U.S. Congress – Republic of Korea National Assembly Exchange Program – Reflections

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Korean and American delgations at Meridian International Center.

On July 25, 2014 20 young leaders descended upon Washington DC to partake in the 2014 U.S. Congress – Republic of Korea National Assembly Exchange Program. This unique program, funded by the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and jointly sponsored by the U.S. Congress and Korean National Assembly, is designed to broaden the perspectives of Korean and American young people on: the legislative process; the history of U.S. – Korean relations; and current economic, political, and security aspects of the bilateral relationship. The program also provides the U.S. and Korean participants with first hand experience of...

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It’s all about the Spirit: Meridian Social Innovation Fellows in Detroit

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The Fellows with Jacques Panis and the Blanchards at Shinola in Detroit

By Meridian Social Innovation Fellow Javier Garcia Rodrigo   “Why Detroit?” my colleague Alberto Di Minin asked Jacques Panis, president of Shinola, the company that symbolizes one of the great success stories of business in the recent history of the formerly glorious city of Detroit. “In principle,” Alberto followed, “there should be more interesting locations across the US to establish a business, right?” Listening carefully, Mr. Panis answered without hesitation: “The People,” he told us. “Actually, it’s not what we are doing for the city; it is what the city is doing for us,” he added, under the watchful...

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US Embassy in Madrid Highlights Meridian Social Innovation Fellows

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Meridian Social Innovation Fellows

 In the US Embassy in Madrid‘s May 2015 e-newsletter on entrepreneurship, Adriana Brito Ruiz, Youth Embassy Council Member, interviewed Meridian Social Innovation Fellows Javier and Cristina on their social innovation projects. The following are excerpts from these interviews, translated into English by Meridian Program Associate Eirene O’Connor. If you would like to read the interviews in their entirety, please email Eirene at eoconnor@meridian.org On May 4, 2015, Meridian welcomed the inaugural cohort of the Meridian Social Innovation Fellowship to Washington, D.C. The eight Fellows – who hail from Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain – are global problem-solvers who bring...

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IVLP and the Rise in Women Leaders

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As pioneers in their career paths female IVLP alumnae are prominent in the growth of women’s leadership around the world.

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.

The first lens that I would like to use to discuss the data is that of women leadership. While the rise of women leaders has been slow, its increase in recent years has been dramatic. In 1960 Sri Lanka elected the first female head of government in modern history, Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The second female head of government came in 1966 when Indira Gandhi became India’s first female Prime Minister. Gandhi was also the first female IVLP alumna to serve as the head of government. 13 years later in 1979 Margaret Thatcher became the second female IVLP alumna to serve as the head of government. The IVLP programs of both Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher were coordinated by Meridian International Center.

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