Whitney Uzoma, associate director of international student services at Kirkwood Community College, looks at a panel from the “Impact of Exchange” art exhibit on the steps of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in southwest Cedar Rapids on Friday. Global Tides Iowa hosted a roundtable discussion on the importance of international exchange programs and how to promote them. The outdoor photo exhibit, which runs through Sept. 10, features stories of life abroad from 38 U.S. Citizen Exchange Program graduates. (Jim Slosiak/The Gazette)
CEDAR RAPIDS — From home-cooked meals to music and dance festivals to mesmerizing sunsets and sunrises, the photo book paints a vivid picture of strangers making friends abroad, experiencing and connecting with the world through food, art, sports, dance and religion.
Area higher education leaders came together Friday to promote opportunities for Iowans to showcase their state and the Midwest to the world.
Global Tides Iowa, which leads international exchange programs that bring people to Iowa, has announced a traveling photo exhibit, “The Impact of Exchange,” that will be on display through Sept. 10 at the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in southwest Cedar Rapids.
Whitney Uzoma, right, associate director of international student services at Kirkwood Community College, talks with Peter Gerlach, left, executive director of the Iowa City Council on Foreign Relations, and Dawn Wood, Kirkwood's dean of global learning, next to the Impact of Exchange art exhibit on the steps of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in southwest Cedar Rapids on Friday. (Jim Slosiak/The Gazette)
The outdoor photography exhibit combines public art and storytelling to share the stories of the overseas experiences of 38 U.S. citizen exchange program graduates. To kick off the exhibit, Global Tides hosted a roundtable discussion on Friday to discuss the importance of exchange programs.
University of Iowa political science major Andrew Kelleher, a New Albin native, studies one of the panels in the “Impact of Exchange” art exhibit, which opened Friday on the steps of the Czech and Slovak National Museum and Library in southwest Cedar Rapids. Kelleher, a Benjamin A. Gilman Scholar, returned from an exchange program in Spain. Global Tides Iowa hosted a roundtable discussion Friday about the importance of international exchange programs and how to promote them. (Jim Slosiak/The Gazette)
Representatives from the Cedar Rapids Museum, the U.S. Department of State, the University of Iowa and Kirkwood Community College discussed ways to support and promote international education and collaboration in Iowa, emphasizing the importance of networking, cultural exchange and language learning opportunities.
They emphasized the value of providing international opportunities for young leaders to broaden their horizons and develop their leadership skills, and also discussed the need to raise awareness of study abroad opportunities, especially for high school students from rural and low-income areas.
Payton Pangburn, a Fulbright English assistant heading to Moldova this fall, said it's common for exchange students to be in classes at her high school.
Payton Pangburn, a 2024-2025 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, spoke during a roundtable discussion Friday at the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in southwest Cedar Rapids. Global Ties Iowa hosted the roundtable discussion on the importance of international exchange programs. (Jim Slosiak/The Gazette)
“And nobody had any idea how to get anywhere else,” Pangburn says. “I think I was a little more proactive than average in my education, but I still didn't realize this.”
The State Department offers several exchange programs for high school students that may provide financial assistance, including scholarships and merit-based awards.
“It was unbelievable that as a high school student I could go abroad on such a low budget,” Pangburn said.
Global Ties Iowa Executive Director Amy Alice Chastain said intercultural exchange helps break down barriers and build bridges of understanding between people.
This community-based, member-driven nonprofit organization is committed to creating, supporting and sustaining citizen diplomacy initiatives in Eastern Iowa that foster global knowledge, civic engagement, community participation, workforce development and international connections.
Global Tides Iowa executive director Amy Alice Chastain, left, smiles as she talks with Iowa City Council on Foreign Relations executive director Peter Gerlach and other attendees Friday near the “Impact of Exchange” art exhibit on the steps of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in southwest Cedar Rapids. The outdoor photography exhibit runs through Sept. 10. (Jim Slosiak/The Gazette)
“For a lot of young people, they don't know that a lot of these programs are supported by the State Department, so they see it as an economic and financial obstacle,” Chastain said.
She studied abroad in France for a year during college, which she says was the least expensive of her studies because she received housing assistance from the French government.
Madeleine Young Smith, director of the State Department's Alumni Affairs Office, said educational and professional cultural exchanges foster lasting mutual understanding with other countries that is necessary to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives.
“Our programs foster people-to-people connections among current and future world leaders, building lasting networks and personal relationships that advance U.S. national security interests,” Young-Smith said.
She said the Department's goal is to increase participation in cultural exchange programs from states like Iowa that have historically been under-represented.
“We hope that this exhibit will demonstrate the power of exchange that we all know so well and that these programs will play a role in foreign policy,” Young-Smith said.
He said the federal government supports more than 100 programs and more than 2.4 million interactions involving 500,000 U.S. citizens.
“We hope that the impact of the Exchange Travel Photo Exhibition will inspire the next generation of exchange program participants,” Young-Smith said, “and our hope is that Americans across the country will see themselves as individuals who can benefit, both personally and professionally, from people-to-people exchanges. Those bonds keep those bridges strong and remind the world of the American spirit, our values, our talents, our diversity, our entrepreneurial spirit.”
Peter Gerlach, executive director of the Iowa City Council on Foreign Relations and professor of international studies at the University of Iowa, said such programs offer participants an opportunity to address major global challenges.
Chastain said Global Ties brought people from 99 countries and territories to Iowa last year alone.
“I'm one of those people who dreamed of going abroad from a young age,” Chastain said. “I've always been interested in learning languages and experiencing other cultures.”
But as the first student in her family to attend college, she wasn't sure how to make it happen.
“My parents, to this day, don't have passports,” Chastain said, “and they had no idea that these things that we see all around us existed. They didn't know these programs were available. They didn't know who to ask. To me, that's the real motivation for bringing this exhibit to our community.”
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