I was startled when I learned that in the last U.S. census, 70% of Americans reported that they did not own a passport. It is quite fascinating that while as we have become a more "globalized" society, the majority of our population does not have the means or interest to travel abroad. ProjectExplorer is attempting to change this by producing free online videos filmed in different parts of the world or "travel adventures", if you will, and bringing them into schools.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Jenny Buccos, the founder of ProjectExplorer, and she discussed her organization's goal to open up the dialogue on what it means to be a citizen of the world. She hopes to encourage children to travel and expand their horizons through educational programming. In fact, 90 percent of ProjectExplorers' audience are NYC students. The NYC Department of Education has additionally recommended the online videos be included in their curriculum. I was pleased to learn that while this organization serves to be an online resource into foreign cultures, it also has positively affected our local community.

While expanding the conversation of world ideas and travel, ProjectExplorer aims to prepare this nations' youth to be global citizens. The idea of a "global citizen" might be different for every person. For this reason, ProjectExplorer is asking anyone and everyone to create their own video and to share their idea of what it means to be a "good global citizen". By sharing these ideas through videos posted online, the initiative hopes to inspire children to be more globally-minded. Many celebrities have participated by posting videos of what they think global education and citizenship mean, and I encourage you to do the same!

Please see the below video with Jenny Buccos and visit http://www.projectexplorer.org/ to learn more about their videos and organization.