IVLP Alumni Spotlight: Spreading Kindness in Trinidad & Tobago

IVLP Alumni Spotlight features U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumni as they reflect on the impact of the program and how it has affected their work and lives. Here we feature the Co-Founder of a martial arts and community engagement center for at-risk youth in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago, Mr. Adrian Sealey. Mr. Sealey spent two weeks in the United States examining community resilience, leadership and advocacy skills, and effective ways to positively engage youth. This project was offered in support of the Strong Cities Network (SCN), the first global network of cities and other sub-national entities working together to build social cohesion and resilience to prevent violent extremism in all its forms.  Mr. Sealey and the other participants met with key SCN members, such as Mayor Tom Tait of Anaheim, California, who spoke with them about his campaign, “Making Kindness Contagious.” Continue  

Jam Sessions on View at the US Diplomacy Center

As we move into Jazz Appreciation Month, the Meridian Center for Cultural Diplomacy (MCCD) celebrates the unifying power of music through Jam Session: America’s Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World. After runs in Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, South Asia and Latin America, Jam Session is on view at the U.S. Diplomacy Center now through May 18. Jazz Diplomacy was born in 1956 when Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. proposed that Dizzy Gillespie form a jazz ensemble to represent the U.S. abroad. Competition between the Soviet Union and the United States was increasing, and these musical...

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