The Bellingham Sister Cities Association is proud to announce that the Whatcom Intergenerational High School (WIHS) has been awarded this year’s Peace Grant. Teachers from the Intergenerational High School will use the Peace Grant to travel to Vaasa, Finland, with the goal of establishing a reciprocal relationship with Vaasa Övningsskola. The WIHS teachers envision that a series of exchanges between their staff and students and those of the Finnish school will help to create a shared respect, understanding and friendship between the people of the two sister cities. This will be done through the observation and exchange of teaching practices and student perspectives as well as through tourism and economic exchanges during these trips.
WIHS is Bellingham’s first charter school and uses a holistic learning approach called Phenomenon Based Learning or PhBL. PhBL was developed in Finland and makes learning for students more authentic by engaging students in studying and solving real world problems using an interdisciplinary approach that includes all subject areas. By working together with schools in Vaasa, Finland, teachers at WIHS hope to increase international understanding, improve educational outcomes for students in Bellingham and bring awareness to the relationship between our two cities.
