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Around the WorldBoston March - April 2003
Our Mission: WorldBoston is a catalyst for global engagement that offers cultural perspectives and promotes international thinking in individuals and organizations. WorldBoston provides a staging ground for issues-focused forums, one-on-one dialog, networking and personal and professional growth for residents, businesses and institutions of Greater Boston and around the globe.
FEATURES Corporate Member Spotlight Global View The WorldBoston Wish List World Affairs Emerging Leaders Contact Us
CORPORATE MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Eastern Bank
WorldBoston is pleased to welcome Eastern Bank as a new corporate member. Last fall Eastern was the business internship host for Oleg Betzel, a Community Connections participant who came to Boston to learn about every aspect of the retail banking industry. Eastern arranged a full-scheduled internship for Oleg, a young executive with the First Ukrainian International Bank, and hosted a luncheon in his honor at the conclusion of his stay. We very much appreciate Eastern’s commitment to WorldBoston and its continuing support for our programs.
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GLOBAL
VIEW Brandie E. Conforti, Executive Director
One of the things I love about my job is working for an organization with a mission I truly believe in. As Boston’s source for global engagement, WorldBoston is able to offer the public diverse viewpoints on the “hot” international topics of the day. However, I have long struggled with the fact that as an organization we need to do more in order to engage a large segment of the population: the youth of Greater Boston. This need has become increasingly important as school curricula have shifted more and more to meet the demands of competing priorities. As a result, I fear that studies of international issues may be taking a back seat. Interest in global politics has been elevated over the last year as the result of several precipitous events, beginning with the September 11th tragedy. With President Bush having just announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq, I am concerned that we will once again see interest in international affairs decline. While it is important for everyone to stay informed about the day-to-day happenings around the world, it seems especially urgent that our young people – our future voters and leaders – do this. For this reason, the entire staff of WorldBoston is engaged in a collective effort to resurrect and update an old but highly regarded project of its merged partner, the World Affairs Council. Specifically, we are working to bring global education into our local schools in order to help the youth of Greater Boston – a widely diverse population – better understand, appreciate, and become more aware of international issues and other cultures. With its wealth of international resources, WorldBoston is in a unique position to accomplish this. More than 700 emerging leaders pass through our doors each year, not to mention the numerous established professionals who speak to the public as part of our World Affairs program. Clearly, WorldBoston has something significant to offer our future leaders. WorldBoston is currently in the very early stages of developing test partnerships with one local elementary school and one local high school in order to have a “test” global education program in place for the Fall. We hope that after one year we will be able to evaluate the impact of this effort and establish the future direction of a formal program that can then be extended to a number of educational institutions. If we are successful in this new endeavor, our pilot global education project will be one of our most rewarding initiatives to date!
THE WORLDBOSTON WISH LIST We hope that you will consider making a donation to WorldBoston. Please visit our website and click on Give a Gift to see the kinds of activities your gift will support, as well as a donation form. Other things on our Wish List are: * Volunteer part-time bookkeeper * Color printer (PC compatible, 14ppm color; installation software must be included) * Event sponsors and space
If you are able to donate your time or a top-quality color printer, or are interested in event sponsorship, please contact Brandie Conforti (phone: 617-542-8995, ext. 103; email: bconforti@worldboston.org). WORLD AFFAIRS Elizabeth J. Streiff, Director, World Affairs
World Affairs strives to educate, inform and foster understanding of international affairs; and to provide accessibility for the general public to participate in the discussion of global issues. With the month of April just ended, another Great Decisions lecture series has come and gone. This year’s series was the most consistently successful series of the past few years, with many new faces both at the podium and in the audience. Overall attendance was up 54 percent from last year, proving not only how relevant the topics selected for discussion were but also the growing level of interest for such events. This year’s topics were some of the best and most interesting that I have seen in my four years of running this program. Certainly, the presentations on “The War on Terror: Multilateralism vs. Unilateralism” and “Saudi Arabia - Friend or Foe?” could not have been more timely given the war in Iraq. It was also interesting to have topics that had not been covered before, such as genetically modified crops and women’s rights, receive the acknowledgement they deserve as pressing international issues. Of course, this series could not have been organized without the Lowell Institute, which has been generously supporting this series for many years. As always, we offer our sincere thanks to this prestigious organization. However, just because Great Decisions is over does not mean that World Affairs event planning has ceased for the year. We are in the process of scheduling panel discussions in May on the effectiveness of U.S. diplomacy, international health challenges and human rights issues around the world. In May we will also be kicking off our Business Breakfast Series that each month will highlight a different region of the world. The series will open with a presentation on the European Union, titled “The EU As A Market Force: Does Expansion Bode Well for U.S. Businesses?” At the same time, we are continuing to work on a Defense Forum trip. So, as you can see, we are organizing several events to keep you busy during the month! For more information about these and other future events, be sure to check our website or call World Affairs (617-542-8995, ext. 112). If there are any topics that you would like us to address in the future, please send your suggestions by email to wac@worldboston.org.
Photo of panel from "Media Coverage and the War in Iraq" (l-r) Brandie Conforti, WorldBoston; Rod Fritz, WRKO; Emily Rooney, WGBH;, Wayne Woodlief, The Boston Herald; Jeb Sharp, The World; Mike Macklin, WHDH; Fran Fifis, CNN; David Beard, The Boston Globe; Jim Walsh, Harvard University |
EMERGING LEADERS Kate Harvey, Director, International Visitors Natasha Palmroth, Director, Community Connections
The
mission of Emerging Leaders is to engage and develop dynamic thinkers from
around the world who will drive global change in the future. It involves the administration of two United States
Department of State programs: the
International Visitor Program and Community Connections.
International Visitors. In March I was fortunate to attend the National Center for International Visitors (NCIV) annual conference in Washington, D.C., where representatives from Centers for International Visitors (CIVs) from all over the country met to exchange ideas and best practices for International Visitor programming. I would like to share with you some of the things I learned at the conference: · *While Congress has been slicing funding for many educational and cultural programs, NCIV helped to successfully lobby for increased funding for the International Visitor Program. · *The State Department anticipates funding more “Role of Religion” projects in the coming year so that International Visitors will be able to use their time in the United States to better understand the concept of religious pluralism and the role that religion can play in education, community development and other aspects of American life. · *The State Department anticipates funding more participants from the Middle East in the coming year. · *Many CIVs like WorldBoston are forging partnerships and merging with World Affairs Councils across the country to help defray financial burdens, draw from an expanded pool of resources and offer more to their local communities. With its merger with the World Affairs Council of Boston, the new WorldBoston is clearly leading the trend. As for other International Visitor news, it’s Eisenhower Fellows time again! Since 1953, Eisenhower Fellowships has identified men and women who are well on their way to positions of regional or national leadership and provided them with opportunities for professional, intellectual and personal growth.
WorldBoston
works in collaboration with the Eisenhower Fellowships Organization in
Philadelphia to program the Boston portion of its Fellows’ itineraries.
We are particularly looking forward this year to the arrival of
Eisenhower Fellow Natalia Kudryavtseva, Executive Director of the St.
Petersburg International Business Association for North-Western Russia.
Natalia happens to be the wife of Alexander Kudryavtseva, a
telecommunications professional who was one of WorldBoston’s first
Community Connections participants. Since
Alexander will be joining his wife in Boston, we are very much looking
forward to seeing him and learning about how he has been able to apply
both his Community Connections and business internship experience at Arch
Communications since returning home.
Be sure to check our website for an up-to-date listing of our May International Visitors.
If you would like to become involved with International Visitors for professional meetings, social hospitality or home hosting, please contact Kate Harvey, Director of International Visitors (phone: 617-542-8995, ext. 105; email: el@worldboston.org). Community Connections. While Siberia may be halfway around the world, the region’s people struggle with problems and issues that are very similar to those that Americans grapple with when it comes to dealing with today’s youth. The primary concerns of Russians include drug and alcohol abuse, literacy and crime prevention. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has been working diligently to develop its youth infrastructure to promote children’s rights, and to implement programs designed to keep children off the streets and provide for their needs. To this end, WorldBoston has developed an intensive three-week professional development program focused on youth advocacy for its current Community Connections group that arrived in Boston on May 2nd. One member of this group is Sergey Vologzhin, Deputy Director for Children’s Services at Yakutsk Elementary School #33. Sergey works with the children in his school to prevent delinquency, to help children with special needs and to assist in the training of staff and parents to better deal with youths. Sergey hopes that his trip to Boston will give him the opportunity to learn about the ways in which American schools and youth programs steer young people away from the streets. He also hopes that the meetings with his Boston-based youth advocacy colleagues will allow him to increase the effectiveness of his work at home. Sergey is already planning, upon his return, to hold seminars for his colleagues in order to share with them the information and new ideas he acquires while participating in WorldBoston’s Community Connections program. Thanks to the dedication of the numerous Boston-area youth advocacy and services agencies that are working with us on this program, individuals like Sergey will gain new knowledge to help them foster improvements in their communities. Once again the residents of Greater Boston are graciously doing their part to make connections and to draw from their experience in order to make the world a better place. Please check back on our website to get up-to-date information on what's happening with Community Connections.
If you are interested in getting involved with Community Connections, please contact Natasha Palmroth, Director of Community Connections (phone: 617-542-8995, ext. 104; email: el@worldboston.org). |
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