World at Hand

“Description;Amount^GAPP Program Materials and Passports;1485|Website Fees;430|Insurance;940|NAFSA Conference Fee;1199|Admin and Accounting;515|Articulate 360 online course development platform;617^Total;5186^”

“Mission: Blessed to Be a Blessing (B2baB) assists low-income and underrepresented students in achieving equal access to cross-cultural and global experiences through educational programs and scholarships. Programs: Blessed Scholars Online Travel Academy aka BSOTA. The first step of our Equal Access Pipeline- introducing Knowledge. An online "school" providing free introductory courses Study Abroad 101 and International Travel 101. These are the prerequisites for GAPP and students get a basic introduction to the course topics and learn how international education and travel can be beneficial to them. As this was recently released few students have taken these courses. As of now we have a 100 student capacity and are working to increase that number to 500 by the end of our next fiscal year. Global Access Passport Program aka GAPP. The second step of our Equal Access Pipeline- Reinforce Knowledge and Remove Barriers. 8 students completed the program this year and received passports. GAPP is an in-person program that allows students to learn more in-depth about international education and travel. Students practice trip planning, budgeting, and cultural research. Students find a study abroad country of interest as well as three potential scholarships they can apply to in the future. In addition to learning more in-depth about making a trip abroad, students will end the program with the possibility to do so with their very own passport-free of charge. With completion, students acquire the knowledge and means of international education and travel as well as the desire to do so. We are working to bring this as an after-school program to multiple high schools across Denver. Our long-term goal is to award 200 passports annually Study Abroad Scholarships: The third step of our Equal Access Pipeline- Removing Final Barrier. the biggest preventing factor for low-income and underrepresented students to studying abroad. By providing scholarships we can complete our Equal Access Pipeline and help students afford to participate in the programs we are educating them about. B2bab has not awarded any scholarships to date but will be awarding five $1000 scholarships for the 2023-2024 school year. It is our long term goal to award $60,000 in scholarships annually by $2030. Future Programming: We will spend year 3 improving our current programs, increasing our impact and working on two new programs to add to the pipeline. Program 1: Dreamers Abroad- Even DACA students can have a path to study abroad but it is not always easy. We will work on obtaining legal support for DACA students to get the necessary paperwork to also experience international education. Program 2: Virtual Exchanges- by adding virtual exchanges to our curriculum we can have a secondary income source and be able to provide some sort of international education to all our students. Students that complete a virtual exchange program are twice as likely to study abroad than a student that simply took a foreign language class. With the addition of these future programs as well as perfecting the programs already in place, we believe that 100% of our students will be able to experience some form of international education during their academic career, thus preparing them for success in a global economy.”