Thanks to virtual exchange, an educational tool that connects people through online technology, young people from around the globe can learn from one another while developing a deeper understanding of the broader world. The Stevens Initiative invests in virtual-exchange programs that link youth in the United States to their peers in the Middle East and North Africa. This April, the initiative announced six new grants, expanding the program’s reach to nearly 40,000 youth in 15 Middle Eastern and North African countries, the Palestinian Territories, 44 US states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC. Initiative participants develop skills that make them good global citizens and competitive in the workforce. “This class showed me that I have my own voice,” Elizabeth Byrnes, an alumna of the Stevens Initiative–funded program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, said. “I want to use it more often to look past mundane differences.”