Smithsonian Program Connects Youth Across America Through Dialogue

Since September 2024, the Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange program has offered sets of paired classrooms across the country a key question to explore together: “How has your community played a role in 250 years of the American experience?”

Building Bridges

There is an aerial sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) that captivated us early in our tenure as education specialists at the Smithsonian. Entitled, Bridge, by Glenn Kaino, the sculpture consists of 200 extended arms suspended aloft, in a serpentine, wave-like formation. These arms are the casts of the American runner, Tommie Smith, who raised a single gloved fist at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, in a powerful gesture of silent protest. 

Depending on your vantage point of Bridge – the sculpture can be viewed from the ground up or from up high looking down – it offers different perspectives on the ripple effect of individual choice across time. It invites us to consider the power of art in connecting us to a multiplicity of historical moments that compel our collective contemplation. It suggests that building a bridge requires a united vision, careful execution, and a fair amount of daring. 

Perhaps it’s not surprising that we were drawn to Kaino’s sculpture. In 2017, we came together for the first time with the intention of building a bridge between our two groups of 8th grade students living in very different places: the Upper West Side of Manhattan and a rural town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. As social studies teachers at the time, attuned to our national backdrop, we wanted to better understand how young people were making sense of this moment in history. We were guided by a crucial question: How can we teach our students to have meaningful and respectful interactions with peers from different backgrounds and grow their capacity for understanding different perspectives?

What began as a few video call conversations on contemporary societal challenges, such as public safety, environmental concerns, and social equality, soon developed into something more formal. Our students told us bluntly they didn’t want to “talk at each other;” instead, they wanted to “work together.” In one virtual module, they performed original poems about their lives as teenagers; in another, they researched and debated the topic of civil liberties v. national security. For seven years, we brought our students together, and without fail, they consistently recognized that their differing opinions need not limit what is possible between them, a key disposition for active citizenship. 

A National Virtual Exchange Initiative

In a remarkable moment of professional convergence, and drawing on our experience in virtual exchange, we joined the Smithsonian over a year ago to spearhead a new initiative called Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange (DiDVE), housed in the Office of the Under Secretary for Education. Our mission? To engage educators and students (ages 10–18) from diverse communities across the country in semester-long virtual exchanges. At the heart of these exchanges lies a compelling question, which commemorates our nation’s upcoming semiquincentennial: How has your community contributed to 250 years of the American experience?

Over 18 months, and four distinct semesters, the program has engaged 182 facilitators and nearly 4,000 students across 30 states, from Maine to Hawaii. This summer, we added an organizational track inviting cultural organizations working with youth to participate. Each exchange centers on place-based and object-based inquiry learning activities, culminating in student projects that showcase their community's stories. This approach has not only fostered connections across differences, inspiring a richer understanding of our nation’s diversity, but has also yielded exciting results in how participants interpret and engage with the program's guiding question.

Take, for example, a middle schooler in Maui, who traces her lineage back to her great-great grandmother, a picture bride from Japan, who raised four children along with her husband, a worker employed on a sugar-cane plantation, with thousands of other Japanese immigrants in the early 1900’s. And a high schooler from Susquehanna County in northern Pennsylvania who documents her grandfather’s early enlistment in the Navy and his later contributions to his small town with his lifelong membership in American Legion 310. 

Student Exchanges and Discoveries

It has been particularly inspiring to observe how these exchanges have nurtured civic dispositions like curiosity, empathy, and engagement among youth participants. As young people tell their community's stories, they're also discovering something fundamental about themselves: that a vast spectrum of human possibility resides within each of them, with each part reflecting the whole. This process of discovery and sharing is creating a more nuanced and inclusive narrative of the American experience, one story at a time.

A powerful example of this process unfolded across 1,600 miles, as high school students from Lincoln, Nebraska and Concord, California shared holidays and traditions from their respective communities. In one joint activity, they explored the Smithsonian Collections Search Center website, each choosing an artifact of personal interest related to holiday or tradition meaningful to them. The selected artifacts ranged from musical instruments and textiles to religious iconography and sports paraphernalia. Then through a series of asynchronous written reflections and live synchronous sessions, students shared the stories behind their chosen artifacts.  

Many of the Concord students described their quinceañeras, a popular coming of age tradition in Latin America, highlighting the ceremony, traditional food, music and dancing, and fancy gowns. Students also spoke about the importance of Semana Santa and the elaborate way their families prepare for Holy Week, which is a Christian commemoration of the final week of Jesus' life. The Lincoln students shared family customs and traditions around the Christmas holiday. This exchange of cultural knowledge led to a moment of profound realization for a student from Lincoln, who observed, "I thought it was cool - you guys live so much different lifestyles than us and are so far away, but it's also so similar...We celebrate a lot of the same things, and we do a lot of the same things!" A student from Concord added, “I loved getting to know the students in Nebraska. I never knew there were kids out there like me with the same experience. The distance might be long, but it means so little when you have gained a genuine friendship.” 

The impact of seeing ourselves in another person's story was further explored by high school students in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Durham, North Carolina, who used poetry as a lens to examine the concept of belonging. They staged a choreographed recitation of Langston Hughes' poem, "Let America Be America Again," spanning hundreds of miles. On video, each student, framed against a unique backdrop capturing the rich texture of teenage life – school hallways, sports fields, gymnasiums, buses, parks, backyards, bedrooms – read their chosen lines with confidence:

"O, yes, / I say it plain, / America never was America to me, / And yet I swear this oath— / America will be!"

This shared act of storytelling opened a space for reflection, where students recognized the profound emotional and civic connections fostered through their collective efforts. Afterwards, they reported feeling "part of something bigger" as they "heard all their voices come together" and realized "a coordinated group effort can lead to creating beautiful outcomes." One participant succinctly summarized, "I was reminded that democracy isn't just about politics — it's about people, voices, and stories," highlighting the deep emotional and civic connection fostered through these shared experiences in virtual exchange.

Stories That Unite Us

As we reflect on the impact of Democracy in Dialogue, we're reminded of an exchange session that happened in March between high schoolers. A newly-arrived student from Ukraine found the courage to share his story after hearing the accounts of his peers, many of whom had their own migratory experiences. Having fled his war-torn homeland, he initially worried about how he would be perceived in his new country; instead, he found a supportive environment in which storytelling became the vehicle by which he could voice his own personal  journey and in turn, contribute to greater collective understanding and empathy. As his teacher later observed, "The value of that moment cannot be overstated. And it happened because of Democracy in Dialogue. The story will continue to unfold in ways we will never know."

Indeed, the stories will continue to unfold. Join us and add yours to it. 

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The Smithsonian’s Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange program is accepting educator applications on a regular basis. The application period for the spring 2026 cohort closes October 6, 2025. 

Democracy in Dialogue is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Bezos Family Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Editor’s Note, September 22, 2025: A photo caption was updated to accurately reflect the students’ activity and the exhibit they visited. The credit line was updated to reflect organization names of current supporters. 

Ali McKersie | Read More

Ali McKersie is an education specialist with the Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange program at the Smithsonian Office of the Under Secretary for Education, where the 26-year veteran of middle-school classroom teaching is thrilled to be applying her knowledge and experience in new and innovative ways.

Jared Morris | Read More

Jared Morris served 17 years in public education as a classroom teacher, instructional coach and curriculum lead. As an education specialist for the Smithsonian’s Office of the Under Secretary for Education, he currently co-leads the Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange program.