March 2010
Below please find the listing of Federal Register announcements issued by the U.S. Departments of State, Education, and Homeland Security, and USAID since 02/26/10.
An alumna of Lake Forest College in Chicago, Grace Groner, bequeathed $7 million to her alma mater to start a “foundation to allow students to study abroad,” ABC News reported. Groner was a “secret millionaire,” as few knew about her fortune that grew from three shares of stock in Abbott Laboratories, her former employer, bought at only $60 a piece.
Watch the brief ABC News report:
The new $10 fee to be levied on visitors to the United States from 35 European and Asian visa-waiver countries (see previous Alliance coverage of the Travel Promotion Act) will cover a traveler for two years and could produce as much as $100-200 million a year to help fund a corporation to promote the United States as a tourist destination, the LA Times reports.
Japan announced plans to standardize student-evaluation methods with universities in China and South Korea, in a “possible first step toward a pan-Asian student-exchange program,” the Chronicle of Higher Education reported last week.
Japan's ministry of education says the plan will make it easier for students in Asia's three largest higher-education markets to study abroad.
The Voice of America filed a report recently on Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale’s February trip to Bangladesh (covered previously by the Alliance).
With a record number of participants—83—the Alliance held its 10th annual Advocacy Day on Thursday, March 4. Alliance members participating in this year’s Advocacy Day visited 104 House and Senate offices and represented a record 26 states, as well as the District of Columbia.
(At right: Advocacy Day participant Ana Gil-Garcia, representing the Fulbright Association, with Illinois Senators Roland Burris and Dick Durbin.)
Representatives Adam Smith (D-WA) and Mac Thornberry (R-TX) have together established a new "Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy Caucus" and are actively seeking additional members to join, Matt Armstrong at MountainRunner reported.
In a Washington Post Letter to the Editor published yesterday, Maura Pally, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, discusses a growing trend in U.S. students’ interest in Russia and the Russian language. She states that “[b]oth trends bode well for U.S. engagement in the world because foreign language skills and the inter-cultural awareness they bring pave the way for mutual understanding and better relations.”
The Office of the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs released yesterday its “roadmap for Public Diplomacy” in a document titled Public Diplomacy: Strengthening U.S. Engagement with the World. In it, the Under Secretary, Judith McHale, lays out five “strategic imperatives” for 21st century public diplomacy:
In an op-ed piece today, New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof proposes a new program that would combine the foundations of Teach for America and the Peace Corps.
