When Gulf Coast Diplomacy has international visitors studying human trafficking, domestic abuse, or any other women’s rights project, we frequently partner with Pace Center for Girls Escambia Santa Rosa. Through advocacy and education, they have created a strong support network for struggling young women in Florida for over 26 years. In an interview with their former development manager, Meghan Bolyard shared heartwarming stories about each organization’s impact on the other.
When our groups visit Pace Center for Girls, students participating in the Girls Leadership Council (GLC) provide tours of the facility and answer questions. These girls have experienced significant hardships in their lives and have earned a spot on the GLC through nominations, presentations, and applications. Once on the GLC, Pace Center expects them to exhibit leadership as role models for the other girls.
During these visits, not only are the girls teaching the international visitors about their lives and how they have overcome obstacles, but they also have an excellent opportunity to learn from the visitors. For these girls, many of whom have never crossed county lines, meeting people facing the same challenges halfway around the world is a unifying experience. While expanding their minds, it teaches them they are not alone in their struggles, and people everywhere of every race, gender, and religion are working towards a similar goal.
Even the small moments in the meetings profoundly impact both the girls and the international visitors. Ms. Bolyard grinned ear-to-ear as she shared a story of the two groups working together through an interpreter, a challenge many of the girls had not faced before. As they quickly discovered, colloquialisms often do not translate easily, and the girls had to repeat themselves a few times in different ways. In the end, the international visitors had a quick lesson in American slang. As Ms. Bolyard explained, this became a fun, simple moment for two different cultures to share an amusing incident and learn something new all at once!
As Ms. Bolyard noted, cultural exchanges create connections and show how people from other cultures have the same passions and cares. As we agreed at the end of the interview, once in-person international exchange begins again, we are both excited to get back to it and watch these amazing moments.
