The U.S. Government's highest exchange brings two interesting groups to October's First Thursday - all speak English!

 

#1.  Meet fourteen educators from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Israel, Maldives, Mozambique, Nigeria, Palestinian Territories, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Uruguay and Uzbekistan.  They are in the United States to examine the U.S. system of higher education, its structure, administration and support services.  They will also explore the needs and responsibilities of higher education and its changing relationship with other elements of society.

 

#2.  Join us in welcoming 5 University Library Directors from the Philippines.  Their program is entitled U.S. Society and Library Science. The program will build participants' knowledge and understanding of American society and culture and familiarize them with American libraries (public and academic) as they learn best practices to better promote and market American Corners in various Philippine communities.  They will also look at how new social media and information technology tools are integrated in American libraries to maximize programming opportunities at American Corners.  Both groups are part of the invitation-only International Visitor Leadership Program. 

Several year's ago IVC created "Discover Philadelphia," a program that creates positive American experiences for Philadelphia's international graduate students.  Five schools are represented at October's First Thursday.  In alphabetical order:

 

1. From Arcadia University are five graduate students enrolled in the university's MBA, International Peace and Conflict Resolution(IPCR) and Physical Therapy programs.  They represent Brazil, China, Nigeria and Taiwan.  Joining them is a IPCR Visiting Professor from Iran.

 

2. From La Salle University's MBA program are students from Belgium, Cameroon, China, Dubai, Greece, India and Turkey.

 

3. From Philadelphia University are graduate students from China, India and Ivory Coast. 

 

4. From Temple University's Beasley School of Law are lawyers, judges and prosecutors pursuing their LL.M. degree.  They are from Albania, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Ghana, Haiti, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Liberia, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.  Also from Temple are five members of the International Business Association with Colombia and United Kingdom represented.

 

5. Students from University of Pennsylvania's PennDiplomats will also be in attendance with their international guests. 

Sister Cities students are choosing Philadelphia for their undergraduate and graduate degrees. This week we are again joined by Danielle from Douala, Cameroon.  who will be joined by her father at the reception.  Temple has three Sister City students: From Zhao, who is from Tianjin, just started at Temple for his Ph.D in computer science.  Also from Tianjin is Haoren, who is studying business at Temple's Fox, and Yeoun Joo from Incheon also at Fox.  All three are beginning their first semesters at Temple.

Join us to welcome guests from France,  Japan & Spain.

 

Joining us from France is Pierre who is a pharmacist working for Universal Medica, a consulting and service provider company dedicated to pharma and biotech industries.  Universal Medica is opening a subsidiary in Philadelphia this Fall.

And from Japan is Yasuko who is the General Manager for Sakai Foods America based in Essington, PA. This is the sister company to Philadelphia-based Bell Export Food Group.

We are pleased to welcome back Daniel, who recently became the new U.S. Representative Office Director at SPRI North America, Spain's economic development agency for the Basque Region in Center City.