Global Education Gala

Each year the World Affairs Council - Washington, DC hosts its annual Global Education Gala. The gala serves as a forum to recognize the achievements of the Council throughout the year. It also honors the work of citizens and teachers, government officials and diplomatic corps members, and Council supporters for their commitment to educating the national capital area community about issues of international affairs and the United States’ relationship with the world. Each year, three honors are given - the Global Service Award, the Global Citizenship Award, and the Teacher of the Year. The Global Education Dinner is a critical source of support for the World Affairs Council's public and educational programs for metro area citizens, teachers and students.

Global Service Award

2008 Global Service Award Recipient –Senator Joe Biden (D-DE)

Senator Joe Biden is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a long-standing member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. His bi-partisan leadership was widely hailed for helping to bring stability and peace to the Balkans; he authored the Senate resolution endorsing the air war in Kosovo and was instrumental in convincing President Bill Clinton to act in the face of systemic human rights violations. Today, he is leading the Congressional effort to end genocide in Darfur.

Senator Biden is well known for his work to fight crime, and has been actively involved in developing federal crime legislation throughout his tenure in the Senate. In the capacity of chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he addressed issues related to drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties. Senator Biden has worked specifically to combat domestic violence and to ensure federal funding to aid the victims of gender-based violence. He is the author of the legislation that created the position of “Drug Czar” – the individual who overseas and coordinates national drug control policy.

One of Senator Biden’s continuing priorities is making university education more accessible and affordable for students and their families. He recently introduced the College Affordability and Creating Chances for Educational Success for Students Act to increase tax incentives, expand Pell grants, and institute college planning at an earlier stage. Senator Biden’s “Kids 2000” legislation established a public-private partnership to provide educational access to technology and technical training to low-income and at-risk youth.

The senator is also committed to the care and support of veterans, and tirelessly advocates for legislation that ensures that all of these men and women have state-of-the-art medical treatment in fully funded VA healthcare facilities. He also advocates for measures that guarantee healthcare for the children of Delaware.

The senator is a native of New Castle County in Delaware, and graduated from the University of Delaware in 1965 and the Syracuse University College of Law in 1968. Prior to his election to the Senate at the age of 29, Senator Biden practiced law in Wilmington, Delaware, and served on the New Castle County Council. His recent bid for the Democratic Party’s Presidential Candidate drew attention to key domestic issues such as healthcare, energy policy, and crime, as well as foreign policy issues – most notably, bringing a peaceful end to the war in Iraq.

Global Citizenship Award

2008 Global Citizenship Award Recipient – Dr. John G. Sperling

John G. Sperling is the founder of the University of Phoenix and serves as its Executive Chairman. One of the most innovative entrepreneurs of our time, Dr. Sperling foresaw a growing demand for adult learning in the early 1970s, and responded by leading the gradual shift in higher education demographics from a student population dominated by youth to one increasingly populated by adults. Anticipating the promise of the internet, Dr. Sperling catapulted his university into the digital age by offering courses online.

Founded in 1976, the University of Phoenix has grown to become the largest privately-owned university in North America. The university’s first students paid tuition out of their own pockets, yet after Dr. Sperling’s persistent advocacy, students now qualify for federal grants and loan assistance. The university offers more than 100 degree programs at the associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. With over a quarter of a million students and 200 campuses in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Netherlands—in addition to internet delivery to most countries—the university reaches students across the world. Plans are underway to begin operations in China and India soon. Dr. Sperling’s commitment to transform higher education and make it available to working adults has made a career difference for countless individuals.

Dr. Sperling also serves as Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Professional Development Inc., and is Chairman of One Touch Systems Inc. He was a professor of humanities at San Jose State University from 1961-1973, where he served as Director of the Right to Read Project and Director of the National Science Foundation’s Cooperative College-School Science Program in Economics. His professional interests extend far beyond education and into the field of biology, where Dr. Sperling is known for co-founding Genetic Savings & Clone, the company that created the first successful cat clone. Currently, he is working to advance the adoption of clean energy policies in the United States.

Born in a log cabin in rural Missouri, he spent several years with the merchant marines, and then moved on to pursue his BA at Reed College. He holds an MA from the University of California at Berkeley and a PhD in Economic History from Cambridge University. An enthusiastic liberal, Dr. Sperling is co-author of The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America, a sociological examination of the cultural political divisions of the United States, and has raised considerable funds for liberal causes.

2008 Teacher of the Year Award

2008 TEACHER OF THE YEAR: Isabel Vazquez-Gil

Isabel Vázquez-Gil was born in Spain and spent most of her childhood between Madrid and Santiago de Compostela. She graduated from Barcelona University with a master’s degree in classics and later pursued postgraduate studies in education and applied linguistics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Later, she studied at Edinburgh and St. Andrews, Scotland, and taught at Heriot-Watt University, St. Leonard’s School, the American British College in Barcelona, and the Center of Modern Languages at Granada University.

Ms. Vázquez -Gil first exercised her passion for international education in the U.S. when she joined the Spanish Visiting Teachers Program in 1999 primarily working with underprivileged students in diverse school settings including the Bilingual Program in California and the Heritage Language Program for Walter Johnson High School in Montgomery County, Maryland. In addition, Ms. Vázquez-Gil has designed and worked in the middle-school level Spanish Immersion Program in Montgomery County Maryland and has been actively involved in numerous cross-cultural language programs.

Since 2006, Ms. Vázquez-Gil has been working in the District of Columbia Public Schools as Chairperson of World Languages at Luke C. Moore Academy Senior High School, an alternative public school that serves underprivileged and at-risk students who are seeking new opportunities and a second chance. She has made a vast contribution to the development of Standards and Curricula for World Languages, and conducted training sessions both locally and at the national level for Spanish language teachers. She was also part of a nationwide panel of experts that designed the NAEP Assessment for World Languages in 2001 for the US Department of Education. She has been twice awarded teacher of the year in DC Public Schools Ward 5.

Ms. Vázquez-Gil has used her position as a foreign language teacher to expose her students to contemporary issues around the world. Her students at Luke C. Moore have been awarded scholarships to learn Arabic in Egypt, participate in a summer language immersion program in Minnesota, and travel to Costa Rica for a Spanish immersion course. This summer, she is taking two students to China to study water scarcity through the Center for International Education. Her hope is to expand the program to other students next year so other groups can travel to Zambia and Paraguay to work with health and educational issues.

2008 Teacher of the Year Award Recipient

Melissa Schoeplein

Melissa Schoeplein has developed innovative courses that challenge her students to think critically about the connections between the United States and the world. She teaches AP US Government: Topics in Globalization, World Religions, and Science Policy at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. Topics in Globalization, a team-taught course developed by Ms. Schoeplein and a group of colleagues, combines AP Government and AP Language and Composition. The course poses four core questions: What does it mean to be a global citizen? Is the U.S. a hero or an ogre in the world? Why is the gap so big between developing and developed countries? How will globalization affect your life beyond your graduation? The course encourages students to do real-world research on global issues, and to submit their ideas in policy papers and op-eds on these topics.

This past year, Ms. Schoeplein added a new course to the Thomas Jefferson curriculum: Science Policy. Building on her experience developing the Topics in Globalization course and integrating the mission of the science and technology magnet school, she is working with students at the crucial intersection of science and policy. In its inaugural year, her students are working two afternoons a week at internships at the National Academies, NASA, the Federal Communications Commission, and the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Office.

Ms. Schoelplein regularly participates in professional development programs to better bring international affairs into her classroom and closer to home for her students and most recently traveled to Saudi Arabia in the fall of 2007 to pursue her interest in U.S.-Middle East relations with a program sponsored by the Institute for International Education and Aramco Services Company.

In addition to her teaching assignments, Ms. Schoeplein sponsors the Student Government Association at Thomas Jefferson, and led a senior trip this past March to New Orleans, Louisiana to build homes with Habitat for Humanity in neighborhoods affected by Hurricane Katrina. She has also organized student trips to Australia and Central Europe for a comparative study of government and to learn about current global issues facing these regions.

Ms. Schoeplein serves as a Board Member on the National Association for Specialized Secondary Schools in Math, Science, and Technology (NCSSSMST). Prior to teaching, she earned a BA in History from the University of California at Berkeley and an MAT from Brown University. Ms. Schoeplein enjoys living in and exploring our nation’s capital.

2008 Honorable Mentions

2008 Certificate of Recognition

In the fall 2006, with support from the Embassy of China, DC Public Schools signed a formal agreement with Hanban (Office of Chinese Language Council International) to promote Chinese language learning within DCPS classrooms. The program was inaugurated in the 2007-08 school year with the placement of five full-time guest teachers from China in six schools across the city: Aiton Elementary School, Eaton Elementary School, Thomson Elementary School, Deal Middle School, Kelly Miller Middle School, and Wilson Senior High School. Students from these schools will share what they have learned about Chinese language and culture, and the contributions of those who have made this program possible will be recognized. The Council awarded Ma Qian, Shi Fei, Kong Rui, Lin Honghui, and Meng Fei certificates of recognition for their work in the pilot Chinese language program.