75 Years of US State Department Sponsored Exchanges

For the past 75 years the US Department of State has been organizing international exchange programs, and in the recent past there have been more than 50,000 participants annually. The main aim of these exchanges is to increase the mutual cultural understanding, and build language and leadership skills.

The exchange programs have proved to have a very successful history, and alumni of the project include 385 current or former heads of state, 63 Nobel laureates, and thousands of leaders from both the private and non-profit sectors. 

The program emerged at the end of the Second World War, when the US recognized the importance soft power, namely that information and ideas can have a greater impact than war and aggression. Thus, the US Department of Statement established a Division of Cultural Relations, and these exchange programs began to emerge from this department. They originally started by providing travel grants to the US, marking the start of what would become the International Visitor Leadership Program.

Indeed, the first exchange program participant visited the US in December 1940, the Father Aurelio Espinosa Pólit, Director of the Colegio de Cotocollao, in Quito, Ecuador. His visit fell under the Hemisphere Leaders Program in the Division of Cultural Relations, and was followed a year later by the first female visitor, Senorita Magdalena Petit of Santiago, Chile. She was a writer of novels, music, and a contributor of newspapers and magazines.

The program is still running today, and encourages people to join them to help build lasting relationships around the world. They offer programs for both US and non US citizens, and notable alumni include Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, both former Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom.

For more information about the 75th Anniversary celebrations, please follow this link: http://exchanges.state.gov/files/75th/index.html. To find out how to get involved in the exchange programs, click here: http://exchanges.state.gov/non-us.