As a local, participating in a meeting with international visitors through Gulf Coast Diplomacy can appear minor. Yet, examining why the U.S. Department of State promotes international exchange through the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) and other exchanges reveals how impactful these meetings can be. Even when 100% of our exchanges are virtual, as happened...
This Summer, eight other families and I had the pleasure of meeting up via Zoom with young Iraqi leaders from IYLEP. It was two weeks full of nothing but fun! Despite the physical distance and connection issues that came with virtual communication, we host families still did our best to ensure our Iraqi participants engaged...
What's not to like about Thanksgiving with international visitors? Even when the conversation about family traditions takes place through a computer screen, it is a great way to introduce our community's culture. This year, we tweaked our traditional offering since we could not pass the cranberry sauce in person and created cultural hospitality for a...
One of the topics we explore with exchange participants is how to protect the rights of women and children. We currently tackle the issue through online workshops and discussions, similar to our in-person exchange conversations. In July 2019, we hosted such an in-person group from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. They focused on the subject, viewing...
Gulf Coast Diplomacy recently reconnected with International Visitor Leadership Program alumna Nicole Joseph Chin of Trinidad and Tobago who visited Northwest Florida in May 2011 on a project titled Women and Entrepreneurship. After her appearance at the September 2021 Small World Café, we sat down together to talk further about her work. Gulf Coast Diplomacy:...
Camp Global began in 2020 as a method of maintaining connections in the age of Covid, and it was, without a doubt, a huge success. Still, Camp Global 2021 somehow turned out even better. With campers from seven countries and a reimagined curriculum, the camp became something completely new and different, creating a unique learning...
As everything began to shut down a year ago, a wave started to rise on social media with the hashtag #ExchangesMatter. It seemed as it became apparent that in-person exchanges were at least temporarily a thing of the past. Many became afraid that people would forget the importance of exchanges. Yet, 18 months later, we...
How much fun, learning, and reflection time is possible in two weeks? Teen participants with the U.S. Department of State’s Youth Ambassadors exchange found out when they traveled to Northwest Florida. For two weeks in January & February 2020, students from Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua plunged into discussions, site visits, cultural activities, and...
In June 2019, Gulf Coast Diplomacy hosted a visitor from Mozambique who works to combat human trafficking. He was in the region as a participant of the International Visitor Leadership Program, an exchange program of the U.S. Department of State which works to connect young leaders from around the world with their professional counterparts in...
Seven visitors from Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Slovakia, and Tajikistan came to Pensacola in June 2019 to discover how small-to-medium-sized communities handle cyberbullying. The project’s title was 21st Century Changemakers: Be Best: Strategies for Combating Cyberbullying. World Learning coordinated the national itinerary. Several weekend activities introduced the group to our community. Gulf Coast Diplomacy...
