Our second opportunity to bring the Foreigner workshop to high school students was with the Winchester Thurston School. We worked with Dr. Andy’s Middle Eastern History Class in November 2015. We began by bringing in local actress Tracey Turner to train the entire Middle Eastern History Class of 37 students to act as avatars for Azadeh Malekzadeh, our contact in Iran.

Over the two days that we ran the Foreigner, six students were chosen to act as the avatars conversing in turn with every member of the history class. Conversations with Azi focused on the women’s issues in Iranian society, public versus private life in Iran and personal stories about the effects of the sanctions on Azi’s family.

The students were able to have an Iranian lunch prior to the workshop and read through our literature in order to develop lines of inquiry for Azi.

In fact, the ability of the students to play the role of the avatar went so well and the quality of the conversations that ensued was so in depth that we will be developing another Foreigner workshop that Dr. Andy’s students will run for the entire Winchester Thurston Middle School in 2016.