On Saturday, March 6th, we held our monthly Youth Diplomats Zoom meeting. We started our meeting with a game of Kahoot on current events and voting for the next members of the Leadership Committee. The Kahoot was a fun ice breaker that allowed us to gain critical knowledge on current global news and events. This...
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...
Jereme Johnson is a program assistant at the Escambia County 4-H Youth Development, a local branch of the 4-H organization. This non-profit develops citizenship, leadership, responsibility, and life skills in youth through experiential learning programs and a positive youth development approach. He and his organization are always ready to receive international visitors and explore the...
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...
What do Cognitive Big Data Systems, Inc. and the U.S. Department of State have in common? International exchange, of course! Though people do not often think of science and technology as a large part of learning about other cultures, it is nevertheless a hugely important part of the exchanges we do at Gulf Coast Diplomacy....
For Ella Griffith, this year’s fluctuations in travel and uncertainty on the global scale hit home. Ella is a former Youth Diplomat (2018-2020) and was one of 25 participants from the U.S. selected for the Congress-Bundestag Vocational Youth Exchange Program in 2020. With hopes of heading to Germany this past fall, Ella’s plans quickly changed...
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...
This year, we asked current and former Youth Diplomats how they viewed their participation in our program. From their responses, we are happy to share many feel their time with us has positively impacted their lives. Though not every Youth Diplomat plans to pursue a degree in international relations, this program has inspired them to...
