2009 - 2010 Team
	Kelly Kern, Ellie Monroe, and Ben Swett are the brains behind 20/20 this year. They have chosen to address the "The Fight Against Poverty." We spent the fall semester studying four of the major theoretical approaches by the West to international development, including colonialism, human capital theory, modernization, and neoliberalism. For their research paper, each student applied two of these theories to a specific country and analyzed the development successes and failures, considering both the short- and long-term impact these theories had on the country's economic, social, and political sectors. Kelly tackled India, Ellie examined Angola, and Ben investigated Colombia. For the second semester, we have focused our attention on exploring some of the more recent, alternative approaches to development that have come from experts in both the North and the South. The recent earthquake in Haiti has prompted us to ask challenging questions about how the international community should respond to the continually unfolding and dire need for emergency and humanitarian assistance. At the center of our research and discussions has been the topic of foreign aid: how effective has it been, what are the pros and cons of unconditional versus conditional aid, is there a substantive difference between the impact investment, as opposed to aid, can make, etc? With these debates swirling in our minds, the team traveled to New York University on March 5 to attend an all-day professional and academic conference, organized by the Development Research Institute and entitled: "The Best and Worst of Aid: Accountability, Incentives, and Effectiveness." We heard Yaw Nyarko, William Easterly, Clare Lockhart, Isabel Guerrero, Andrew Mwenda, and Lant Pritchett speak. They presented a range of opinions and encouraged debate during the Q&A sessions; for example, one speaker advocated for "untying" aid while another campaigned for stopping aid completely. Uniting all presentations, however, was the endorsement of a community-based approach to development that leverages local leadership in partnership with international resources to devise sustainable solutions. Kelly, Ellie, and Ben will spend the remainder of the semester determining their stance on the issue, which they will present to the Upper School in an assembly on May 18.

	2008 - 2009 Team
	Seniors Lawrence McBride, Matt Parsons, Miguel Silvestri, and Martha Stout elected terrorism as their topic-of-study. Their individual research allowed them to teach each other about this multi-faceted issue, whose lack of an internationally agreed-upon definition complicates sustainable and universal efforts to derive a solution. In the first semester, each student completed a self-designed research project in which two seemingly disparate terrorist organizations were compared and a significant point of commonality discussed. This investigation prompted them to question the way in which the international community, specifically the United Nations, has responded to terrorism. In the second semester, they pursued a collaborative research project on the UN's infrastructure in order to determine which aspects of this organization contribute to and which hinder its ability to effectively combat terrorism. Their research included spending a day at the United Nations, attending a conference about human rights education. The team delivered a provocative presentation to the entire Upper School, during which they proposed several changes to UN structure and policy. They specifically targeted the Blue Helmets, the membership & role of the veto, and UN development theory/philosophy. Here is an excerpt from their final proposal: "In order to eliminate terrorism, we have decided that the Security Council and the Blue Helmets need to be reformed so as to have the international community more involved in fighting terrorism. In addition we have come to realize that part of the problem is that the average person lacks a general awareness of the topic. The UN is responsible for spreading knowledge of what is going on around the world. We thought a good way to do this would be through a global ad campaign. Among the advertisements would be ones about the development project. However, the current sentiment about development is based around the dependency of third-world countries on the western world, so we also support the alternative theories about development, which mainly include ways to involve and empower indigenous people in the process. If all of these points are addressed we will be closer to a more peaceful and collaborative global community."

	2007 - 2008 Team
	GFA's inaugural 20/20 team, comprised of Jenny Galvin, Gillian Hodes, Rakan Nimr, and Caroline Rhame, selected Peace-keeping and Conflict Resolution as their topic of study. At the start of the year, the students articulated a strong interest in exploring the role media-bias plays in the perpetuation of conflict. Media-study thus became the lens through which we studied a variety of conflicts around the world. Individual country studies allowed each student the opportunity to investigate the specific role media has had in engendering conflict. In Uganda, Somalia, Burundi, and Chechnya, students researched the quality and quantity of the news that people have access to both inside and outside of the areas of conflict. By comparing the media, they investigated possible motivations behind its circulation, such as whether it was a type of propaganda stirring tensions in the region. In addition, they studied the diversity of types of news, such as radio and newspapers, and issues of censorship. Finally, they looked at issues of accessibility: how many people own radios, how available the internet is, and the literacy rate of the region. The second phase of the students' work combined their partnership with the Amman Baccalaureate School in Jordan with a desire to address the media's impact on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Emphasizing the need to collect and read as wide a variety of perspectives as possible, the students were responsible for putting together a portfolio of over thirty article selections that collectively demonstrated the range of domestic and international opinions surrounding different topics within this conflict, primarily that of Palestine, Israel, the United States, and the United Nations. The students' regular exposure to differing opinions opened their eyes to the entrenched nature of this conflict and led to the decision to focus less on determining whose "history" is more accurate (an impossible query to prove). The students concentrated, instead, on the current humanitarian issues plaguing Occupied Territories and the role the American government plays in monetarily backing Israel. By the end of the semester, the students seemed most interested in a new perspective altogether--that of the average, unaware American's--and the dangers this ignorance perpetuates.