Route 4 Project: Where Are You a Local? A Creative Collaboration Across Cultures
by Tuğba Yıldırım Kumbasar
This 6-week international collaboration project brought together a total of 53 students (14 from Sabancı University (Türkiye), 24 from the University of Wisconsin (USA), and 15 from Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (Brazil)) to promote global understanding and intercultural communication. The project explored identity, belonging, and cultural connection through storytelling, reflection, and creative collaboration. It began on October 6 and concluded on November 26 with a certificate ceremony celebrating 13 participants from Route 4 who successfully completed it.
Throughout the project, students engaged in small-group work, three live video chats, and individual reflections that brought together participants from all three universities. They communicated through both written and spoken activities: introducing themselves, sharing personal stories about their sense of “local identity” and discovering cross-cultural themes through discussion. In their video meetings, students co-created poems, exchanged cultural insights, and collaborated on a final creative project that blended perspectives from Türkiye, the U.S., and Brazil. Through these experiences, they strengthened their English communication skills, built meaningful international connections, and produced a collective work that celebrated shared understandings of belonging across cultures.
When we first designed the project, I approached it with my experience in art-integration, aiming to add a creative collaboration dimension. Unlike previous intercultural projects, this one encouraged students not only to interact but to co-create a shared artistic product that reflected their collective perspectives. By intentionally weaving creativity into the process, we moved beyond conversation, transforming the project into a space where students could tell stories, experiment, and collaborate across cultures in a tangible way.
Reflecting on this experience, I am reminded of the profound impact that intentional, creative collaboration can have on both learners and educators. Guiding this project was not only an opportunity to witness the students’ growth and cross-cultural learning firsthand, but also a chance to reimagine my own role as an educator as someone who co-designs learning experiences that foster connection, creativity, and meaningful dialogue. Every discussion, poem, and collaborative project reinforced just how valuable these intercultural engagements are, inspiring me to continue exploring new ways to bring learners together across borders and to create learning experiences that transform the way we connect and collaborate.
