Be confident about being a leader

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Global Leadership at Meridian

“Be confident about being a leader”. This is how Sunny, a Chinese high school student visiting the U.S. through a visitor program, described her biggest learning from the leadership training implemented by Meridian International Center in February 2015.   Such a comment tells me that this young woman is already a leader and I won’t be surprised to see her becoming a global leader in the next decade and a great pride for her country and parents. In fact, as facilitator of this training, Sunny, Harry and other students were a tremendous inspiration for me.   Training high school...

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Applications for Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program for Undergraduate Students Have Opened

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IYLEP Flyer 2016

This past week, I was fortunate enough to be present for the launch of the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program for Undergraduate Students (IYLEP) 2016 application. While we knew students were waiting for the chance to apply, the results were astonishing. Once the application was released, applications began to arrive almost immediately. Over 250 applications were started within the first 24 hours, and that number has steadily increased.  Currently, nearly 3,000 applications have been created and several thousand more are expected by the application period’s closing on December 1, 2015. Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program for Undergraduate Students is implemented by...

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BAPG 2015: Uniting Leaders and Strengthening U.S.-U.K. Relationships

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Representative Adam Schiff with Chris Matheson and Christina Rees MPs in California

Founded in 1977, the British American Parliamentary Group (BAPG) Project is an annual 10-day program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the British Parliament and Meridian International Center that introduces newly elected British Members of Parliament to the American political and party system. Bound together by a unique shared history, the U.S. and U.K. have established a deeply-rooted “Special Relationship” since the mid-twentieth century that reflects an unparalleled level of cooperation between world powers today. Through numerous military and political conflicts, U.S.-U.K. relations have remained defined by a strong alliance in political, economic and foreign affairs. Due to...

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Not Women’s Issues: 8 Films about Women Leaders around the World

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Sheryl WuDunn, co-author of Half The Sky at Meridian for the Washington Premiere of A Path Appears

Stemming from a long history of marginalizing women, mainstream media and international leaders rely heavily on the categorization of issues as “women’s issues” when discussing problems such as inequalities in education, inclusion of women in decision making, and gender violence. In the same way as women, societal problems that are categorized as “women’s issues” are considered of secondary concern to the growth of society. “Women’s issues” should be framed human rights issues because they are the manifestation of deeper structural and cultural inequalities that affect the entire population and often result in violence. While mainstream media portrays women as...

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A Profile of IVLP Alumni Becoming Heads of State

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A Profile of IVLP Alumni Becoming Heads of State

The 75th Anniversary of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is a major milestone in the program’s history. It offers us a chance to reflect on the impact of the program by examining the numbers. More than 335 current or former heads of government are IVLP alumni. Meridian International Center is proud to have coordinated the programs of 168 of these alumni. I compiled basic data on these world leaders to see what sort of statistics could be gleaned. I focused on their age when they participated in the IVLP, how many years afterward they became a head of government and what was the length of their term. I also marked their gender and if they were currently in office.

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