Meet a Changemaker: Educator Peju Okungbowa and Xplorers Without Borders

From workshop idea to international program, camp empowers kids to think global, act local

“My teaching mission has always been to encourage children to become problem solvers,” says Peju Okungbowa, a 4th grade teacher at the International School of IITA in Nigeria. “Whatever I teach them -- science, language arts, mathematics -- it’s for them to be able to use it to solve real-world problems.”

Launching Xplorers Without Borders, a virtual Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) camp, in summer 2021 was, as Peju describes, “an actualization of my teaching mission.” The international program invited 54 students from Africa and India to dig in, identify, and solve challenges in their own communities, from littering and air pollution to expanding access to school supplies. “The children had to link a problem in their neighborhood to one of the SDGs, and they had to propose solutions and suggestions. I just love the fact that I could take children away from being test-takers to being change-makers.”

Peju’s connection to Shelburne Farms dates back nearly five years when she took her first program. But it was a 2020 workshop, “Local Action, Global Impact: the Sustainable Development Goals in my Neighborhood,” that sparked the idea for a camp. The annual workshop takes a deep dive on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and participants design a community-based project that generates local action for global solutions. 

From there, Peju applied for and won a grant from National Geographic to start Xplorers Without Borders. The curriculum used the National Geographic Explorers Mindset, Shelburne Farms’ Healthy Neighborhoods, Healthy Kids activities, and the UN’s SDG framework to challenge students to be curious and adventurous, responsible, and empowered to make a difference.

Over the course of four Saturdays in July, Peju, along with Shelburne Farms’ Director of Professional Learning Jen Cirillo as co-host and Omobola Adekola as facilitator, empowered kids to think global and act local. "When we meet educators in our professional learning programs, we know from the stories they tell us that our work ripples out to their students; but working with Peju this summer allowed me to see that firsthand,” says Jen. “I got to see how she took big picture ideas and adapted activities from the various programs, bringing learning to life in the context of her own community. What a gift to get to work with educators like Peju.”
 
And, the remote format “gave room for us to see different perspectives,” says Peju, with students from Kenya, Nigeria, and India. While some projects were individual, there were opportunities for students, mostly 10 and 11 years old, to come together in breakout rooms from around the world. The camp gave students, including those in India who were on lockdown due to rising COVID-19 infection rates, the ability to connect. “And the children were able to compare what were the challenges, what were the strengths, what is sustainable and not sustainable in their communities, and they were able to have a richer conversation.”

Camp activities included “If I Were President,” where, says Peju, students considered challenges including improving the quality of education in their countries and ending poverty. They also worked on the Special Place project, below, where students illustrated what made their community unique.

“I ended it with a celebration of learning with the children. That was really beautiful,” says Peju. “I’m taking children and changing their mindset, to not just complain about what is wrong, but take an action to offer solutions.” Community leaders, and educators Peju met through Shelburne Farms, joined the final presentations, “to hear the young people voice their minds.” 

Since then, she’s heard from students and educators alike that it was a meaningful experience. “And some of the children went out of their way to perform a service, like the child who educated kids in his community and donated pencils [for schoolwork]. That’s an action, you know, so it’s not just suggesting ideas, but also doing something. It was a realization to see that children understood that their little impacts can make a huge difference in the world.”

Though this year’s camp has ended, Peju has her eyes on expanding the program to other countries in the future. “If you asked me what’s the best thing that has happened to me as an educator, it’s Xplorers Without Borders. It stretched me.”

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