Last September, I eagerly entered the hallways of Cesar Chavez Middle School on Chicago’s southwest side, ready to meet 25 new Citizen Schools students. The students I was about to meet had chosen “UNICEF: Be the Change” as their ten-week Citizen Schools apprenticeship. As a U.S. Fund for UNICEF Global Citizenship Fellow, I had volunteered to be a Citizen Teacher to teach students about UNICEF’s work and empower them to take action for children.

The U.S. Fund for UNICEF New England Regional Office recently hosted a community event focused on fostering global citizenship. The event, “Engaging Kids, Schools and Communities: Re-introducing Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF and TeachUNICEF to Boston” concentrated on two specific U.S. Fund for UNICEF programs: our educator resources known as TeachUNICEF and our annual Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign. As the Boston Global Citizenship Fellow, I was excited to plan an event focused on global education and the engagement of young people through service opportunities. The event met and exceeded my expectations as it was truly a community event, with representation from Boston-area parents, teachers, non-profit organizations, students, and religious leaders, all of whom were excited to learn how different community groups were active in educating, advocating and fundraising on behalf of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

In December, I had one of most rewarding experiences of my tenure at the U.S. Fund when a friend invited me to speak to her daughter Riley’s third grade class at Pine Bush Elementary School in Guilderland, NY. Riley’s teacher, Ms. Germano, and her fellow third grade teachers have been raising funds for Trick or Treat for UNICEF for the past 8 years. This year the classes raised $1,700 to support UNICEF’s work.

Hello, my name is Bradley and I am a senior at Harry S. Truman High school. I am part of Connecting Classrooms in my African Studies class. The Connecting Classrooms program was designed by UNICEF for students all over the world to learn about each other and to learn about life in places they may have never even heard of. I think it’s a great way to learn from other people my age that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to talk to.

At TeachUNICEF, our commitment to promoting global citizenship extends beyond our New York City offices. Recently, we have been asked to bring our thoughtful approach to global education on the road. The result was more enlightened teachers, both at the in-service and pre-service stages of their careers.

Daniel Sadowsky is on the education team at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

Where would you be today without your teachers? Chances are you’d have great difficulty reading a news story, budgeting your family resources, or understanding another’s point of view. For their essential contributions to the advancement of humanity, members of the UN family recognize teachers each year on October 5, or World Teachers’ Day.