After the tumultuous year of 2020, 2021 has brought some good news for two of our Youth Diplomats. Anne Pratt and Manuela Palacio will participate in international exchange programs sponsored by the U.S. Department!
Anna Pratt will participate in the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI-Y). NSLI-Y is a U.S. Department of State program designed to give Americans the linguistic and cultural skills needed to communicate effectively in the world. Anna has been a member of the Youth Diplomats since 2018 and served on the leadership committee from 2019 to 2020. We are excited to have Anna be a part of this program.
Manuela Palacio, a current Youth Diplomat and member of the cohort since 2018, has been accepted into the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange. She will be heading to Germany and will stay until June 2022, completing her senior year of high school overseas.
When asked about her motivation to apply to the program, Manuela spoke of her passion for learning a new language, getting the rigor of being immersed in a new culture, and exploring the world outside of her comfort zone. She also spoke of her future goals and how this program will help, “I feel like these cultural experiences will help me when I become a doctor to help connect with people through language and cultural communication.”
Currently, Manuela speaks three languages, and German will be her fourth. She described her motivation to learn six languages and how this ability will enable her to better her medical practice in the future. She plans to utilize her knowledge in cultural exchange and diplomacy to provide the appropriate care to all of her future patients, overcoming language barriers and miscommunication.
Manuela described her time in Youth Diplomats as integral to these goals.
“Being in the Youth Diplomats reminded me of the importance of showing people who you are, to show people your ethnicity, race, and orientation.” Before Youth Diplomats, Manuela had the goal of being a doctor. After participating in the program, she realized that she could combine her two passions of medicine and international relations and pursue even bigger goals, “Now I know I can be a doctor related to international relations.”
Manuela will be immersed in a German high school for her senior year through the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange, a notion that seems to be an exciting prospect for her. “I never thought that they would choose me. I just wanted to apply and see what happened!”
She will also continue to post on her global informational social media page, World Citizens, @_World_Citizens_ on Instagram. On this page, she posts information about different cultures and works to share positive news from other countries to help share a positive image of international relations. She shares that a goal for this page is “Loving and learning from other cultures.”
Manuela described her excitement to act as a representative of the United States in this exchange program and as a representative of all of the Americas by representing her Colombian heritage. She describes how much the Youth Diplomats program has helped her embrace this confidence in her diversity, “I am always so grateful to Ms. Jena and the program in general.”
We are so excited to follow both Manuela’s and Anna’s travels as these two young leaders head overseas, and we are so proud of their immense accomplishments.
– Eden Davenport
