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On August 12 we celebrated International Youth Day and the transformative potential of all generations!  And when half of the people on our planet are 30 years old or younger, why celebrate youth on just one day?  The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ (ECA) Youth Programs Division celebrates international youth everyday with programs all year round, both in the United States and around the world.  These impactful programs empower the next generation and build long-lasting ties between the United States and other countries.

The Youth Programs Division plans and sponsors high school and other exchanges that promote mutual understanding, cross-cultural learning, leadership development, and civic education.  Youth exchange programs provide opportunities for U.S. and international youth and share America’s values, spirit of innovation, and culture with international audiences.

This year’s theme of intergenerational solidarity is a hallmark of ECA’s youth programs, which facilitate interactions among cultures and generations.  For example, National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) participants practice speaking foreign languages with their host parents and grandparents in the home.  TechGirls participants are often partnered with older mentors during their program.  And FLEX, YES, and CBYX program participants volunteer in their local communities with new friends and colleagues of all ages, including at retirement homes.

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National Security Language Intitaitve for Youth (NSLI-Y) students participate in an activity during their exchange.

August is Youth Empowerment month here at ECA, where we’re highlighting our programs and holding events, including an @ExchangeOurWorld Instagram Live marking the 50th Anniversary of the German American Partnership Program on Wednesday, August 17 at 12:00 PM ET.

ECA’s youth programs include:

• The Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellowship which fosters relationships among the younger generation of Europeans and Americans to build strong linkages and an awareness of shared values.
• The Congress – Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) program which offers American and German high school students and young professionals a scholarship for an academic year in Germany and the United States.  Participants live with host families, attend high school or college, engage in activities to learn about the host country society and values, and share about their home countries and cultures.
• The Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program to provide scholarships for high school students from 22 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia to spend an academic year in the United States, living with a host family and attending an American high school.
• The Future Leaders Exchange Abroad (FLEX Abroad) program which provides merit-based scholarships for eligible U.S. high school students to attend a local school in Georgia, Kazakhstan, or Poland for an academic year.  FLEX Abroad participants serve as young ambassadors, promoting mutual understanding and forming lasting relationships with their host families and local communities.
• The German American Partnership Program (GAPP) to support teachers and schools in arranging successful bilateral school exchanges for their students and communities.
• Jóvenes en Acción (Youth in Action) which is a ten-month civic education and leadership program that begins with a four-week exchange experience in the United States.  Participants are selected as project teams of four to five students from diverse communities throughout Mexico.
• The Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program which offers high school students from countries with significant Muslim populations the opportunity to study and live in the United States for an academic year to advance the U.S. foreign policy goals of promoting civil society, developing young leaders, and forming lasting ties between Americans and the people of participating countries.  Applicants compete for YES scholarships through a rigorous, merit-based selection process.  While on the program, participants live with American volunteer host families, attend high school, and engage in community service and civic education activities.
• The Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study (YES) Abroad program which offers U.S. high school students the opportunity to study and live in select YES countries for an academic year to advance the U.S. foreign policy goals of promoting civil society, developing youth leadership development, and forming lasting ties between Americans and the people of participating countries.  Applicants compete for YES Abroad scholarships through a rigorous, merit-based selection process.  While on program, participants live with local host families, attend high school, and engage in community service and civic education activities.
• The National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) which provides critical-language study overseas for U.S. high school students through full, merit-based scholarships to participate in intensive summer and academic year programs.
• TechGirls which is an international exchange program designed to empower young girls to pursue careers in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) sectors.
• The Youth Ambassadors program to bring together high school students and adult mentors from 25 countries across the Americas to promote mutual understanding, increase leadership skills, and prepare youth to make a difference in their communities.
• Youth Leadership programs to foster mutual understanding, respect, and civic engagement among young Americans and their international peers.  Exchanges are three to four weeks in duration and involve youth ages 15-18, and adults who work with youth.

Author: Maegen Smith

On July 16, nearly 200 young leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa arrived in the United States, and while it is certainly impressive to bring exchange participants to the United States during a pandemic, their arrival felt particularly special. This cohort applied for the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders in 2019; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their program was conducted virtually in 2021, with select alumni of the cohort only now traveling to the United States for an in-person exchange experience.

 The Alumni Enrichment Institutes were a unique opportunity for 2021 Mandela Washington Fellowship alumni to travel to the United States to collaborate for three weeks with U.S. counterparts and each other to continue building the professional and leadership skills they developed during their virtual 2021 Leadership Institutes. Following welcome activities in Washington, D.C., they spent two weeks in cohorts of 25 participants at their Alumni Enrichment Institutes located across the United States.  

As the Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs Lee Satterfield noted during her remarks to the fellows on July 18, the 2021 Mandela Washington Fellowship cohort “has embodied resilience in a way that we have never seen before.” Through their virtual program, Fellows engaged with Leadership Institute staff, participated in academic sessions with university professors, and connected with counterparts in the United States and across Sub-Saharan Africa. Many of the participants traveled to the United States for the first time to share best practices and experience U.S. culture as part of the Alumni Enrichment Institutes.

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Assistant Secretary Lee Satterfield encouraged participants to make the most of the three-week program. Photo Credit: IREX

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Assistant Secretary Molly Phee met with participants during the welcome activities in Washington, D.C. Photo Credit: IREX

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Participants hosted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst had a networking reception with local community members. Photo Credit: IREX

csudh__aei_karen_bass_visit.jpg Participants hosted by California State University, Dominguez Hills met with U.S. Representative Karen Bass in Carson, California. Photo Credit: IREX

Throughout the welcome week activities, participants repeatedly expressed their gratitude for how “intentionally intentional” the U.S. Department of State, IREX, embassies, and consulates have been throughout the last three years to meet the needs of the cohort. In turn, the alumni will be intentional at home and will use this opportunity to advance their work in business, civic engagement, or public management.

The Alumni Enrichment Institutes were a follow-on opportunity of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).  YALI was created in 2010 and supports young Africans as they spur economic growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across Africa.  Since 2014, the U.S. Department of State has supported nearly 5,800 Mandela Washington fellows from across Sub-Saharan Africa to develop their leadership skills and foster connections and collaboration with U.S. professionals. 

The Mandela Washington Fellowship is a program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by IREX.   

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August 8, 2022 - Assistant Secretary Satterfield traveled to New York to join the Cambodian Ambassador to the United States Keo Chhea and representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (USASD) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for a repatriation ceremony of 30 pieces of cultural property, including the 10th century sculpture ‘Skanda on a Peacock,’  which is of great cultural and religious significance to the people of Cambodia. Assistant Secretary Satterfield’s visit underscores the United States’ commitment to preserving cultural heritage and property in Cambodia and around the world, as well as the bilateral and people-to-people relationships between the United States and Cambodia.

Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and Homeland Security Investigations, the repatriation ceremony is part of the United States’ whole-of-government approach to protecting and preserving global cultural heritage.  Through the U.S. Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee, 16 U.S. government agencies, led by the Department of State and chaired by Assistant Secretary Satterfield, work together to disrupt looting and illegal trade of international cultural property, while also promoting the lawful exchange of cultural property for cultural, educational, and scientific purposes.

Assistant Secretary Satterfield also highlighted Cambodia’s regional leadership as a partner in cultural heritage protection through the U.S.-Cambodia cultural property agreement, the only such agreement between the United States and an ASEAN member.   For more than 20 years, the United States has worked to protect, preserve, and honor Cambodia’s rich cultural heritage with Cambodian partners, American academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations.

For more information please visit: https://culturalproperty.state.gov/ 

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During July 8-10, 2022, 400 game developers participated in the United with Ukraine Game Jam held in Warsaw, Poland.  This videogame development competition was organized by GovTech Poland, in cooperation with the Cultural Heritage Center from the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.  Over two days, the jammers, representing 22 countries, came together virtually, and in person, to create working prototypes for new video games that celebrate and support Ukraine’s cultural heritage. 

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Cultural Heritage Center and U.S. Embassy in Poland staff were joined by Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Ukrainian officials at the Game Jam’s opening ceremonies, which featured a stirring performance by a Ukrainian opera singer now based in Poland as a result of the war. During the busy weekend, gamers heard presentations about Ukraine’s culture from Creative Director of the Ukrainian Institute Tetyana Filevska and Ihor Poshyvailo, director of the Maidan Museum and co-founder of the Heritage Emergency Response Initiative (HERI).  Jammers were also treated to a cultural performance by Vyselo, a Ukrainian band belonging to the Slavalachia alliance of musicians and folk artists. 

Ukraine is home to centuries-old historical and architectural landmarks that speak to the unique cultural identity of the people of Ukraine.  The destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage through Russia’s unprovoked, unjustified war is an attack on that identity. The United States is committed to working with international partners to preserve and protect historically significant places and objects in Ukraine. Since 2002, the State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center has provided nearly two million dollars to support more than 18 cultural preservation projects in Ukraine.

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“Jammers” representing 22 countries worked around the clock developing game prototypes in just two days.

Through videogames, those who work to preserve cultural heritage – whether governments, civil society, or individuals – can raise awareness with new audiences and gain allies in the shared responsibility of safeguarding the artifacts, monuments, and practices of our past.  The United with Ukraine Game Jam winning games were selected for their ability to connect players with Ukraine’s cultural heritage through engaging graphics, compelling storytelling, and exciting game play. 

The United with Ukraine Game Jam builds on the Cultural Heritage Center’s 2021Cultural Heritage Game Jam, created in partnership with Global Game Jam.  The Cultural Heritage Game Jam used games to raise awareness about the importance of cultural heritage in local communities.  Over 900 developers from 72 countries, including Ukraine and Poland, created 116 games over the course of the event.

Article written by Allie Dalola, intern with the U.S. Department of State and a current student at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

chante6.jpeg Chanté adds frosting to her guava cream cheese danishes

[Nassau, July 2022] Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) alumna, Chef Chanté Basden, is passionate about two things: food and her community. While baking mouth-watering guava cream cheese danishes that sell out daily at Bahamas Tastiest Bakery, she also leads the fight for women’s empowerment and food stability on her island, Abaco, in The Bahamas.

From a young age, Chanté was in the kitchen. “My passion ignited when I would cook with my grandma on Sundays,” she says. “I would just keep learning and learning. I realized that I love the kitchen.” Many years later, after culinary school in the United States, Chanté took over her family’s bakery, Bahamas Tastiest.

chante3.jpeg Bahamas Tastiest’s White Bread

In 2019, Hurricane Dorian hit Abaco, destroying much of the island. Chanté recounts walking into her family bakery and seeing everything destroyed. But she was resilient. “Instead of allowing that to defeat me,” she remembers, “I thought, ‘Chanté, you're bigger than this storm.’” Chanté resolved to restore her bakery and use this storm for good.

Chanté explains that Hurricane Dorian provided her with an opportunity to act on her long-standing passion for food stability in the community. As the storm approached, Chanté stayed in the bakery, distributing bread until the final minute. This was only the beginning of her efforts to fight hunger in Abaco.

Today, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising cost of living on her island, poverty and food instability are pressing issues. Chanté constantly leverages her bakery to educate her community about simple, cost-effective recipes, empowering people to produce their own food. She even started a fund to provide hungry people with free food items.

chante7.jpeg Chanté is teaching her community how to make basic bread dough to fight hunger and provide a cost-effective food source.

Beyond these efforts, Chanté launched a second business, The Chef Store, that serves as her platform for educating and empowering young women. The store, which provides ingredients and supplies to restaurants and chefs, is run by a fully female team that Chanté carefully instructs on the important aspects of running a business.

Her ability to empower the next generation of female business owners is in large part due to her participation in the U.S. State Department’s Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) program. Through AWE, Chanté learned the importance of a business plan and today reminds her employees, “If you don't have a plan, you plan to fail!”

As she looks forward to selling her products internationally to major chain stores, Chanté is grateful for how her AWE cohort inspired her and how the DreamBuilder program equipped her for expansion. “Once you've completed the AWE program, it's like you're set for life,” she describes. “It's an investment in you.”

The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs, a program of the U.S. Department of State, gives women the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch and scale successful businesses. To date, U.S. Embassy Nassau has empowered more than 280 women in The Bahamas, and forged partnerships with several local institutions to support female entrepreneurship over the long term: the Small Business Development Centre (SBDC), the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) and the Bahamas Development Bank (BDB) have all contributed to making the AWE program possible in The Bahamas.

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Human trafficking is a pervasive global issue that affects every country in the world, and the Department of State has made combating human trafficking a top priority. The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report Hero award honors individuals who have contributed significantly to ending all forms of human trafficking.

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During the 2022 TIP Report launch ceremony, the U.S. Department of State honored six 2022 TIP Report Heroes for their tireless commitment to combating human trafficking. This year, the TIP Report Heroes include leaders in government, advocacy, and civil society from Bangladesh, Jordan, Liberia, Poland, Thailand, and Ukraine.

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Cultural exchanges are a vital element of our foreign policy and a powerful way to connect and share best practices. The 2022 TIP Report Heroes are currently participating in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program. The Heroes are attending professional meetings in Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia, PA; and Reno, NV and forging connections with U.S. community leaders with the shared goal of combating all forms of human trafficking. The meetings are focused on the integral themes of prosecution, prevention, protection, and partnerships. The Heroes are also examining the compounding effects of the pandemic, exploring concerns related to racial equity and justice, and highlighting effective survivor engagement.

by Amelia Shaw 

[San Jose, July 2022] For Costa Rican entrepreneur Hazel Naranjo, learning how to navigate her construction and home accessories business has meant succeeding as a woman in a man’s world.  And it was the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs that helped her create the road map.

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“AWE was so important,” says Naranjo. “Construction is distinctly a male environment, but with AWE I met so many women entrepreneurs, and I learned that as a business-woman I am not alone.”

Trained in interior design, Naranjo worked in a home-building company for years, designing ornamental fixtures, moldings, mosaic tiles and other home décor pieces. But becoming a mother changed her priorities.

“I had a two-year old daughter, and I couldn’t be present for her working in that company from 7-to-5 every day. I wanted to be with her, and I couldn’t,” says Naranjo.

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She left her job of many years, but soon found that the male-dominated home-building industry was not interested in hiring a woman in her forties looking for part-time work. When a fellow craftsman asked her if she’d be interested in opening her own home accessories business, she saw it as an opportunity to follow a dream.

“We started in 2014, from my house with one computer,” remembers Naranjo. “I had my contacts from my old job, and I knew how exporting worked.” A former client in Panama gave her the first order for a container of cement tiles and construction materials – and her business got off the ground.

But she admits that she didn’t know the first thing about running a business, and she struggled to grow over the next five years, and managed to expand slowly from a home-based business to a small rented space with her own machines and 15 employees.

“I have my design degree. But that doesn’t teach you anything about business management,” she admits. She says that most women know how to run a home and manage household finances, which are rudimentary business skills. But running an actual business is harder. “There’s a lot you don’t know.”

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When she joined AWE in 2019, she was thrilled. “With AWE, I learned how to design a real business plan, and I realized just how much was missing from our operation,” she says.

For example, she says her business was producing more than 200 types of mosaics, and hundreds of different types of moldings and ceramic pots. AWE helped Naranjo realize that she was losing money because her products were too varied, and she couldn’t focus her product line. AWE taught her a simple concept: less is more.

“AWE helped me to concentrate on our flagship products – which are our tiles. Learning how to better market our flagship products actually helped me make more money in the business,” says Naranjo.

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When the COVID pandemic and its economic crisis hit Costa Rica, Naranjo’s AWE experience helped her to cope.

“We saw a 30% drop in sales in 2020. I had no salary, and I still had to pay the families of the artisans who work for me,” Naranjo says, adding that she opted not to take advantage of a Costa Rican government program that advised businesses to close for three months to reduce their losses. She couldn’t do this to her employees, “If you are a family, how will you survive with no salary?”

She says AWE helped her though, because it taught her to see her business not as a static thing, but something that changes and adapts with the times. During COVID, she changed her business model to recuperate lost sales, all the while networking with other AWE classmates to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive.

When First Lady Dr. Jill Biden visited Costa Rica in May, Naranjo got the chance to tell her story, along with other women entrepreneurs from AWE and other U.S. government exchange programs.

“Interacting with the First Lady was so motivational,” says Naranjo. “She listened to our stories, she paid so much attention. I really felt like we were visible, like we were acknowledged.”

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Naranjo hopes that her story can motivate other women to follow their own dream to run a business one day. “There is always fear, always uncertainty, always those people who say you can’t do it,” she says. “But you have to follow the dream in your heart, because the heart never lies.”

The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs has been helping women entrepreneurs follow their dream, using the DreamBuilder online learning platform, made possible through a partnership with Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School for Global Management and the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation. Since 2019, AWE has empowered nearly 200 Costa Rican women and more than 16,000 women worldwide with the knowledge, networks and access they need to launch or scale a business.

To find out more, visit: https://eca.state.gov/awe.

catf_pic1.jpg "An archeologist in Nuuk explains how to identify artifacts found on hiking trails."

The State Department-led Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF) recently resumed in-person training for foreign law enforcement officials through a series of workshops held in May 2022 in Cyprus, Greenland, and Egypt.

The workshops support U.S. efforts to disrupt cultural property trafficking in the United States and abroad, and are just the latest of more than 100 Task Force-led training programs for domestic and international law enforcement to build capacity around the world.

In collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), CATF held a week-long workshop for Cypriot and Greek law enforcement partners that offered participants hands-on training in the investigation of cultural property cases.  Attendees included members of the Cypriot and Hellenic Police, archaeologists from the Cypriot Department of Antiquities and the Cyprus Institute, as well as customs officers and prosecutors.  The workshop was an opportunity to strengthen cooperation between the participant organizations and to share best practices for more effective response to cultural property crimes.

catf_pic2.jpg “Workshop participants in Cyprus practice packing artifacts.”

In partnership with Greenland’s National Museum and Archives, CATF conducted two workshops focused on protecting Greenland’s cultural heritage from the emerging threats posed by climate change and a rapidly growing tourist industry.  The trainings were held in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, and in Kangerlussuaq, near its largest airport.  The workshops brought together Greenland’s Airport Authority, customs agents, local law enforcement, the national tourism board, private tourism operators, and U.S. specialists from the Department of State and Department of the Interior to discuss cultural heritage protection and preservation across all sectors. 

In Cairo, members of Egypt’s Antiquities authority, archaeology and tourism community, customs service, and law enforcement gathered for a two-day cultural heritage workshop supported by the Department of State’s Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) program and organized by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).  CATF members from the Department of State, HSI, FBI, Department of Justice, and Customs and Border Protection spoke on cultural heritage legislation, the antiquities market, and law enforcement case studies.  Workshop participants visited local cultural sites like the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization and the archaeological site of Saqqara to gain firsthand exposure to the types of sites and collections at risk of trafficking.

In the coming months, CATF will offer additional in-person training workshops in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Article written by Allie Dalola, intern with the U.S. Department of State and a current student at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

20210709_112301.jpg Lawyer and AWE alumna Sala Josephine Stowers-Kolo is a strong advocate for Samoan land holders. [PHOTO – Courtesy of Sala Josephine Stowers-Kolo]

[Auckland, May 2022] Samoan lawyer and Academy for Women Entrepreneurs alumna Sala Josephine Stowers-Kolo has a singular focus: to educate and provide legal support to fellow Samoans regarding their land rights. 

In Samoa, land rights are complex.  First, land on an island is finite, so it is in high demand. Second, 80% of the island’s land is community-owned or “customary,” where land is passed down through a family by the chief or “matai”.  As Samoa has modernized, this cultural land-holding system has led to legal conflicts.   

For instance, since customary land is not owned by an individual it cannot be sold or mortgaged, which leads to debates over who can make decisions about leasing it.  While the government reserves the right to claim customary land in specific cases – to build roads and public works for example – some allege that the government at times fails to properly compensate the landholders.  And many Samoans living abroad are not aware that they are entitled to compensation for land that they own. 

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Responding to these issues, Sala started her firm in 2017 to offer legal support and educate Samoans about customary land rights.  “I want to use my experience in this area to empower our own,” Sala says.  “And create a sense of appreciation of their land and to put them at ease about land issues.”   

Sala built her credibility working 10 years as the first female division chief in Samoa’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment where she dealt with complex land disputes, conservation, and climate change.  It was here that she recognized her passion for land rights and realized that there was a high demand among Samoan people for information.  

“I discovered that land is actually at the cornerstone of all the disputes and the ongoing issues,” Sala explains.  “I've seen with my own eyes that there is a lack of basic understanding about land rights.”  

img_4123.jpg Sala took advantage of her legal skills and Academy for Women Entrepreneurs training to teach Samoans about their land rights.  [PHOTO – Courtesy of U.S. Consulate Auckland]

She later moved to Auckland, New Zealand prior to the pandemic, and during the lockdowns thought about setting up a new venture in New Zealand to help Samoans living there. 

In 2020, Sala joined the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs, a U.S. government women’s empowerment program by the U.S. Embassy in New Zealand.  She attributes her success in establishing local networks and harnessing entrepreneurial skills to AWE, skills like branding, developing a business plan, and self-evaluation.  Beyond business skills, Sala says networking with other women through AWE empowered her to pursue her passions and represent Oceania in global events like the Woman Impact Summit in November 2021. 

“AWE creates a combination of being a fervent entrepreneur and a strong woman,” she testifies. “When you are empowered, you feel strong and resilient. You feel like you're being enabled in whatever way that you can to grow professionally.  Without that privilege, I wouldn't even be talking about customary land.”  

Sala feels empowered to give a voice to Samoans living around the world about their customary land rights and hopes to release a series of webinars to broaden her reach in spreading awareness about different issues affecting customary lands to Samoans living abroad.  

“All in all, I think that no matter where we go in life, we will always have a longing for our home and aspire to go back and do something useful for that place,” she explains.  “While I'm temporarily away from my home country, I can do something worthwhile with my talents to help promote appreciation and understanding of our customary lands legal framework.” 

img_5662.jpeg To date, AWE has empowered more than 500 women across New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. [Photo Courtesy of U.S. Consulate Auckland]

Sala is grateful to AWE for putting her on her path, and is excited for the program to empower many more women across the Pacific.  The U.S. Embassy in New Zealand runs one of the largest AWE programs in the world; its 2021 cohort included more than 300 Pacific Islander women from Auckland to the Cook Islands to Bora Bora.  

Since 2019, the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs has empowered more than 16,000 women in 80 countries with the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch and scale successful businesses.  To date, U.S. Consulate Auckland has empowered more than 500 women in New Zealand, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Niue and Samoa.  AWE is a program of the U.S. Department of State. 

For more information, please visit: https://eca.state.gov/awe.

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Official White House Photo by Erin Scott

The U.S. Department of State-espnW Global Sports Mentoring Program (GSMP) celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a slate of programming and events to cap a decade of international efforts by the State Department and its partners to strengthen society by empowering women and girls through sport. This partnership has lifted up Title IX, the landmark U.S. legislation that afforded women and girls equal opportunity in education and sport, a driving force behind the GSMP’s inception.

On Wednesday, June 22, Assistant Secretary Lee Satterfield and Laura Gentile, Executive Vice President of Marketing, ESPN & Commercial Marketing at Disney Media Networks, hosted a luncheon commemorating the Title IX anniversary. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, sports icon and equality champion Billie Jean King, and student track and field athlete Maya Mosley, daughter of Olympic Gold Medalist Benita Fitzgerald Mosley gave remarks. The event also highlighted the 40 accomplished GSMP alumnae featuring a conversation with Grace Kiraguri, founder of the only female-led sports marketing organization in Kenya, and Brazilian Aline Silva, who overcame socioeconomic challenges to become an Olympian and launch Mempodera, a girls-only wrestling program.

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Photo by Kristoffer Tripplaar

The GSMP is a public-private partnership with espnW and implemented by The University of Tennessee’s Center for Sport, Peace & Society to pair emerging female leaders from around the globe with senior executives from leading U.S. companies in the sports sector for a month-long mentorship experience. The program provides an opportunity for American mentors, program alumnae, and partners to develop a lasting relationship and enhanced global network to create a more secure, inclusive, and equitable global society.

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