MILWAUKEE — Shabria Dowl, a fourth grader at Story School, spent Tuesday morning teaching her fellow classmates all about a small South Pacific country. 

Dowl put together a poster board on Samoa for the annual Milwaukee Public Schools' World Fair, held at the UWM Panther Arena in Milwaukee. It was the first World Fair since 2019 because of COVID-19. 

There were presentations on countries all around the world, from the Philippines to Thailand.

At each location, students would ask questions to learn about the country, and then get a sticker for their World Fair passport to encourage students to visit as many countries as they can. 

“It’s for people who come around, they ask you questions, it’s like a little reward and they give you stickers," Dowl explained. 

Annette Robertson co-founded the United Nations Schools of International Learning with her mom. That organization helps put the World Fair together. 

Robertson said these students get the chance to learn hands on about different cultures, the struggles that many kids their own age face in different countries around the world, and what they can do to help.  

“They see that these children, these people are just like them, they just speak a different a language and live in a different country," Robertson said. "So they get very excited about that, and they want to learn and grow, and they want to learn more about these countries.”

Aside from presenting their projects to their peers, the students also had a chance to watch performances from different cultural dance groups.

The goal, Robertson said, is that these students can learn their place in the world as a global citizen. 

“They are all world citizens now, and nobody can ever take that away from them.”

Dowl was grateful for the opportunity to learn about world cultures. 

“I just think this is a very good experience for all fourth graders and fifth graders, and people who need it," Dowl said.