Do you remember when you first realized that the world was much, much larger than your home, your neighborhood, or your city? Most likely it took a while, as over time you made new friends and saw new places. With each new experience, your world began to expand.

For SIL LEAD Director of Community-Based Programs Clare O’Leary, that process was accelerated by circumstance...

“Numbers have life; they’re not just symbols on paper.” – Shakuntala Devi

To a layperson, SIL LEAD board member Samantha Custer’s work as the director of Policy Analysis at AidData may seem a bit esoteric—involving, as it does, reams of data and endless number-crunching. But Samantha’s analysis functions as a sort of GPS for aid work, ensuring that when policymakers and relief organizations seek to address global problems, they can do so with precision.

Samantha Custer was born in St. Asaph, Whales – the second-smallest city in Britain. When Samantha was four years old, her family emigrated to Connecticut...

When you’re nine years old, new school assignments of any kind can be groan-inducing. This is as true for kids in rural Uganda as it is in suburban U.S.A.

Justine Kagoya, a primary four student in Uganda whose school has shifted its emphasis to local language learning, is quoted in an article in The Observer as being concerned over the difficulty she may face when she shifts to English-based learning later in life (in Uganda, English is the language of commerce).

Of course, not all students feel that way -- Nicholas Odeke, a student at the Kirinya Church of Uganda primary school, is quoted in that same article as saying, “Some of the English words are hard... teaching us in our local languages will help us understand more” -- but it’s easy to see where Justine is coming from...

The superhero extravaganza Black Panther is not only the first big-budget superhero movie led by black stars (and easily the most financially successful), it is also quickly becoming a rallying point for African Americans as they remember their rich cultural heritage. As full of out-of-this-world special effects as it is, this extravagant Hollywood story is helping people connect with their own, real-life stories. And in the West African country of Benin, a group of local professionals and students are working on a project to help preserve their  stories in written form...

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” -- William Arthur Ward

You’d have to ask SIL LEAD literacy consultant Diana Weber’s former and current students and writers to know for sure where she falls on that spectrum. But anyone who speaks with her for long is likely to suspect that she was and is a great teacher...

Youtube is full of “life hack” videos that show simple, unexpected solutions to problems you didn’t know you had. Need to speed-cool a beverage? Wrap a wet paper towel around it and put it in the freezer. Not particularly coordinated? Use a clothespin to hold the nail while you hammer it. The list goes on and on, but the principle is always the same: sometimes all it takes to solve complicated problems is to look at them in a different way...

Carletta Lahn had a fairly typical, all-American childhood.

She spent her formative years in the same house in the same Minnesota town, where her life revolved around school, church, and home. In high school she competed in a Bible quizzing program, performed in the marching band at Anoka High School, and was involved with 4-H. For vacation in the summers, her family would make the half day drive up to the Boundary Waters for a wilderness canoeing and camping experience on the border of Canada. They were a tight-knit, musical family.

But after high school...