What your students receive.

Minati did not set out to learn about the war. She set out to have a conversation with someone her age who happened to be in a different country. Three years later, she has a friend.

For a teacher of history, social studies, or civics, the classroom gets a real correspondent: a person writing from their own life, in a city under bombardment.

Each year, students excitedly ask me if they have a match, and if they have, they tell me all about their pen pals and how surprised they are that someone across the globe shares their same hobbies, plays the same video games, and may even enjoy the same music artists or books.

JOSEPH PREDEBON – MIDDLE SCHOOL HISTORY TEACHER – FLINT HILL SCHOOL, OAKTON, VA

Students in the 2026 essay collection describe the English they have gained from the program. For students growing up under bombardment, it is, as the booklet puts it, the invisible passport – their best chance at work and movement in a postwar world.