Teaching teens to understand a changing world
Much has changed around the world in the 25 years since the new millennium began. A major earthquake and tsunami in Japan, wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and a global pandemic have all dominated headlines. Smartphones, then social media, and now generative AI have upended how we share news and even discern reality.
Throughout it all, the Teaching International Relations Program (TIRP) has provided Los Angeles-area teens with the skills to better understand complex global events. TIRP is run by the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences’ Center for Active Learning in International Studies (CALIS), which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
The program trains and then deploys Trojan undergraduates into local high schools where they “team-teach” using analytical tools and lessons specially designed to get young people thinking critically about foreign relations. These student volunteers also gain new skills, like classroom management and, in the age of instant information, practice in thinking on their feet.
“Student teachers are often confronted in the classroom with questions they can’t just look up on their phone,” says Steve Lamy, CALIS founder and Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Relations and Spatial Sciences.