GVC Web Contest Winners Announced

May 1, 2015 – The Give Something Back International Foundation (GSBI) has announced the winners of the 2014/2015 Global Virtual Classroom Contest (GVC) -- a free online collaborative learning project that fosters creativity, cross cultural understanding, helping others and teaches IT and website design skills amongst students working together from around the world.

Sponsored by GSBI, the GVC program provides an opportunity for primary and secondary school students from different countries to work with and learn from students in other countries, as they collaboratively design a website on a topic of their choosing. A panel of international judges evaluates the final work and determines the winners. Read the entire Press Release here.

All winners are posted on the Global Virtual Classroom website: www.virtualclassroom.org/win14.html.

Registration for the 2015-16 Contest opens June 1.  Design period is between October 1 and March 31.

Andrew Ezzell and JoAnn Patrick-Ezzell

Andrew Ezzell and JoAnn Patrick-Ezzell are co-founders of the Give Something Back International Foundation (GSBI) and both serve on the GSBI Board. Through their enduring efforts, GSBI provides life changing, quality education and assistance to children, young adults, and teachers around the world that have had a lasting impact on their lives and families. The overarching mission of GSBI is “Education to Change Lives”. GSBI directly funds and supports the K-12 education of disadvantaged children around the world. They have provided support for children whose families do not have the financial means to support their education. Since their founding, they have sponsored over 1200 children in Thailand, Vietnam, Haiti, and Afghanistan. Their efforts have also resulted in the construction of many new classrooms and libraries in poor rural areas of Thailand. Planning is underway to build a school in Haiti.The flagship program of GSBI is the Global Virtual Classroom (GVC), which is a collection of free, online educational activities and resources. The GVC vision is to empower, enable, and connect students around the world using Internet technology. It includes an International Clubhouse, Web Design Contest, Resources, Lessons and Global Participation. The annual website design contest is a multii-national team learning experience that teaches students cross-cultural understanding, collaboration, giving back to others, and practical job skills in website design and IT skills. Approximately 35,000 students from 62 countries around the world have participated in GVC programs over the past 12 years.The One World Award recognizes the broad international scope and wide ranging philanthropic activities of Andrew Ezzell and JoAnn Patrick-Ezzell through their Give Something Back International Foundation.

Sarasota Sister Cities One World Award

GSBI foundation's beginnings

Andrew Ezzell, founder of GSBI was featured in the St. Meinrad Alumni Association newsletter. Read more about him and the dream of giving back.

One World Award

Andrew Ezzell and JoAnn Patrick-Ezzell are recipients of the 2015 One World Award for their "contributions to enhancing, understanding and respect among peoples of other countries through Give Something Back Foundation and The Global Virtual classroom."  The award was presented March 29, 2015 at the 2015 One-World Gala. http://sarasotasistercities.org/en/blog/gala-mar-29-2015-andrew-ezzell-and-joann-patrick-ezzell-winners-2015-one-world-award

Andrew and JoAnn accepting the One World award.

JoAnn Patrick-Ezzell presentation of their works.