oct00.pdf

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For More Information,Contact:Karina Copen, iEARN-USA, (212) 870-2693, kcopen@us.iearn.org OR Jen McClure J. Gant Communications (510) 796-1475 jenmcclure@jgantcommunications.com

FINANCIAL, DOT.COM LEADERS & PHILANTHROPISTS TO JOIN NEW YORK STUDENTS TO CELEBRATE GLOBAL INTERNET COLLABORATION

NEW YORK, NY ­ October 30, 2000 ­ iEARN, the International Education and Resource Network, announced today that public and private sector leaders will gather at an awards gala on November 28th, 2000 at the Tribeca Rooftop in Manhattan to honor George Soros and Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, with the First Annual iEARN "Making A Difference Award."

Guests will include Colgate Palmolive CEO, Reuben Mark, Columbia University Teachers¹ College president, Arthur Levine, executives of Silicon Alley Internet companies, and hundreds of their colleagues.

George Soros will be honored for his work in international education, and his work with iEARN. Through the Open Society Institute, Soros has enabled iEARN to introduce on-line project-based learning in 25 countries in Central and Eastern Europe as well as Central Asia, thereby helping to build "open societies." With the assistance of the Soros Foundation/Open Society Institute, iEARN has opened windows of educational opportunity in thousands of schools in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, and Yugoslavia Secretary Richard Riley will be honored for his leadership role in the advancement of technology in international education.

Secretary Riley has led the effort to bridge the digital divide among schools in the United States. Secretary Riley stated, that when students and teachers work with iEARN, they "are adding to our knowledge of the world and contributing to Internet resources. They are better students, and they are learning that they can work with people from other nations and form friendships with them. I think that's a great lesson."

During the Making A Difference Awards Gala, local students will share with Soros, Riley and other benefit participants how they are making a difference through on-line collaborative projects.

The benefit will also be the site of four major announcements:

o The president of Schools Online, a Silicon Valley nonprofit organization and iEARN partner, will announce his commitment to raise $40 million in California, challenging his Silicon Alley colleagues in New York City to raise $20 million in a partnership to make Internet resources available to millions of additional young people worldwide;

o The executive director of the Global Catalyst Partnership Foundation will challenge donors to match its $300,000 grant to iEARN to assist students to engage in collaborative projects that address global issues of hunger, environment, health and conflict resolution;

o A Chinese high school teacher from Beijing and representative from the U.S. Department of State will announce a major iEARN initiative linking youth in the U.S. and China--the first bilateral government-sponsored school exchange program between our two countries; and

o Concrete Incorporated, a leader in Silicon Alley, will announce a recently completed project with iEARN, Schools Online and WorLD, to use the world-wide-web to highlight successes in educational technology in lesser-developed countries in Africa, Middle East and Latin America.

Benefit participants will also see a new video featuring students and teachers around the world sharing their stories on how the Internet and other new technologies can both enhance education and create global communities across boundaries of geography, language, culture, time-zones and, in some cases across conflicts, as is currently the case in the Middle East.

"iEARN has pioneered on-line education for twelve years and has become a model for meaningful educational project collaborations worldwide," commented Lisa Jobson, iEARN-US program coordinator. "Starting in 1988, iEARN piloted on-line educational project work between schools in the former Soviet Union and the U.S. This event will provide an opportunity to share our stories and our plans for the future, and especially to thank those who have supported iEARN, and helped it to be a success."

Invitations for the Making a Difference Benefit can be obtained online at http://www.iearn.org/makingadifference, or via telephone: (212) 870-2693 or fax (212) 870-2672.

Abo