Program Theme Spotlight: Health

Health-related International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) projects present both tremendous opportunities and definite challenges for programmers. The following “tips” suggest techniques for creating project experiences that give IVLP participants what they want: insight into the U.S. health care system (warts and all), and a chance to share their achievements and challenges with American counterparts. Continue  

A Case for Global Leadership

The world is at an inflection point. Throughout both the developing and developed world, people are unsure about their future and have lost faith in their leaders and their institutions. We are seeing this in the rise of populism and xenophobia – from the rise of ISIS to Brexit and the rhetoric of America’s presidential election. While the tendency in this environment is to look towards nationalism, the world is too globalized and interconnected for countries to solve domestic and international issues alone. Moreover, neither governments nor the private sector or civil society will be able to overcome these...

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“A Golden Opportunity: The 2016 Let Girls Learn U.S. Exchange Program” by Karima Lakouz, A Moroccan Let Girls Learn Participant

During my high school life, I was always known as the social butterfly. I spoke to everyone, tried to engage in every social activity that is available, and hence I met a lot of people who told me about exchange programs. Thanks to them, I participated in English Access Microscholarship Program, Techgirls, and Let Girls Learn. I would like to shed the light on the latter. Let Girls Learn is an initiative started by the first lady of the United States of America Michelle Obama to help girls around the world get the education they deserve. This program had...

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PAYLP Through the Eyes of a Meridian Intern

 “This program has offered me the opportunity to experience what I’ve learned in school, a lot of what I teach my pupils and read on the internet and books…. I am sure this will breed a group of young leaders with a hunger for success.” (Private Mchenga of Malawi, PAYLP Adult Mentor participant) Students will often look to adults, school, and friends to shape the things they do not know. When that is not enough television and movies fill in the gaps.  As it turns out, romanticized perceptions, movies, and television often steer us further away from the reality...

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Behind the Lens: Let Girls Learn

Behind the Lens: Let Girls Learn First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let Girls Learn initiative, is an effort to support girls around the world with education and opportunity. Currently over 62 million girls are without an education.  While interning at Meridian International Center as a Marketing and Communications Intern in the GlobalConnect Division, I was invited to photograph the girls during the Let Girls Learn U.S. Exchange Program where girls from Morocco and Liberia were invited by the First Lady to come to Washington D.C. and watch CNN’s documentary “We Will Rise: Michelle Obama’s Mission to Educate Girls Around the...

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