Yesterday I attended the first-in-two-year in-person Global Scholars event, which featured three women representing the organization Narrative 4 (N4). N4 is a global network of educators, students, and artists who use art and storytelling to build empathy between students while equipping them to improve their communities and the world. It organizes events called story exchanges, which are set between at least two but often more communities to connect with a strategy called empathy into action. Our event was not a story exchange but an introduction to the organization because they want to partner with our school and expand more in our region. The three presenters were the head of N4 in the Midwest, a teacher from Mexico, and a woman from South Africa who was a long-time participant with N4. Each of them was very engaging and really enforced the reputation N4 deserves, which is that it has caused a lot of visible change and has been very helpful for a lot of people. The South African woman, who was not much older than me and my classmates, was especially captivating as she spoke about how she had gone into her community with new lenses from story exchanges and had really branched out in the world with N4's cross cultured-ness. She had even started to go after social change in SA through avenues like a poem she shared which was brilliant. Having been in a story exchange myself, I can attest that they are very useful for anyone trying to find new ideas in the world, and I came away from mine with new trains of thought. After an experience with N4, really the next step is traveling, and because of how inaccessible that is, N4 is perfect for expanding horizons naturally and uniquely without such a heavy burden (often none at all for participants). The presenters made it a point to say how important it was to them that the empathy conveyed during their events did not stop then and how invested they were in creating action to help their participants help people and the world.
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May 2022
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