As mentioned in last week’s updates, I’ll be in Colombia next week. I will post dispatches on the What Will Matter Facebook page, so be sure to Like that page so you can stay in the loop.
Much of this week has been spent collaborating with Dr. Gary Smit, the de facto dean of our national CHARACTER COUNTS! training faculty, and two of our dynamic and passionately committed master trainers from Puerto Rico: Raquel Rasuk and Nicole Armstrong. We have been adapting the Puerto Rico materials and our newest strategies in CHARACTER COUNTS! 4.0 to build a comprehensive program for Colombia.
Next week, I will be in Bogota with Raquel and Nicoleconducting a three-day training for 25 to 30 teachers from private schools that will introduce CHARACTER COUNTS! Colombia to their students and parents. The training will be completely in Spanish, so my role is limited, but I am very enthusiastic to see our character-based student development strategies move to other parts of the world.
We have formed a partnership with a Colombian parents’ association called Red Papaz, and we will also train a group of people to offer CHARACTER COUNTS! workshops for parents and caregivers all over the country.
But, that’s not all! We just completed a comprehensive proposal for the Secretary of Education in Bogota to introduce CHARACTER COUNTS! to about 400 public schools. Later in the week I will be addressing several hundred parents and educators and meeting personally with key officials of the state and city of Medellin, including the governor, to discuss bringing CHARACTER COUNTS! Colombia to that part of the country.