Dev Diary #14: The High School Program

Hello everyone!

During summer we have been working further to develop our educational programs, and are happy to announce to have hired Sante Fiorellini to set up our Academy. The Academy will focus on two tracks: training for young professionals (including university students) and a high school program (read more about the Academy here).

Today we are elaborating a bit more about the high school program. Be it our discussions with GYLF and Think the Unthinkable, or our my presentation at the C2COE Conference "Get Connected", over the past few weeks we have time and time brought up in discussions that we (age group 18-35) are not the future generation of leadership, but the current one. What we do in our daily jobs matters for the transatlantic community. When it comes to educating the next generation, we then should not be looking at ourselves but instead look at those that will soon enter university.

Based on proof of concept of similar programming, the Atlantic Forum will launch its high school program this year. Originally the plan was to launch the program in April 2020, and have th iteBd, NATO and NATO PA fuelling the demand side for such programming, and the International Youth Day’s Transforming Education focus on SDG4: Quality Education, have led us to try and roll out the program 6 months earlier.

At a glance:

Atlantic Forum Highschool Program
- Age group: 15-18
- 3 lessons of 8 hours each on location (our trainers travel to your school)
- 1 conference at a sponsoring institute for higher education, likely a university campus in Brussels
- Self-sustaining program / not depended on subsidies – revenue generated goes to the benefit of the Transatlantic Incubator

Students learn:
- Diplomatic skills (public speaking and negotiation techniques)
- Background on NATO and the working of the North Atlantic Council
- Basics of International Relations
- Specific case knowledge on NATO missions (eFP (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) / ISAF/RSM (Afghanistan) / Operation Freedom Falcon (Libya) )

Trainers:
The trainer pool would be drawn from Atlantic Forum Patrons.

Trainers gain:
- Skills in training others
- A preparatory training in didactics (train the trainer day)
- The opportunity to contribute to the transatlantic community
- Compensation for travel and time, earning back their patronage and more.

We are looking forward working on this new project! And we hope you will join us as a trainer in the High School Program.