On Tuesday, April 18, high school students around the state gathered at Otterbein University for the Global Scholars program’s end-of-the-year take-action project fair. This included 21 students from the district who graduated from the program at the event. 

   The Global Scholars Diploma program is a three-year program created by the Columbus Council on World Affairs. The program offers high school students the opportunity to learn about global issues and careers, interact with global community partners, and finish in the third year as students complete a take-action project. 

   “It has helped me gain a different perspective of looking at the world, it showed me that even I could make a difference,” Liberty high school senior Lisa Thomas said. 

   The event which kicked off at nine am started with introductions, then moved into the much anticipated take action project fair, and concluded with the graduation ceremony to celebrate the year three students who finished the program. 

   The 21 students from Olentangy, which included five Berlin students, were all year three students as the district made the decision to cease participation in the program after their year. This means all students graduated at the event and showed off their take-action projects at the project fair. 

   A take-action project, often referred to as a TAP, is where the third-year students display the abilities and knowledge they gained through the first two years of the program. To do this they select a globally-oriented issue and make an impact on it at the local level. 

   In order to display these projects at the end-of-year event students create a trifold poster that displays things such as research, collected data, pictures, and other information on their project. Attendees of the event were able to walk around and view the posters as well as listen to a presentation on each of the projects. 

   “I enjoyed the end-of-year event and getting to see what many other students did for their project,” Thomas said. 

   Towards the end of the event, each Olentangy participant was recognized as a graduate and received a graduation cord as their certificate of completion.