Hillary Clinton
The U.S. Department of State announced this week the online opening of the Virtual U.S. Embassy Tehran as “an opportunity for engagement between the peoples of Iran and the United States.”
The number of international students enrolled at U.S. universities has increased by five per cent, according to the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) Open Doors 2011 report, released yesterday at a briefing that kicked off this year's International Education Week. Open Doors 2011 also reveals that international students contributed more than $21 billion to the U.S. economy in 2010-11, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data.
The first U.S.-India Higher Education Summit was held last week at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. Attendees of the summit, including numerous U.S. university presidents, leaders in the NGO international education and exchange community, and government officials, sought "deeper, broader, and more sustained collaboration" between the two countries, including educational exchange:
The Department of State plans to resume Fulbright student and scholarly exchanges and English language training programs in Libya, the Associated Press and the Chronicle of Higher Education both report.
Foreign language and culture training is “essential to our ability not only to protect our security, but frankly to be a nation that is well educated,” Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said yesterday during a wide-ranging conversation with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the National Defense University.
In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton posted on his website yesterday, Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) noted that he is “concerned that the [Exchange Visitor] program lacks sufficient oversight of program sponsors and enforcement of the protections against abuse.” Udall asked Clinton to “provide an outline of the steps that the [State] Department has taken to ensure proper oversight and enforcement to protect against possible misuse of the visa program as it pertains to the protection of U.S. workers.”
Udall also wrote that his intention with this request is to work with the State Department “to maintain the true intent of the Exchange Visitor Program as an educational and cultural exchange that can serve as an important diplomatic tool while also protecting the interests of American workers.”
Grammy Awards-winning musician and producer of the Black Eyed Peas will.i.am will direct a concert in Beijing later this year to celebrate U.S.-China educational and cultural exchanges and to benefit President Obama’s 100,000 Strong Initiative, according to the Department of State’s website.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently returned from an around-the-world trip that included stops in Turkey, Greece, India, Indonesia, and Hong Kong.
At the closing luncheon for the Department of State's TechWomen Initiative today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton celebrated the completion of the first-ever TechWomen exchange program and announced the planned launch of a similar initiative next year.
The "TechGirls" initiative will complement the TechWomen program and "will bring teenage girls from the Middle East and North Africa for an intensive month of educational activities here in the United States."
On the heels of the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany and along with the kick-off of the 40th anniversary year of Title IX, the Department of State recently launched its Women's World Cup Initiative "Empowering Women and Girls through Sports." The initiative is led by the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and co-sponsored by the Office of Global Women's Issues as well as the SportsUnited Office, which leads the State Department's international exchange efforts to bring people from all over the globe together through sports, for example through "Soccer Diplomacy."
