TR@TC Global Citizens

The overarching aim of the TR@TC Global Citizens Program is to reimagine spaces where students and teachers learn, grow, and inspire change. As global citizens, we are accountable for our actions and the impacts they have on the health and well-being of the people and environment around us. 

By using principles of inquiry-based learning and healing-centered engagement, we aim to provide NYC public school students with learning spaces where they can build upon their knowledge and experiences to make meaning of the world around them. We also aim to support teachers as they refine their ability to cultivate student curiosity, imagination, and well-being. 

TR@TC Global Citizens' experiences integrate opportunities for students to practice and develop important disciplinary literacies and 21st-century skills that are vital for participating in a global, interconnected community and that introduce them to a wide range of career opportunities.  At the same time, we are supporting teachers in developing and implementing a rigorous curriculum that prepares students for their futures. 

Our experiential approach to learning provides students and teachers with the opportunity to engage in hands-on experiences that enhance academic development and strengthen connections to real-world applications.

We strive to support students in being changemakers who make positive contributions to their local and global communities. We prioritize building nurturing learning communities where students feel safe to explore their roles in this world. 

As members of communities throughout the five borough New York City area, high school students are already contributing to their school and family neighborhoods in a variety of ways. By connecting our curriculum to these contributions, students are pushed to think deeply and connect their work in this program to new opportunities for taking part in efforts led by community members and leaders while experimenting with structured methods that can enhance these actions. When curriculum accounts for intersections between these worlds, students are better able to effectively apply what they are learning across multiple contexts.

Questions that are at the forefront of TR@TC Global Citizens experiences include:

How can we take an active role in our communities? 

How can we work with others to contribute positively to our local communities? 

How can we connect our contributions to wider-reaching initiatives to be a positive influence on a more global scale? 

What change can we enact, even as young people, to work toward a more equitable and sustainable future for ourselves and others across the globe? 

The more we support teachers and invest in their development, the better they can act as consistent support to students along a trajectory of learning that is designed to extend through high school and beyond. To do this, teachers need opportunities to explore approaches of ambitious teaching as they consider how to enhance their pedagogical approaches to student learning.  

As a result, the TR@TC Global Citizens Program emphasizes practices of collaboration that assume mutual learning, investment, and contributions for all those involved. It is designed as a space where teachers can experiment with and test out strategies for accelerating learning while connecting students to rich learning experiences. We are creating experiential learning spaces for teachers.

This work is also political as it provides opportunities for teachers to have important conversations with school leaders about the needs of their students and to collaborate with a range of people to design and develop rich opportunities for learning with their students.

To date, we are in the process of developing and implementing three different learning paths that function under the umbrella of the TR@TC Global Citizens Program: Citizen Scientist, Digital Citizens, and Citizen Storyteller.

While varied in content, all experiences are designed to meet the following common criteria:

Each learning path...

...allows students to deeply explore an area of personal interest, especially something that connects with their personal passions.
...provides students with opportunities to develop and enhance disciplinary literacies and 21st Century skills.
...results in a final product that showcases students’ work in ways that can be shared with a wider audience.

As a whole, TR@TC Global Citizens is attempting to work with students to develop skills that are specific to engaging in community-based action research, advocacy and organizing. Each learning path offers opportunities to focus on specific elements that are connected to this work.

We partner with community organizations to design and implement meaningful learning experiences. Thank you to our community partnerships for all of your support and collaboration!

Randall’s Island Park Alliance

Bronx River Alliance

Friends of Morningside Park

Shirley Chisholm State Park

NYC Parks Department

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Society of Illustrators

Teachers College Digital Futures Institute

Columbia College of Engineering

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Interested in learning more? If you’d like to connect with us to talk about possible opportunities for collaboration, let us know! Reach out to us by emailing at teaching.residents@tc.edu.

Over the years, TR@TC Global Citizens has developed strong partnerships with NYC public schools across the five boroughs. We have the privilege of partnering with:

Interested in establishing a partnership? We’d love to hear from you. Click below to learn more