Harvard Comes to Darlington

At age 23, Bruno della Chiesa sat as the only foreigner in an auditorium full of Egyptians in Cairo.

A speaker at the podium said, “If you want to know what it means to be Egyptian, go to China, go to America, go to South America – go anywhere but here. To truly understand yourself and what it means to be from a place, you must go.”

Now a world-renowned professor at Harvard University, Dr. della Chiesa recounted this story to Darlington’s Intro to Media Arts class. To understand our own culture, he explained, we must enter another one. A fish does not know water.

Fittingly, on Global Collaboration Day, Dr. della Chiesa visited my classroom as I introduced my students to National Geographic Fellow Paul Salopek’s Out of Eden Walk. Salopek is completing the ultimate act of slow journalism as he retraces the human migration of our ancestors in a 21,000-mile trek across the globe, reporting on his experiences, observations, and conversations along the way.

This summer I met della Chiesa during my participation in the Future of Learning Institute, made possible by the Carla and Leonard Wood Distinguished Faculty Fellowship Award. I was also introduced to Out of Eden Learn, a unique online learning community that connects students to Salopek’s Out of Eden Walk, thanks to support from Project Zero, a research center at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

I signed up my media class to join a “walking party,” in which our students will interact with other students from around the world as they complete their own acts of slow journalism. They will document their own neighborhoods, investigate current global issues, and reflect on how they fit into a broader geographical and historical context. According to Out of Eden Learn, the program’s goal is to support students to become more informed, thoughtful, and engaged global citizens.

Both Dr. della Chiesa and I were so impressed by the observation made by one of my students during our reflection on Salopek’s seven-year-trek around the globe: “Paul will be learning a lot about himself.”

So true, and isn't that also the case for our international students, who make their own significant trek across the globe to join us at Darlington? They have already made the decision to leave their homes and immerse themselves in a culture unfamiliar to their own. Their cultural identity is more conspicuous – not only to others but also to themselves – as they learn to navigate the new water they are in here at Darlington.

Bruno della Chiesa’s day observing and participating in classes at Darlington engaged our Community in an intriguing conversation about diversity – one that will hopefully be continued in the weeks and months ahead.

To read more about Darlington’s experience at Harvard, click here.