Lucy Varley, a sixth-grade student at Mantua Elementary, wasn’t intimidated to be presenting her research to an international body of high-school students. “It feels kind of special,” she said. “Here, it’s more serious.”
Varley was one of 17 students at the Fairfax County school who participated in a videoconference sponsored by the United Nations on Dec. 3. This year, the UN’s seventh annual
Conference on Human Rights focused on AIDS. Ten schools from around the world were chosen to participate, and although the program was designed for students in Grades 5-12, Mantua was the only school participating that was not a high school.
Videoconferencing is nothing new for Mantua, said Maribeth Luftglass, chief information officer for Fairfax County Public Schools. “They’ve been doing distance learning here for about five years,” she said. According to Luftglass, Mantua is one of about 10 schools countywide that have the full videoconference setup.
Three years ago, Mantua started participating in the UN human rights conference, said Tim Harazin, distance learning coordinator at Mantua. Each year, the UN chooses a different topic for discussion. “It’s all related to human rights,” he said.
The students volunteered for the project at the beginning of the school year. They each had to write an essay explaining why they wanted to participate and receive parental permission, due to the sensitive nature of the topic, Harazin said.
When the session started, students were greeted by UN officials and students from the United Nations International School. Cameras and microphones then winked on and off as students from Canada, Mexico, South Africa, England and other places in the United States introduced themselves and presented their ideas.
Mantua’s first presentation was well received by the other schools, some of which could be seen on the monitors, listening and nodding their heads while the Fairfax youths spoke. The groups continued taking turns speaking and listening throughout the day and had the chance to listen to speakers from the UN.
The students began researching AIDS early in the school year, Varley said. They were stunned by the numbers they found, particularly facts such as an estimate that there are 14 million children who have lost at least one parent to AIDS. “When you take a closer look, it’s scary,” Varley said.
Perhaps more important than the videoconference was that the students had an opportunity to learn about the effects AIDS is having. Several of them were moved to research further and to discuss the topic with their friends at school. “I think kids should be encouraged to learn more,” said Becca Gale, another Mantua student.
They tried to analyze AIDS not only in the United States but also internationally. “We’re looking at more of the global aspects,” Harazin said. “I think it’s really an eye-opening experience for these kids.”
Some of these students talked about going beyond just research and initiating fund-raisers, Varley and Gale said. They also felt it was important to educate their classmates, and they plan to do so. “We just want to get the message across to our fellow peers,” Varley said.