“David Harris’ presentation of his fascinating Global Lives project was inspiring: one of our best assemblies in a long time and one of our most humane, creative, and thoughtful.”

-Harry Bauld, Horace Mann English teacher, author of On Writing the College Application Essay, and former Ivy League admissions officer.

The Global Lives Project’s latest school exhibit took place this trimester at Horace Mann School in New York City. With over 1,000 people in attendance, viewing unedited footage of daily life of twenty people from seventeen countries, this exhibit was a huge success for students and teachers alike. For 30 consecutive days, the Global Lives immersive exhibit was featured in the Horace Mann Art Gallery with films from Malawi, Indonesia, India, Brazil, Spain, Japan and more.

“We all know there are people all over the globe eating, sleeping, gathering food, doing their chores and jobs – but something greater, empathy comes out in the multi-screen immersion. Each visit to the show yields greater insights!”

-Kim Do, Visual Arts Department Chair at Horace Mann

Global Lives founder David Evan Harris speaks to an assembly at Horace Mann School. Photo courtesy of Kim Do

The Record, Horace Mann’s weekly publication featured The Global Lives presentation on their front page. An excerpt from the feature is posted below, Read the rest of the article here.

David Harris, Founder and Executive Director of Global Lives, encouraged Upper Division students to practice global empathy during an assembly this past Tuesday. Harris was invited by the school to ask students to try and step in someone else’s shoes who may be living on the opposite side of the world. This fits in with the mission of Global Lives, which is to “expose people to what life is like all around the world and give them a broader perspective,” Harris said. “I think that speaking at schools is great because of the exposure to young minds,” Harris said. “One of my main goals is to help shape the next generation of global citizens, and to help build empathy for people that belong to other countries and cultures than ours,” he said.

Riya, a 12th grader at Horace Mann, was moved by the exhibit and explained its relevance in her own life: “…it’s important to remember the range of cultures that we have on a student level, as well as a global level”.

Global Lives Project Exhibit at Horace Mann School Art Gallery. Photo courtesy of Kim Do

“So often all we see are the highlights of a day. After 24 hours you get a much clearer sense of who that person might be, or how they actually live their life.”

-Patricia Zuroski, head of the Office of Diversity at Horace Mann and an Adjunct Lecturer at Hunter College

The exhibit at Horace Mann School was the fifth school exhibit that the Global Lives Project has produced in the past year. Other exhibits took place at Envision Academy in Oakland, CA, Gateway Middle School and Creative Arts Elementary School in San Francisco, CA, Palo Alto High School and San Francisco State University.

Global Lives is staying busy spreading our global empathy education program, if you are a teacher or school administrator interested in bringing Global Lives to your school, please contact david [at] globallives [dot] org. You can also check out our current exhibit at the Gallery for the Future in Palo Alto. More information on our current exhibit can be found on the IFTF website, here.