Our Story

One World Youth Project (OWYP) was founded in 2004 by then 18 year-old Jess Rimington as a link between her high school in Massachusetts, USA and a school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The project grew quickly as educators around the world began emailing Jess asking for their classroom to be linked with a partner abroad.

Within a year, One World Youth Project became a not-for-profit run by a volunteer team of university students in seventeen countries.  From 2004 to 2009, they connected 67 schools in 26 countries using email, Skype and Facebook to coordinate efforts.

Critical Observations
During the first five years, the OWYP team observed that school pairs communicated most effectively when a facilitator could regularly visit classes in person to assist teachers in implementing cultural exchange. The team also found that there was a tremendous untapped demand for in-depth global learning opportunities that did not involve expensive travel. University students and administrators also expressed interest in bringing OWYP’s philosophy and curriculum to higher education.

A Scalable Model
To meet the rising demand for wired global learning opportunities, OWYP began to engage universities as partners in connecting the secondary schools in their community with classrooms abroad. With these new partners, OWYP began to train university students as the facilitators of cultural exchange in local classrooms. OWYP scaled to a full-time staff and from 2009 to 2011 ran a two-year pilot with university partners in the United States, Kosovo, and Qatar.  The pilot proved that OWYP is a scalable solution to global education and inspired the confidence of universities and investors for a ten-city expansion in 2012.

Today and Beyond
The One World Youth Project of today is the result of seven years of learning led by an international team and supported by an active Board of Directors of educators, economists, business leaders and young people.

By 2015, OWYP will be in 120 cities, growing exponentially to prepare youth with the crucial global life skills needed for success in the interconnected 21st century society and economy.