How does it feel to be an expat child in India, or an Indian child in an international environment?
Open to every child and teenager in Chennai, The Convergence Project is a brand new creative-educative project launched by German International School.
Through workshops, we aim to help children express themselves creatively through an unlimited range of artistic mediums: dance, music, photography, theatre, video, visual arts, writing... The sky’s the limit!
Convergence covers three multicultural themes:
1 – My experience as an expat child, or as an Indian child in an international community
2 – My personal relationship with a new environment, and how it evolves over time
3 – My growing understanding of a different culture, and how it impacts my perception of my own culture
Artistic mediums and activities are chosen in accordance with each participant’s age, personal wishes and skills, depending on the available workshops. Workshops are conducted by professional educators.
Twice a year, a public event will showcase the students’ creations.
Why such a project?
Self-expression
Being an expat child is a life-changing and challenging experience. Contrarily to adults, children do not choose to move abroad, a change that involves being away from friends, family and a familiar environment. Similarly, Indian children can find it challenging to adjust to an international school or a language institute: classmates and teachers come from different horizons and may share different cultural values.
Because we believe self-expression is a key to well-being, we offer teenagers and children a platform to express their feelings creatively, and make the best out of their expatriation/international community experience.
Multicultural awareness
Teenagers and children can feel confused when facing unknown cultural values, and often tend to believe their own cultural standards to be universal. Getting to understand another culture necessarily involves putting your own culture into perspective!
The Convergence Project aims to give them a better and more objective understanding of their expatriation country or international community, through multicultural-focused creative activities.
Intercultural awareness is essential to growing into the multicultural world of today! It helps teenagers and children feel comfortable among foreigners, make friends and achieve better academic results.
