The Experiment Digital - Virtual Summer Program

Students will come away from their virtual exchange with:

• Leadership skills and practice
• Increased involvement in civic engagement and volunteerism
• Mutual understanding between youth from different countries
• Increased awareness of specific program themes such as STEAM, social justice, or climate change
• Upon successful completion of any virtual exchange, students receive a $400 scholarship toward study abroad in the summer of 2026 with The Experiment in International Living.

Program Description

Designed to connect hundreds of young people across the United States with peers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, such as Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Palestinian Territories, and Yemen, The Experiment Digital Youth Leadership & Community Service prepares participants to be more civically engaged and lead change. This fully funded eight-week summer virtual experience teaches high school students to formulate and implement service projects in their local communities. 

Students come away from the program with:

• An enhanced understanding and practice of leadership
• Increased involvement in civil society and volunteering
• Mutual understanding between youth from different cultures

The Experiment Digital Youth Leadership & Community Service, a pioneer in virtual exchange programming, launched in 2016. The program draws upon best practices in experiential learning accumulated over decades of Experiment programming. Originally launched to connect Experimenters with students in countries to which travel and traditional programs were not possible, The Experiment Digital Youth Leadership & Community Service is now providing a critical outlet for global intercultural exchange in a time of crisis.

Upon successful completion of the program, participants receive a Certificate of Completion in Leadership & Global Issues Analysis, access to the U.S. Department of State’s International Alumni Network, unique project funding opportunities from the U.S. Department of State, and a $400 scholarship for summer 2026 towards participation in one of The Experiment in International Living’s programs around the world.

Why We’re Different

The Experiment Digital retains The Experiment’s longstanding model of experiential learning and emphasis on forming meaningful relationships and moves it into the virtual space. Using popular digital platforms for teens like Canvas, padlet, flipgrip, and Zoom, our virtual program model gives young people the opportunity to build international friendships online. Peer-to-peer engagement, combined with carefully designed activities, allow students to learn from one another, and together develop knowledge and attitudes that foster cultural understanding.

Virtual exchanges diversify the learning experience through accessible digital means, enabling an increasing number of young people to enjoy a meaningful intercultural experience as part of their education. 

• Experiential Learning Online: Learning with The Experiment Digital is challenging and fun. Participants learn how to facilitate digital discussions, lead online dialogues via video chat, and formulate and implement service projects in their local communities. Activities center around bringing students together to navigate scenarios that test their abilities and reflect on lessons learned through collaborative dialogue. Students practice collaborative problem solving, intercultural communication, and digital etiquette—all of which are important in our increasingly globalized world.
• Safe and Intimate Small Group Spaces: The participant to expert facilitator ratio is 5:1. This allows for small group conversations with authentic engagement. Students share their hopes, fears, and discuss gender norms and stereotypes. 
• Program for Youth Led by Youth: Our facilitators are program alumni with experience in cultural exchanges. Community Facilitators manage “Neighborhoods” and were selected because of their experience working with youth and facilitating cross-cultural exchanges. They undergo an intensive month-long training for online facilitation. Peer Mentors, alumni of our previous digital programs, offer another layer of support to participants.
• Robust Curriculum to Prepare Future Digital Citizens: Through interactions with international peers, students practice collaborative problem solving, intercultural communication, and digital etiquette—all of which are important in our increasingly globalized world. 

Program modules:

• Module 1: Digital Citizenship: In this opening module, participants will introduce themselves to each other. To set the norms for online communications and ensure a productive space for the exchange, participants will discuss phrases and emoticons that are polite and impolite to use in their cultures. They will also identify an issue that they care about in their communities and analyze its root causes.
• Module 2: Leadership and Identity: In this module, participants will formulate the issue they want to address in their communities into a problem statement that begins with, “How might we…” to narrow the scope of their projects. They will also engage in a collaborative problem-solving activity, where together as a group they will have to reach an agreement within a given timeframe while practicing leadership skills. 
• Module 3: Community Initiatives: Participants will take the problem statements they devised in the previous module, and collaboratively brainstorm solutions together. Sometimes, it is helpful to learn how trash is recycled in Erbil, Iraq, and brainstorm how that may be applied to Washington, DC. In this module, participants will also share in small group dialogues how gender norms and societal expectations affect their lives.  
• Module 4: Public Narrative: In this closing module, participants will take everything they have developed for their projects and put it into a form of an “action plan.” Many of our program alumni implement their action plans in their communities post-exchange and have received grant funding to sustain their initiatives. Participants will also learn the public narrative framework on how to tell a story about themselves—why they came to this exchange program, and what their responsibilities are, as alumni of The Experiment Digital.