By Alexandra Gray

More than 30 insightful, articulate and entrepreneurial young people have stepped up to the plate to lead teams of students who are eager to tackle big issues and connect with youth across the globe.

They are News-Decoder’s Student Ambassadors for the 2019-20 school year.

Student Ambassadors build bridges between News-Decoder and their schools, connecting the thousands of members in our global community.

Who are this year’s Student Ambassadors?

Our Student Ambassadors are la crème de la crème. They’re students who have their sights set high.

Lughano Bupe Kabaghe at the African Leadership Academy in South Africa believes that women are the driving force behind every African economy. She hopes to one day become Zambia’s first female president.

Friends Seminary Student Ambassador Malik Fiagro from New York City is a painter and likes to use this medium to increase awareness about social issues.

Evan Wright is an undergraduate student at Indiana University. He is double majoring in International Studies and East Asian Languages and Cultures and plans to explore his interests in politics, Japan and the security environment of East Asia. He also wants to make connections between his community and the rest of the world.

Often referred to as “campus champions,” our Student Ambassadors organize a webinar with a school in another country, oversee the production of a creative multimedia package and identify opportunities for News-Decoder to engage with their school community. They are natural leaders and excellent communicators, and are dedicated to furthering News-Decoder’s mission to create better global citizens.

A global curiosity and desire to learn.

Five returning Student Ambassadors worked during their mid-year holidays on Season Two of our podcast, The Kids Are Alright.

Thacher-duo Saga Leslie and Skye Neulight challenged their assumptions as environmental vegetarians by conducting on-the-ground reporting on animal agriculture in California.

Giavanna Bravo, chair of the Cuatro por Venezuela club at Greens Farms Academy, has spearheaded an episode on humanitarian aid and the Venezuelan crisis. In Season Two, she returns to the situation one year after we spoke to victims of the crisis in Season One.

Yoanna Gammoh of King’s Academy in Jordan is passionate about Arab art. She and two of her classmates at King’s plan to interview a curator at the Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi — “the Arab world’s first universal art museum” — about some of the challenges that international cultural institutions face.

News-Decoder’s values are reflected in such global curiosity and willingness to get out and about and listen to conflicting viewpoints.

We recently launched our 2019-20 academic program with 16 schools in 10 countries. The Student Ambassadors have been busy forming student-led teams, brainstorming topics for webinars and generating excitement among their peers.

Our first webinar will be hosted by La Jolla Country Day School and will look at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. A citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina who was held at the detention camp for seven years, before being released for lack of evidence, will feature on camera to answer students’ questions.

The webinar calendar for the remainder of the year has schools teaming up to examine global themes: crime and punishment, the environment, individual and society, identity, health and wellness, truth and fiction, war and peace and walls and bridges.

Join us in welcoming our new Student Ambassadors to the News-Decoder community. Look out for their stories under the Student Posts section of our site, and in Season Two of The Kids Are Alright, which will be available under Podcasts next month.

Alexandra Gray is News-Decoder’s Community Engagement and Business Development manager. She develops creative marketing and communications content, manages social media accounts and works closely with the Student Ambassadors. She has a master’s in marketing from the University of Edinburgh and spent one year of high school at one of News-Decoder’s partner institutions, School Year Abroad Italy.