Students from Taiwan, Egypt, Singapore Win U.S. Website Contest

Washington - Students from Taiwan, Egypt and Singapore created websites on three very different themes - world hunger, world peace and government censorship - that earned special recognition in the 2010 Doors to Diplomacy website contest sponsored by the U.S. State Department.

These teams were the first-, second- and third-place international winners in the contest, which challenges students to create websites that teach the importance of international affairs and diplomacy. Three American winners were also named. The winners were selected from 263 teams representing 29 countries.

Yvonne Marie Andres of Global SchoolNet, co-sponsor of the contest, says a surge in entries this year - 30 percent more than in 2009 - reflects a growing interest in civics and international affairs.

"I've noticed that more and more schools are adopting programs that have a focus on global awareness and civic responsibility," she said. The students who participate in Doors to Diplomacy "believe they can make a difference and can actually help prevent problems and solve problems."

"We're not really looking for fancy websites - we're looking at their educational value," Andres added. The websites need to be well-researched and easy to navigate, and the students must explain "the process they went through, why they picked their topic, what position they took - because some of the topics can be quite controversial - what they learned, and the fairness in their perspective."

Students on the teams that won first place (from Taiwan and New York) each receive a $2,000 scholarship, and their adult advisers receive $500 for their schools.

WINNING WEBSITES

The students from Taiwan faced some logistical challenges in creating "The Silent Tsunami: Global Food Crisis ( http://www.mingdao.edu.tw/diplomacy/en/ )" because three attended Ming-Dao High School in Taichung and the fourth went to Da-Zhi High School in Taipei. Their website presents a wrenching look at the more than 1 billion people who suffer from hunger and tries to offer some solutions. "We must start caring about the food crisis now," the students wrote in their project summary.

The website stood out, said Monica Perry, a public affairs specialist with the State Department and one of the Doors to Diplomacy judges, because of "the depth of research that this team put into the site, but they presented it in such a way that the user didn't feel overwhelmed."

The top American team's website, "Promoting Diplomacy Through Communication ( http://www.wix.com/doubleadoublet/Doors-To-Diplomacy )," includes some videos in American Sign Language. Three of the students communicated with the fourth, who is deaf, through a sign-language interpreter. The four said they learned "about how things work when there is positive communication and how things fail when communication lacks." They applied their experiences to designing the website, which encourages awareness and understanding of other cultures as tools for better international relations.

The website's message is important, said Perry. International diplomacy is now conducted via social media as well as face to face, she said, and "understanding of others is the first place we start."

The second-place international award went to two students from different schools in Alexandria, Egypt, who worked together through the Young People's Library at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Their web project, "Peace Around the World ( http://paw.ypteam.com/ )," explores the idea that "peace and democracy are two faces of the same coin; they are linked together." It includes profiles of peacemakers such as Anwar El-Sadat, Yasser Arafat and Nelson Mandela. "We were inspired by the immortal figures who devoted their lives for giving peaceful life to their community and tried to spread their words of peace," the students wrote.

Four students from Raffles Institution in Singapore won third place for "Censorship in Singapore ( http://www.ri.sch.edu.sg/d2d/censorship/ )," which considers arguments for and against various types of censorship. "Our motive here is to present a complete picture of censorship, not to persuade you to one side or another," the website says. In their project summary, the students said many people declined to be interviewed out of concern that the subject of censorship was "too sensitive."

The second-place U.S. winners, from Maryland, created "Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and Leadership ( http://www.sacausa.org/D-frontpage.html )," and the third prize went to "Leadership Traits ( http://www.doorstodiplomacyleaders.webs.com/ )," designed by students in Virginia.

Under Doors to Diplomacy rules, the websites must be in English, although many international students also create websites in their native languages. Each student team evaluates four other teams' entries, and then educational experts weigh in. Submissions from about 20 finalists are sent to the State Department, which selects the winners.

Each of the winning teams has created a website "that schools literally worldwide can benefit from," Andres said. "That's one of the powerful things about doing this on the Internet."

"When I look at the final results of this long project," she added, "I am just amazed at how fantastic some of these projects are. It is so rewarding, and it makes me happy that I'm doing the job that I'm doing."

In addition to the first-, second- and third-place winners, honorable mentions went to teams from China, India, Kyrgyzstan, Singapore and the United States.

For more information on Doors to Diplomacy, see the website of Global SchoolNet ( http://www.globalschoolnet.org/gsndoors/ ), a California-based nonprofit group dedicated to collaborative online learning. Also see the State Department announcement ( http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/06/142419.htm ) of the 2010 winners.