Community Outreach Efforts

Eight years ago, the Tulsa Public School Superintendent announced the opening of Eisenhower International School. At that time, the school was charged with the mission to “open the doors to the international community of Tulsa.”

In 1992, Tulsa Global Alliance (TGA) stepped forward as the school’s Adopt-ASchool Partner and secured a grant from the State Humanities Council. The grant provided seed money for Eisenhower’s Culture Box Project, an outreach service that allows community check-out of Culture Boxes representing 28 different countries. The boxes contain authentic artifacts for use in global and cultural studies and are utilized by area schools and youth organizations.

In 2001, EIS and TGA received a joint grant of $12,500 from The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation to work together to provide professional development workshops for Tulsa area teachers in the area of cultural education, particularly during the years when TGA does not offer their community-based event, KIDS WORLD.

Current outreach projects are described below:

1. Student Academic Exchange Programs (voluntary) for 5th grade students have
   evolved from collaborative work with Tulsa’s Sister Cities organization. Spanish
   Immersion students and accompanying staff chaperones live and study for 8
   weeks in San Luis Potosi, Mexico where EIS students attend a private school,
   Instituto Cervantes. A similar program exists for French Immersion students,
   though this exchange connection is younger and shorter. Students live and study
   for three weeks in Amiens, France. They attend a private school there, L’Ecole
   Jean Baptist de La Salle. Both exchange partner schools send students and staff
   chaperones to EIS for equivalent experiences.
   

2. Eisenhower Culture Boxes provide a resource for the broader community. Other
   schools and organizations within the Tulsa metropolitan area may check out the
   cultural and global studies resource boxes. This includes public, private and
   parochial schools as well as colleges, universities and community youth
   organizations.
   

3. In the fall of 2002, the school opened its new Global Learning Center (GLC).
   The GLC provides an enhanced library/media center that incorporates a cultural
   classroom, a kitchenette for the preparation of cultural cuisine, and a public
   check-out area. Services the GLC offers to the community include cultural
   studies workshops for teachers, multicultural storytelling sessions for children and
   a design that allows for after-hours use of the facility by community groups and
   organizations.