International Student Speakers Bureau - ISSB
The International Student Speakers Bureau (ISSB) is a group of international and study abroad students from the University of Florida who volunteer to teach local school children about their home and host countries. The goal of the program is to promote global awareness among elementary, middle and high school students.
What topics do our international speakers’ discuss?
The international speakers are able to speak on a wide range of topics regarding their home and host countries. The teacher may request a certain topic to coincide with recent lessons or the speakers can talk to students about interesting cultural similarities and differences. For example, some topics include language differences, festivals, school and childhood in their country, weddings, dating, food, religion, clothing and native dances. International speakers also bring along artifacts, clothing, musical instruments, pictures, slide shows and videos from their country to illustrate their ideas to kids.
How are the school visits typically organized?
International speakers' presentations can go from 20 minutes to 1 hour in length depending on the needs of the school. The ISSB can either talk to one class per visit, or can provide 10 to 20 speakers who speak to multiple classrooms by having the students rotate into 'country-themed' classrooms throughout the school.