A new global education project is launching at Harker.

Harker grade 4 and 5 students will be corresponding and exchanging cultural items with Ethiopian students at the Andinet International School (AIS) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The idea came from Jennifer Abraham, Harker’s director of global education, who worked at AIS from 2004-05, when the school had only pre-K to fourth grade students. The school now boasts all twelve grades and is opening a college. Though most students are Ethiopian, it is also an international draw, with students hailing from countries all over Africa, Japan and the U.K.

Abraham said she thought the pen pal project would be a fun way for the students to learn about each other and dispel any misconceptions they have about each other’s countries.

Lower school social studies teacher Tobias Wade said that in addition to student-written letters, the Ethiopian schoolchildren will be receiving copies of Harker students’ “cultural cookbooks,” as well as a CD showing our students on the playground. The cookbooks come from a project completed earlier in the year in which students brought in their favorite recipe from their cultural background.

Harker News Online will update this story when the response from Ethiopia arrives.