Celebration).
Day 6: Personal Day – Students
might use this day for documentation
of their experiences, to visit
more local places that weren’t visited
4 Fall ‘03
on the regional learning day, or
perhaps just to sleep in. (And we all
know which of those will be the
most popular!)
Day 7: Host Family Day – This is a
day for the host families to plan
activities individually or in groups
with their students. They will be
advised of what the students have
already done to help them plan a day
that could be fun, relaxing, educational,
or a combination of all three.
What’s striking about this
schedule is that, aside from the
curriculum day, it looks curiously like
the schedule whenever an UWP cast
visited a city for a four- to five-day
stay. When we weren’t on a mad
travel-show-travel-show-travel-show
schedule, we had the time to get to
know our host families better, to do
some community service, plan an
education day, and maybe even have
a personal day (which, if we were
lucky, was in a city with a beach!).
When the UWP board of
directors was developing the
WorldSmart Leadership Program,
they relied heavily on alumni input
from three sources: the post-December
2000 alumni planning groups in
Denver and Ireland; the proposals
from alumni that were organized by
Brenda Moran (77C), former president
of the UWPIAA; and the
alumni who sat on the UWP board.
One point that was made time and
again was that alumni would have
liked city stays to be longer, and that
suggestion is evident in the
WorldSmart plan.
And just where will WorldSmart
spend these weeks? The first group
will start off in Colorado and British
Columbia, then move on to Japan.
After six weeks in Japan, they’ll
travel to Belgium, The Netherlands,
Germany and Switzerland before
finishing the semester in Italy.
Applications are now being
accepted for both the August 2004
and February 2005 programs. 120
students will be accepted for each
semester. If you know someone who
could both benefit from and contribute
to the types of activities noted in
the schedule above, please direct
them to www.upwithpeople.org.
B UP EAT
Come “Home” to Tucson!
UWPIAA Reunion 2004, “Coming Home,” will be held in Tucson,
Arizona, from July 15-18, 2004, at the Hilton El Conquistador. El Conquistador
is a premium resort that is offering incredibly low rates for UWPIAA
reunion attendees. Along with championship golf courses and tennis courts,
there are four pools, hot tubs, hiking
trails, horseback riding, a fitness
center, shopping, restaurants and
more — all within the resort
grounds.
Casts from 1969, 1974, 1979,
1984, 1989, 1994, 1999 and 2000
are invited to celebrate their reunions,
while all alumni, family and
friends are welcome to come and
join the fun! Be sure your cast rep
has your contact information so you
receive all the upcoming reunion
details. You can also check the
uwpiaa.org web site for frequent
updates.
Music in WorldSmart – the
Community Celebration
Simply put, show revenues
can no longer carry UWP
financially. To continue to
produce a Broadway-style show
in today’s entertainment market
would have meant serious
increases in tuition in order for
UWP to just break even (up to
US$27,000 for 2001 students,
had UWP not closed its doors).
But music is key to the UWP
experience, and it will be one
element that distinguishes
WorldSmartfrom other studyabroad
programs. Music will
continue to be used as a unique
medium to impact the communities
visited by WorldSmart.
So how exactly will music be
used in this new program?
Essentially, UWP is going back
to its roots of student-led
creativity. In a production known
as the Community Celebration,
students will offer a meaningful
exchange of memories and
moments that will recap the
week to that point. Both students
and community members
will participate, and music will
be combined with other elements,
such as video presentation
of the community activities.
The students themselves will be
empowered to produce and
execute each event using a
Hilton El Conquistador, Tucson, Arizona
“production box,” an idea created
by Ken Ashby, of creative tools,
UWP songs and program
templates.
Possible elements of the
Community Celebration are:
relevant songs from the UWP
catalog, a community-specific
script, rewritten lyrics of traditional
songs tailored to community
highlights, and student and
community cultural presentations.
To give you a better idea of
what the Community Celebration
might look like, here’s a
sample rundown:
• Opening song, such as
World in Motion
• Welcome in local language
• Recognition of guests and
special groups
• Presentation by a local
group
• Image/video presentation
• Relevant UWP song
• Community impact
presentation
• Community-dedicated
song written by
WorldSmart students
• Relevant UWP song
• Image presentation
• Final song, including
world flags