African Women Icons – Master Class VISA

In ICON-NECT’s crossing cultures program, VOKAL teams up with Travel To Do Good VISA program (Virtual Interactive Study Abroad) by connecting classes across oceans.  VOKAL Founder, Eve Thompson connects students in US classrooms for a Master Class in women’s studies with students in classrooms in African countries where a VOKAL Icon woman leader is located.

The aim of ICON-NECT, a project of VOKAL, is to highlight the experiences and leadership journeys of African women in order to:

• Diversify leadership stories (initially comprehension readers at elementary and high school level) globally and address the severe under-representation of African women in that collective body of work;
• Promote African women as intellectual and experiential resources;
• Fill the void of educational resources for all educational levels related to African women leadership;
• Prove that the intellectual contributions of African women can be commodified and  translated into responsible capital;
• Create an on-going, sustainable funding stream for women and education centered projects in Africa, particularly those that are overlooked by traditional donors; and
• Enhance the credibility of and respect for African women in the minds of future generations.

Prior to meeting with the Icon virtually, US students will link virtually to African students and pose background questions to students of the Icon’s country.  Students from the Icon’s country will ask questions of the US students relating to the relevance of the Icon’s story to the US context.  Teachers will solicit questions for the Icon from students who will be broken down into small groups where each group is mixed with student representatives from each of the two countries.  In small groups, they will formulate questions together and then in plenary, they will choose and prioritize the top 5 questions to pose to the Icon. 

Virtual Program Benefits

• Students will meet their peers from other countries
• Students will gain heightened awareness on the achievements of African women
• Students will gain insights into the Icon countries
• Students will learn to work together cross culturally
• Students will be exposed to a broad range of careers through their exposure to and interaction with the different Icons.

For more information please complete the contact form or contact us at 832-819-0467