On Saturday, January 16th, we had our monthly Youth Diplomats Zoom meeting. We started with a game of Kahoot on current events, and the exciting announcement of the opening of applications for The Experiment Digital 2021. It was an incredible ice breaker, as it opened the room for some discussion and laughter along the way....
Dr. Megan Pratt, founder of the Pensacola MESS (Math, Engineering, Science, and Stuff) Hall, is dedicated to inspiring curiosity and learning in both youth and adults through hands-on STEM education. A passionate supporter of Gulf Coast Diplomacy’s international exchanges, she regularly welcomes visitors as both a professional host and in a personal setting with her...
For the Small World Café held on September 10, Gulf Coast Diplomacy welcomed two visitors to discuss their work. Dr. Khwaja Mohammed ZIYAUDDIN and Laeeq AHMED KHAN AQIL visited Northwest Florida as participants of an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) in 2019. Their U.S. Department of State project was coordinated at the national level by...
Our August focus for the café was on the importance of building local identity, and Taras REPYTSKYI shared how he and his team are creating a sense of community in the Sykhivskyi District of Lviv in Ukraine. During the meeting, REPYTSKY shared how his neighborhood has changed in post-communist Ukraine and spoke of the importance...
On January 12th, 2021, Gulf Coast Diplomacy hosted the first Small World Cafe of the new year with guest speakers, Shana Inofuentes and Monica Flores, of The Quechua Project. The two co-founders shared the group’s goal of reinvigorating the endangered Quechua language by expanding its community of speakers to younger generations. As the official language...
In early May 2020, Gulf Coast Diplomacy held its third Small World Café. The speaker for the event was Greece’s own Spyros KOUVELIS who visited Northwest Florida in 2009 on one of our organization’s first projects. KOUVELIS was delighted to “return” to the community and was not shy in pointing out his Certificate of Honorary...
When an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) or Open World project has teaching STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), non-profit management, best practices in education, or entrepreneurship as an objective, Basil Kuloba, the executive director of INERTIA Education Programs, Inc., makes time in his calendar to share his experiences with exchange participants. Kuloba co-founded INERTIA...
For four exciting days in November 2019, Gulf Coast Diplomacy hosted a group of nine professionals from Austria, Costa Rica, Fiji, Mongolia, Namibia, Sweden, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, and the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. Department of State invited these visitors to participate in an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) which was arranged at the national level...
In November of 2019, Gulf Coast Diplomacy hosted a group of firefighters and search & rescue professionals from Russia through the Open World Leadership Program. During their stay, Leigh & Kent DeSantis, Marcia Edwards, Vivian Faircloth, Megan & Jerry Pratt, Faye & Robert Robinson, and Jeannine van Reeth volunteered as homestay hosts. After a brief...
In November 2019, nine visitors from India came to Pensacola via the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on a project titled U.S. Society and Culture. FHI 360 arranged their national project and Gulf Coast Diplomacy arranged their local one. Project objectives included to “illustrate how the diversity of U.S. society and cultures contributes to a...
