Our Story

World Savvy was founded in 2002 by friends and colleagues Dana Curran and Madiha Murshed. Dana and Madiha attended graduate school together at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and spent much of their time lamenting the lack of global awareness among youth in the United States. 9/11 drew this into sharp focus, and the differences in their own educational experiences became a foundation of these discussions; Dana attended public schools in New Jersey and Madiha was educated throughout the Middle East and Asia, primarily in International Baccalaureate programs. As a Bangladeshi, Madiha also had experience living in environments in which local to global connections were obvious and impactful to everyone around her. On the contrary, Dana's experience reflected that of many American students in schools nationwide --- a relatively U.S-centric study of subject areas, and limited discussion about global issues like human rights, poverty, development, environmental degradation and contemporary conflict. This, both women agreed, created an environment that did not favor responsible global leadership for future generations.

Many conversations and months of research later, Dana and Madiha relocated to San Francisco and co-founded World Savvy. Since the founding year, the programs have grown to reach thousands of young people and hundreds of educators through three core programs. Dana and Madiha developed these program models over an extended period of two years, informed by teaching in the Bay Area and exploring the barriers of integrating global issues in classroom discussion first-hand.

The demand for quality global education programs and services has grown exponentially, as contemporary global issues like war, genocide, international economics and trade and climate change increase the need for a more informed citizenry. We are proud to part of the solution through education. We believe that in order to solve the world's most pressing problems, youth must be educated about the issues and learn to think critically, using multiple perspectives, about a range of issues. We focus on teaching young people how to think, not what to think. In this way, we remain a nonpartisan, apolitical organization committed to making these issues accessible to the broadest & most diverse group of youth and educators possible.

Meet the founders, Dana and Madiha.