Away we go!

The group is sitting at JFK airport in New York having lunch after a bumpy ride from Logan.  We got off to an exciting start, celebrating Chung’s birthday with an airport cupcake.  Most people are talking to each other and trying to finish reading about different aspects of the Educational Revolution in Colombia.  I am reflecting on what I hope to get out of our trip.

I decided to go on this trip for two reasons: to broaden my comparative frame and to take advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity to engage with current and up-and-coming leaders in international education reform.

My comparative frame is limited to the US and South and Southeast Asia.  My experiences in the education sector have been in the US, India, and Cambodia; I have never even traveled to Latin America.  This experience for me, then, provided an opportunity to read about the education system of Colombia in some depth and to now see in action the consequences of the reforms instituted in the last two decades.  One of my key goals for the trip is to expand my comparative frame to include a glimpse into the education system of another country and another region.  This will inform future work I do in international education, whether for an organization based in the US or based in Asia. 

The second reason I decided to participate in this trip is to interact with Ministry of Education officials as well as students from the International Education Policy program.  We have been provided a rare opportunity to spend time talking to officials in different roles at the Ministry, and to bring our questions and comparative experiences to the table to speak about education reform more broadly.  Most of my work has been with grassroots organizations, and I am excited to speak to those working on large-scale policy interventions.  It is rare to have an opportunity to have decision makers and future decision makers all in the same room talking about ideas for reform, and I am looking forward to our difficult but exciting conversations.  Additionally, this trip will naturally spark conversations with classmates about their work, something that we often do not have the opportunity to do when feeling the pressure and time constraints of school.  Simply put, I am looking forward to learning more about my classmates.

And finally, I am looking forward to taking in the sites, people, and food on this adventure.

Away we go!

Jessica