A recent project developed by the North American sub-regional group for IB in the province of British Columbia in Canada has helped our member schools build on the IB community theme: Sharing our humanity.
The Pay it Forward initiative was introduced last June as a challenge to member schools to take a $1000 grant intended for a charitable organization of each school’s choice, and ‘pay it forward’. In other words, either match the funds or increase them through action by students at the school. The response has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic and the spirit of generosity from the students representing all three IB programmes has been truly heartwarming.
This initiative has provided a wonderful vehicle for building community with each other as geographically and demographically diverse schools in one region of Canada, but more importantly, it has enabled students from all three IB programmes to pursue a common goal. Our British Columbia IB students have demonstrated the community theme in action by not only sharing their humanity with the rest of their communities, but with the rest of the world.
