How do educational and cultural exchanges benefit participants and their societies? “They’re life-changing experiences,” says Dr. Allen Kassof, IREX’s first President, stressing how exchanges continue to alter world views in an increasingly complicated and interconnected global society.
Speaking about IREX’s ground-breaking exchanges between the United States and the then-Soviet Union, Dr. Kassof notes the magnification effect that these initiatives have over time. “It changed and deepened and made more subtle American views of the Soviet Union.” Likewise it created a new “standard of truth and comparison” for Soviets and Eastern Europeans, altering what they thought they knew about Americans.
As we celebrate our 45th anniversary, IREX continues to bring people together, now across more than 120 countries worldwide by providing research support [11] to scholars, teachers, and education professionals, international education [12] opportunities for youth, leadership training [13] for local community leaders, and professional development for journalists [14], to name just a few areas.
But whether it’s through in-person international exchanges, sharing best practices among professionals within a given country, or using technology [15] to build and extend connections, one thing has remained constant—IREX’s belief in the value of connecting people in order to make a better world.