All posts by jmelancon

Meghan Bolyard

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...

Global Ties U.S. Conference

As part of my internship with Gulf Coast Diplomacy, I was fortunate to attend the Global Ties US 2021 National Meeting, online for the first time. In a five-day blur, I squeezed conference meetings and workshops in between classes. Though I was rather busy, I relished every moment. From networking with other young professionals to...

Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program

Since July 2012, Gulf Coast Diplomacy has partnered with the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program (IYLEP) to support intercultural learning and educational exchange between high school students in Northwest Florida and their peers from Iraq. IYLEP is sponsored and funded by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Since 2007, the U.S. Department of State has supported...

February Youth Diplomats Meeting

On February 21st, we had our Youth Diplomats monthly meeting via Zoom. We started our meeting as we usually do with a Kahoot on current affairs. Through this fun quiz, all of us were equipped with new knowledge and information on current global news & events. Afterwards, we had an engaging and collaborative discussion on...

Youth Diplomat Reflection

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

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...

Small World Café: U.S. Society & Culture

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...

Small World Café: Taras Repytskyi

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...

Small World Cafe: Quechua Project

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...

Small World Cafe: Spyros Kouvelis

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...
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