IVLP Alumni Spotlight: Bringing Technology Entrepreneurship to Low-Tech Environments

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Jarius Andrew Greaves is working to bring Liberian youth opportunities through technology innovation.

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 Mr. Jarius Andrew Greaves, the Founder and Executive Director of the Youth Network for Reform (YONER-Liberia),  a youth development organization in Liberia that has directly impacted the lives of more than 30,000 underprivileged and poverty-stricken youth and children through partnership with communities to provide local scholarships to deserving students. His three-week IVLP project introduced him to strategies for bringing technology (energy, IT, medical), technical education (STEM), and entrepreneurship to underserved communities. Mr. Greaves we recently selected to participate in the Obama Foundation Leaders Program: Africa.

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Program Theme Spotlight: The Power of Partnerships

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A Law Enforcement exchange program from Kenya visited the Red Wing Police Department in Minnesota to discuss the partnerships involved in community policing.

“Public-Private Partnerships are fundamental and inescapable,” pronounced an American speaker when explaining the U.S. system of government to a recent group of International Visitor Leadership (IVLP) participants.  This couldn’t be truer—regardless of the subject, one of the most salient aspects of any professional exchange program is the prevalence of public-private partnerships (P3s). Whether in support of business and economic development or other social, cultural or academic initiatives, P3s are the rule, and International Visitors take notice.  In fact, often the first example of an American P3 is the Department of State’s partnership with the National Program Agencies, Global Ties...

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From U.S. to Korea – A Participant’s Journey

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Jason Cox, a participant in the 2011 U.S. Congress - Republic of Korea National Assembly Exchange Program pictured here teaching at the Korean Naval Academy

In March and April of this year, Meridian International Center, conducted a longitudinal study which surveyed American and Korean participants from the 2007 – 2017 U.S. Congress – Republic of Korea National Assembly Exchange Programs. The exchange, jointly funded by the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs and National Unification of the Korean National Assembly, is Meridian’s second longest program implemented continuously since 1998. The exchange however is much older having been created in 1981 by U.S. Representative Ben Gilman and his Korean counterpart Assemblyman David Pong with the express...

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Prime Minister of New Zealand is an IVLP Alumna

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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (Photo Credit: NZTE on Flickr)

This post is the seventh entry in a blog series detailing the itineraries of both current and former Heads of State who participated in a Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) project arranged by Meridian International Center. The entry below summarizes the IVLP itinerary of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Continue