Bethel’s Stacie Freeman to Participate in Think Tank at Harvard

Harvard’s Think Tank on Global Education has invited Stacie Freeman, Bethel University professor and co-executive director of Bright Light Volunteers, to be at the forefront of testing and developing cutting-edge curriculum to advance competence in global studies, in classrooms, schools and school districts via participation in Harvard’s Graduate School of Education program.
Freeman states, “Participants in Harvard’s Think Tank will be sharing and learning ways to foster global competence in our schools by co-constructing curriculum, developing educators and devising a strategy for systemic change in global education.” 
As a participant in the upcoming institute, Freeman will take part in “a dynamic, large-scale collaboration to create and adapt lesson plans and scale global education” for students in the rural, Southern, Title I schools where she teaches.
Freeman has led students from Bethel University and high schools, both local and national, to destinations such as Cuba, Vietnam, Costa Rica, and Colombia.
Historically, Title 1 students in the rural south have had limited access to global citizenship education and to the multiple intellectual and social benefits of participation. Bethel University and Bright Light Volunteers initially partnered to support the U.S. Department of Education’s Purpose for Title 1 schools: “improving the academic achievement of the disadvantaged,” by “closing the achievement gap between minority and non-minority students and between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers.” (2004)
Although Freeman has already devised and implemented a curriculum which capitalizes on the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, she is eager to learn more and to use that knowledge to help “level out the playing field” when it comes to access to global education.
Catherine Greenberg, founder & co-executive of Bright Light Volunteers is excited about how Freeman’s participation in the institute will strengthen the educational aspect of the Dallas-based nonprofit’s student global service learning programs.
Greenberg offers, “Being able to improve how we implement our signature pedagogy in global education and provide teachers with the tools to design global service learning experiences is an enterprise that will change lives.”
Freeman resides in Dresden, Tenn. with her husband, Mike, and twin daughters, Lillie and Katie.
Bright Light Volunteers is a 501(c)(3), a non-profit organization, designed to empower program participants and community partners through education and service.
Specifically, the programs adhere to global service-learning best practices, which combine community service with both experiential learning in the field and online coursework through our university partner. The vision is to make the world a brighter place by creating a more peaceful, just, interconnected world where global challenges and opportunities are met by educated, compassionate, global citizens and leaders.
Founded in 1842, Bethel University is a nonprofit institution that is regionally accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Bethel University’s mission is to create opportunities for members of the learning community to develop in a Christian environment their highest intellectual, spiritual, and social potential. This includes synchronous and asynchronous modes of education.