Washington -- Two teams of high school students from Macedonia and the U.S. state of Florida were the top winners of the U.S. State Department's Doors to Diplomacy competition; a team from Ghana received a special prize for overcoming daunting challenges to participate.
The annual contest challenges students ages 11 to 18 from around the world to create Web sites that teach the importance of international affairs and diplomacy. In 2006, some 305 teams from 46 countries submitted entries.
A special award was presented to a team from Mfantsipim School in Ghana to recognize the team's success in overcoming major obstacles just to be in the contest. The students created a Web site on the power of football despite the fact that their school does not have Internet access and the nearest Internet caf? is nearly 20 kilometers away. A university student named Harry Tetteh, using a donated laptop, helped the students do their research and then walked to the Internet caf? to e-mail the files to a student and teacher at San Diego?s John Muir School who completed the technical work that brought the Web site online.
The Ghanaian students, as well as the student from California who helped them, each will receive $500, and the teachers from Ghana and California each will receive $250 for their schools, said Janice Clark, a public affairs specialist with the State Department and one of the judges of the competition.
Clark said Tetteh will be going to San Diego in July for an international education conference and will be able to meet the Californians for the first time.
The top winners were four students and a teacher from Metodi Mitevski Brico School in Delcevo, Macedonia, whose Web site explores the problem of children living in poverty, and three students and a teacher from Florida Virtual School in Orlando, Florida, with a Web site on the United Nations.
Each student on the winning teams received a $2,000 scholarship; in addition, the winning coaches received a $500 cash award for their schools.
The Macedonian students also will be going to the United States in July, but they will be headed to Washington. After the team won the Doors to Diplomacy competition, there was ?a lot of media attention and home-town pride,? Clark said, and eventually the government of Macedonia decided to fund their trip.
The Web site created by the four students and their teacher, Roza Stamenkovska, greets the viewer with searing images of children around the world existing in deplorable conditions. The introduction features the music Conquest of Paradise by the Greek composer Vangelis.
?The Macedonian Web site does tug the heart strings,? said Clark. The visual and audio impact, combined with the subject matter, contributed to the judges? decision, she said. In addition, the Web site ?addresses the issue very well, and hit on all the points that needed to be hit.?
An extra challenge was the fact that -- as with all international entries -- the Web site had to be in English, Clark pointed out.
The Doors to Diplomacy contest is managed and co-sponsored by Global SchoolNet, a nonprofit organization based in San Diego that brings teachers and students together worldwide to participate in collaborative online learning projects. The founder, Yvonne Marie Andres, says projects such as Doors to Diplomacy ?help students explore issues of global import and realize that there are different perspectives on those issues.?
Andres noted that the Florida students who shared the top prize in 2006 with the Macedonians attend a ?virtual? school -- Florida Virtual School, which was founded in 1997 and was the first statewide Internet-based public high school in the United States.
?The Web site was created entirely online through e-mail and conference calls,? Andres said. ?The three girls haven?t even met. It was amazing to see them accomplish such a great project.?
The Web site explores foreign affairs through the dealings of the United Nations. Online visitors can click on a link and see the Web site translated into any of eight languages. It also has quizzes and suggestions for ?22 ways to be an ambassador,? such as having a pen pal or becoming an exchange student.
?It was really hard to pick a winner, there were so many outstanding projects,? said Andres. ?The projects are all different and they?re all good.?
?The Web sites are creative, smart, some are funny,? said Clark. ?Not every teen is parked in front of TV or playing video games -- some are really paying attention to some of these issues.?
She added, ?If you ever feel down on people just look at these Web sites. They?ll restore your faith in people.?
In addition to the top two ?Platinum? prizes and the special award, Doors to Diplomacy recognized many other teams for their work. Winners of ?Gold? prizes included teams from Cyprus, India, Tajikistan and the state of Wisconsin; and ?Silver? prize winners included students in Uzbekistan (two teams), Singapore (two teams), India, Taiwan and the state of California. There were also several honorable mentions.
More information about Doors to Diplomacy projects is available on The Global Schoolhouse Web page on the Global SchoolNet Foundation Web site. The winning Web sites may be viewed at Fight Poverty, Golden Bridges: Connecting People to Peace and Soccer and Its Power.
The full text of the May 22 announcement on the 2006 Doors to Diplomacy winners is available on the State Department Web site.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
