Gearing up for a full fall schedule following an exciting summer and Summit
Kalamazoo's Diplomacy Begins Here Summit dives deep into local solutions to global challenges!
The Diplomacy Begins Here Summit and Learning Lab in July was such a rich experience. The Global Ties Kalamazoo team is so tremendously proud of what we accomplished in hosting this event together with our partners at Global Ties U.S. and the U.S. Department of State. We're grateful to all the attendees from near and far, as well as the volunteers and speakers who made this event unforgettable.
One of our national partners had this to say:
"Your team put on a phenomenal program, and your community really showed up and welcomed us in the warmest way possible. I could see the 'light bulbs' going off for both locals and Network members alike throughout the week, and it was a pleasure to get to know Kalamazoo better. It was fantastic to see your local community really show up in force."
The Summit, as well as adjacent activities including the Welcome Reception, Resource Tour, Learning Lab, and Cultural Outing to Lake Michigan on Saturday all shared a key component that so many of our international guests credit with making their visits to Kalamazoo so memorable – the warmest welcome of genuine hospitality. Seeing so many locals and out-of-area visitors alike intermingling and building new connections throughout all the Summit activities was a joy we’ll never forget.
See if you can spot yourself in our Summit photo albums at https://www.flickr.com/photos/cikalamazoo/albums (or click the buttons below to see the albums from each day). If you captured any stupendous shots, we’d love to see them.Tag us (@globaltieskzoo on all platforms) when you share them publicly, use the event hashtags #IAmDiplomacy and #DiplomacyBeginsHereSummitKalamazoo, or email us directly at social@globaltieskzoo.org! If you missed the Kalamazoo Summit you can check out Diplomacy Begins Here in New Orleans later this month!
We loved seeing all this great video from Kalamazoo’s Diplomacy Begins Here Summit, at the Epic Center in downtown Kalamazoo, earlier this month! Thanks so much to Public Media Network’s Amplify Kalamazoo for creating this piece, sharing observations from Global Ties Kalamazoo Executive Director Jodi Michaels and Global Ties Miami President and CEO (and Summit Learning Lab session presenter) Athena Passera at https://amplifykalamazoo.com/community/diplomacy-begins-in-kalamazoo-international-summit-of-business-government-and-nonprofit-leaders/.
Passera spoke about the impact of citizen diplomacy – building people-to-people relationships between international leaders and American people – on perceptions of guests and locals alike.
“Our delegations of visitors get to see different sides of what the U.S. means. They may be coming with a very specific idea of what it means to be an American, but when they go to Washington D.C. they see one thing, when they come to Miami they might see something different, and then when they come to Kalamazoo they see a slice of the U.S. that is so important and so meaningful and those are really the moments that some of those stereotypes get broken.”
“I would encourage everyone to get involved with us, because we learn about ourselves when we talk to people who are not us,” said Jodi Michaels. If you’d like to join Michaels, Passera, and countless others who say “yes” to meeting people from other geographies and cultures, tackling global problems together, visit www.globaltieskzoo.org/volunteer to express your interest. And if you spot yourself or someone you know in the video, tag them in the comments!
Did the Summit inspire you to get involved?
We’re welcoming a group of Latin American Youth Ambassadors from Oct. 26 - Nov. 5. Would your family enjoy sharing your favorite fall traditions with one (or two) of these young leaders? We’d love to hear from you. Do you know someone who's mentioned they might be interested in hosting? This is a great time to reach out to them as we'll need more host families than usual for this large group!
Meal hospitality opportunities with IVLP visitors will also available all throughout the fall. Stay tuned for more updates in upcoming newsletters.
A thousand thank yous to the individuals and organizations who made this group feel so incredibly welcome in our community.
Reading Kalamazoo LAYA alum Geovany's impressions of his experience at the Office of LBGT Student Services lounge at WMU (referred to as the Pride Room in this blog) really underscores the impact of citizen diplomacy, particularly on youth participants. We hope you'll enjoy reading about his experience in this World Learning blog as much as we did: https://www.worldlearning.org/story/youth-ambassador-alum-reflects-upon-the-importance-of-lgbtq-awareness-and-advocacy/
We are so excited to welcome our second cohort of Latin American Youth Ambassadors to Kalamazoo this October! We’d love for you to join us us as a home host for this program and help build lifelong memories for young leaders like Geovany! Visit our website or contact info@globaltieskzoo.org to express interest!
We couldn't talk about the impact of #YouthExchange right now without sharing the incredible connections forged between our July IYLEP cohort and local people. We're still tingling with goosebumps as we're hearing about the powerful bonds forged between this group and the people they met during their program.
Our longtime partner Paul, who regularly transports our international guests during their stays in Kalamazoo, said his experiences with this youth cohort will live with him forever and that he was flooded with gifts and letters from the participants on their last day here.
"The best gift of all is a letter (one of them wrote to me)," he said. "I cried before I finished reading the first sentence. When I read the sentence that I am the greatest person he ever met, I lost it! I was crying all the way home from their dorm. ... I know I made an impression on them, but they might not realize the impression they made on me."
This group also forged strong bonds with Freedom School scholars at the Arcus Center, with the young participants holding tight to their new friends arms and asking them not to leave when the visit was over.
Incredible connections like this, forged over a short period of time during a pivotal time in young leaders’ lives, are what citizen diplomacy is all about. We invite you to consider joining Paul and the Freedom School scholars in making an indelible impression on our guests. We're seeking many home hosts for Latin American Youth Ambassadors in October. Reach out to us at info@globaltieskzoo.org to express your interest.
Social Entrepreneurship IVLP participants create lasting connections
Participants in a recent Social Entrepreneurship International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) from Egypt also had the opportunity to connect with the IYLEP participants, with whom they spent an afternoon exploring the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. Both the adults and youth alike expressed interest in continuing their friendship beyond their visit here.
Likewise, this IVLP group described their meetings as highly impactful and some further collaboration with the Kalamazooans they met is underway. Thanks so much to everyone who engaged with these inspiring leaders: Western Michigan University / Haworth College of Business, Starting Gate, Can-Do Kalamazoo, Confections with Convictions, Northside Association for Community Development- NACD and the Stryker Johnston Foundation. Special thanks to Leatrice for meeting with these visiting leaders on your day off! And thank you to American Councils for International Education for partnering with us and sending this IVLP group to Kalamazoo, and to liaisons Muna and Mohammed for sharing photos and highlights.
Follow us on social media to learn more about other recent IVLP groups and take a look at our volunteer page on the website to get involved.
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Want to keep up with what Global Ties Kalamazoo program alumni are up to these days? We've launched a new #FollowUpFriday initiative on our LinkedIn page and plan to regularly highlight what both recent and long-ago guests are up to.
Last month, we congratulated 2023 YLAI alum Maria Isabel Amorin, who recently received the Chevening Awards' Alumni of the Year Award in the Science & Technology category for her work in shrimp shell waste biorefinery and the R&D of chitosan-based wastewater treatment products. During her fellowship at the City of Kalamazoo 's Wastewater Treatment last year, Maria was able to study the performance of her CrustaTec polymer with wastewater from different stages of the treatment process and meet with peers at Western Michigan University to workshop solutions to challenges she faced in her work.
We also shared 2024 UJLEP alum Omar Mehyar's interviews with Friends With Disabilities Founder and CEO Sharmese Anderson and WMU professor Pam Purpee, a video highlighting accessibility wins in our community, and an autobiographical interview piece, all of which he filmed during his fellowship at Public Media Network this summer.
Click the buttons below to watch Omar's videos, and follow us on LinkedIn for more Follow Up Friday updates.
Are you a GTKzoo alum who's got some great news to share? We'd love to hear about it! Tag us when you share on social media, or email us at social@globaltieskzoo.org.
We had an amazing time participating in this year's Latinx Fest on Aug. 17, and we're so excited to once again be tabling at the Canadiana Fest, scheduled for Sept. 21 at the Arcadia Creek Festival Site.
There's so much to do at this festival which celebrates the food, music, art and culture of our neighbors to the North. Visit their site to learn more about the amazing music and dance line-up -- including local talents Andrew Rathbun Ensemble, the Kalamazoo Pipe Band and Rock RX -- plus headlining Juno-Award winner Crystal Shawanda and more musicians from around the world.
The festival is urgently seeking volunteers. If you're free that day and would like to get involved, click here.
We're thrilled to be among the nominees in this year's Southwest Michigan First Chamber's Choice Awards, and we were thrilled to see longtime Global Ties Kalamazoo professional host, home host and board member Sarah Mansberger's nomination in the Alum of the Year category. First-round voting is open through Sept. 21 https://www.southwestmichiganfirst.com/chamber/2024-chambers-choice-awards, when the top three nominees in each category will become finalists.
Our Program Manager Emma Baratta has been enjoying being part of Southwest Michigan First's First Up program cohort that began last month and is also serving on the Chamber's Choice Awards Committee there.
"It has been great participating in Southwest Michigan First's First Up Professional Development Program to explore career goals and leadership development while connecting with other young professionals in various fields across the Kalamazoo area," she said. "I've enjoyed the guided reflection and insights from my peers on how to develop a personal leadership brand and create lasting impact and am excited to fill my 'Up and Out Passport' by engaging in networking and development opportunities around Kalamazoo."
If ensuring that #ExchangeIsForEverybody matters to you, we invite you to consider supporting our work. Click the button below to donate, or text GTKZOO to 44321.
Thank you for your support,
Jodi Hope Michaels and the Global Ties Kalamazoo Team
*This blog post was originally sent as an email newsletter Sept. 3, 2024
