| KDP Moving Forward as NGO |
| Kappa Delta Pi at the United Nations |
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Kappa Delta Pi’s decision to affiliate with the United Nations as a non-governmental organization (NGO) came to fruition January, 11, 2010, when Faye Snodgress signed an agreement after Kappa Delta Pi’s application for Association with DPI was accepted. Each NGO identifies only one interest on its accreditation application. KDP designated Education from 46 categories, including children, youth, women, families, conflict resolution, social development, poverty, and human rights. |
| KDP joining the NGO community at the UN is a major step in globalizing its’ impact on educational settings around the world. Since establishing its first international chapter in Canada in 1981, KDP has expanded its resources to provide services to chapter counselors and members throughout the world. The recent survey to identify members’ experiences and dispositions regarding global education is another step toward internationalizing KDP. As an NGO affiliated with the UN and the Committee on Teaching about the UN (CTAUN), KDP is positioned to raise awareness and collaborate for global learning. UN-affiliated NGOs send their representatives to weekly UN briefings, large forums organized by the UN Department of Public Information (DPI). Information may be accessed at www.un.org/dpi/ngosection. Briefings consist of four or more panelists from around the world with experience and expertise on the currency and history of the topic. Participants can listen in English, French, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, and Russian, the six official languages of the UN, and are provided with panelists’ biographical information and a summary of the topic. After hearing panelists’ multiple perspectives on the topic, NGO members engage in an extensive question-and-answer period with the panelists. |
| • | Summary report of the Kappa Delta Pi NGO Representatives to the UN for the period of June 30, 2011 – June 30, 2012. |
| KDP Executive Director and President-Elect Travel to China |
| During June 2012, Faye Snodgress, Executive Director, and Dr. Susan Trostle Brand, President-Elect, spent two weeks in China, meeting with different educational organizations, university faculty, and K–12 educators and administrators. The goal of the trip to was to continue to strengthen our current partnerships and to establish new collaborative activities through which to engage more American educators and administrators in international opportunities with the intent that they will become better teachers in their own classrooms and also prepare their students to be global citizens. While in China, the KDP community expanded with the chartering of two new chapters: |
| • | Asia-Pacific Network for International Education and Value Education, China, which is located on the campus of East China Norm University in Shanghai; and |
| • | Far East School Chapter, China, located in Shanghai. |
| Formal collaborations are one way to advance our goals of international education. Recognizing the valuable contributions to be gained by working together, KDP signed Memorandums of Understanding with the following organizations to identify areas of mutual benefit and common goals in the pursuit of excellence in education and the advancement of international education. |
| • | Beijing Institute of Education; |
| • | Beijing Association of Education for Sustainable Development, China; |
| • | Henan University; and |
| • | Asia-Pacific Network for International Education and Value Education. |
| These partnerships, along with those that already had been established, should provide opportunities for educators at all levels to work together to improve education for all. |
| If you are interested in establishing an international KDP chapter, please contact us at membership@kdp.org for information and assistance. |