“For youth, by youth.” This sums up our approach at Global Nomads: Our programs and learning experiences are designed for a global youth audience, by global youth themselves. 

Over the last five years, I’ve worked on the implementation side of our Student to World program, collaborating with educators to bring our courses to young people around the world. That “for youth” side of the work has been deeply rewarding and enriching. This year, however, I got to experience the “by youth” side of our programs, supporting youth in our curriculum design internship, the Content Creation Lab, as they brought their ideas for a new course to life.

The new course, called “Qisasna Tejma’na: Our Stories Bring Us Together,” has been designed by 16 young people, ages 15–23, from Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and Iraq. With support from the Ford Foundation, we set out to create a course about polarization in the Arab world. Each designer brought their unique skills, perspectives, and lived experience, shaped by their backgrounds, communities, stories, questions, and distinct ways of perceiving the world. 

At Global Nomads, we trust young people to lead because they are best positioned to understand the global issues that matter to them and their communities. Since this was my first experience staffing a CCL course design process, I had many questions about how we would navigate a topic as sensitive and complex as polarization. I chose to put that trust into practice: to follow their lead and let go of the need to have every answer.

Shortly after beginning this project, war broke out in the region, directly affecting the safety and stability of many of our youth designers. We offered greater flexibility in how they attended and participated. Yet all the 16 youth chose to attend every session. Their commitment surprised me, as did their desire to engage even more deeply.

Our CCL youth designers showed up with curiosity, courage, and care. They challenged one another (and I’m proud to say, challenged me too), built on each other’s ideas, and shaped a course rooted in what they knew and had lived. Together, they explored polarization and the forces that can deepen it, from binary thinking and groupthink to media and algorithms, alongside social solidarity and constructive dialogue. I genuinely cannot imagine better people to have explored these questions with.

Every time we met, I learned from them: how they understood their communities, chose their words, made one another feel safe and valued, and navigated difficult conversations with care. Their thoughtfulness deepened my understanding of what it means to create something meaningful together.

That is what “for youth, by youth” came to mean to me: creating space for young people to lead in their own language, through their own experiences, and on their own terms. (For Global Nomads, this was our first course and internship developed originally in Arabic, rather than created in English and translated afterward.) The youth shaped its language, examples, and meaning from the very beginning.

An external program evaluation of this project found a statistically significant positive effect of the Content Creation Lab program for its participants on every outcome we measured. The strongest effects were found in initiative, perspective-taking, adaptability, and collaboration. Most meaningfully, 100% of the youth interns said they felt a sense of belonging in the program, and 100% said they would use what they learned to contribute to their communities.

And now, the course is finding its way into the world. This month, educators and facilitators in Jordan and Lebanon are bringing the program to hundreds of students, both through after-school clubs and as part of their core school curriculum. More classrooms and student groups in Egypt, Iraq, and Morocco will soon join the course, too. Starting in 2027, we hope to launch the course in both English and Arabic for a global audience. Witnessing the work the young designers created now living in real classrooms brings me a sense of pride and excitement. 

I’m deeply grateful to my team, especially Katie, Sandra, and Sarah, for their support throughout this journey. I’m also grateful to the youth for everything they taught me and for the growth we shared. Thank you, Dina, Mariam, Ahmad, Jessy, Abdulrahman, Raveen, Ala, Amina, Ahmed, Ibrahim, Haya, Omar, Marah, Heba, Ali, and Maram. I’m beyond proud of you.