Report:
Concerning the Progress
of the Gross National Happiness Exchange Program
Written by Julian Jacobs
I am writing this report in an effort to
help illuminate some of the challenges and successes that this program has had
in its infant, first year of function. As is stated in its official project
description, the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Exchange Program was developed
for the purpose of created a greater sense of intercultural understanding,
tolerance, and social responsibility within both the Kingdom of Bhutan and the
United States through their respective interaction with one another. Since such
an exchange program has never materialized prior to this one, this first year
of function has been one marked by constant assessments (and reassessment) of
the capacity for this program so serve as a useful means of interaction between
two distant countries. This, coupled with questions regarding the role of the
program’s participants, the allocation of funds, its extension in a university /
college environment and the impact of this project with the community have
driven much of our work throughout the last year and half.
Nearly all the coordination and planning
done for this program took place over frequent Skype calls between Namgay
Wangchuk and me. Our work together moved smoothly despite the occasional
difficulty of coordinating an appropriate time for a call. By having one member
of the Royal Education Council (REC) to help coordinate the “Bhutan half” of
the exchange program, I was able to direct more of my attention to gaining the
funds we needed to get the exchange off the ground. This was an effective way
of coordinating this project because we were working, primarily, amongst
ourselves and did not need to slow down the process on account of anyone else.
Still, friction did occur on a few occasions, lending to brief setbacks in our
ability to finalize the program. The first concerned the name of the exchange.
Although I had initially presented the title “Gross National Happiness Exchange
Program” to the REC, I eventually felt that the title “Bhutan-US Exchange
Program” would be a more accurate title for the project. This name was denied
by the Ministry of Education, forcing us to revert it back to its original
title. One question we are still considering is whether or not this program has
the capacity to serve as a larger, international, exchange program between
countries outside of just the U.S. and Bhutan. The current title seems to lend
itself to such a possibility.
Although I have said that Namgay and I
were able to work around the occasional coordination issues that came through
working from so far away, our efforts came, at one point, to a complete when
issues revolving around visas and passports emerged. Still, as this program
gains a stronger foothold, we anticipate that such issues will be minimized if
not nonexistent. After a full year of function, we are convinced that this
program has a lot to offer and can play a significant role in the way its
participants view the world. The Weston High School students were amazed at the
simple, yet fulfilling life that the Bhutanese people lead and were able to
have the incredibly unique opportunity to actually live with a family in Bhutan
for a month. The effects of this exchange program on these students has been
absolutely transformative, as many of much of the experience and maturity they
gained in Bhutan seems to have been carried back to Weston. Furthermore, the
small kingdom of Bhutan has become a large source of discussion amongst a
student body that previously had no knowledge of the country. On the other
hand, the Bhutanese who traveled to the U.S. through the program (and are still
here as I write this), were able to have a privileged interaction with a
country that the vast majority of Bhutanese will never experience. This took
the form of trips to places ranging from museums in New York, a Knicks game,
and a Shakespeare play on Broadway. These experiences were set in context with
work in Weston High School, as both the students and the teacher who traveled
to the U.S. during this first year were able to take complete courses at Weston
High School and learn through a complete different style of teaching in an
entirely different environment (one that is more technologically oriented). The
teacher Sonam Zangpo was so inspired from his experiences that he proclaimed at
a school reception that he would bring everything he learned in the U.S. back
to Bhutan to revolutionize his school. This seems to validate the capacity for
this program to have an immense impact within both the U.S. and Bhutan. Still,
we are anticipating that this program will become highly competitive within the
next year and we hope that such an environment would make for better, more
qualified, candidates to travel through this exchange.
