Blog Post

There are 33.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS throughout the world. Today is World AIDS Day - a day of opportunity to raise awareness and educate about the disease which affects all nations at the most local level.

This week I am writing from Kampala, where I have spent the past week assessing potential opportunities for IREX programming in Uganda. As I read about Uganda in preparation for my trip, one theme that kept arising was the overarching importance of religion. Uganda has large Catholic and Protestant populations as well as a significant Muslim population, and I was interested to learn more about the impact of religion and faith-based organizations on the conflicts in northern Uganda and other regions of the country.

Despite its varying definitions and conceptualizations, most academics, students and educators agree that one of the core components of international education is second language learning.  Today’s students do not want for opportunities and motivation, as most universities and even some secondary schools move beyond the seemingly standard French-and-Spanish offerings to include Chinese, Russian, Arabic, and other critical languages.  University students are faced with an overwhelming number of overseas language programs, offered in a dizzying array of lengths, locations,

One of the things I love about my job is getting to meet young people from around the world who are working to make their communities better places to live.

Individual initiative is often the small spark that incites change within a school community. Raphael Aidoo-Taylor of Ghana is an alumnus of the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA), which equips teachers with teaching methodologies, strategies for classroom management, and a broader understanding of the culture and people of the United States.

I have spent the past week in Kigali, working with Eugene Gatari and the rest of our local staff to launch the USAID/IREX Youth for Change: Building Peace in Rwandan Communities Program (Y4C).

I arrived in Jakarta late last week for an alumni conference for the Indonesian and Malaysian teachers who have completed the International Leaders in Education Program. All of these teachers studied at US universities for a semester, learning new student-centered teaching methodologies to implement in their home classrooms.

During September-November 2010, sixty-four teachers from 21 different countries came to the US for a six-week professional development program.

IREX welcomes the observance of International Education Week, November 15-19, a joint initiative of the US Department of State and the US Department of Education. International Education Week celebrates the benefits of international education and exchanges worldwide.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of my first trip to the Soviet Union. Actually it was my first trip anywhere across the Atlantic or Pacific oceans for that matter. I had been fortunate to attend a public high school in New York with a Russian language program which later inspired me to major in Russian studies in college. I came from a family of modest financial means, but realized early on if I wanted to make a go of Russian, I would need to spend some time on the ground. So, I sacked away all my summer job funds to join a study abroad program.