City Leaders and Citizen Diplomats Explore Entrepreneurship, Cultural Understanding, and Smart Cities at “Cities Leading the Way” August 2-4
Aurora, Colorado will be the nexus of worldwide connections as Sister Cities International hosts their 2018 Annual Conference and 2018 Youth Leadership Summit. The conference will bring together more than 300 elected and municipal officials, business leaders, and engaged citizen diplomats and over 100 high school students from across the U.S. and the globe to learn about citizen diplomacy. The theme of the conference is “Cities Leading the Way.”
“This landmark gathering will demonstrate how citizen diplomacy forges mutual interests and ties of respect across ...
Nashville, Tennessee Celebrates Another Successful Summer of Student Exchanges
In June, Sister Cities of Nashville said farewell to 35 Nashville area high school students and 4 teacher chaperones as they embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. Through our Student Ambassador program, students have the opportunity to participate in two-week cultural and educational immersion programs where they stay with local families in our sister cities each summer.
Both outbound and inbound exchanges take place with six of Nashville’s eight sister city partners. This year, groups traveled to Mendoza, Argentina; Caen and Paris, France; Magdeburg and Berlin, ...
2018 Annual Awards: Congratulations to This Year’s Winners
At Sister Cities International, we know that the work our members do to promote peace through mutual understanding, respect, and cooperation changes the world--one individual, one community at a time. Since 1962, we have recognized a few of our most outstanding members all over the nation for the work they've done in the last year to advance the citizen diplomacy movement through our Annual Awards Program.
There are 4 award categories broken out by city population size: best overall, innovation, volunteer of the year, and youth leadership. The innovation category has ...
Crestview, FL Prepares to Welcome Delegation from Noirmoutier-en-l’Île, France
Crestview, Florida and its sister city Noirmoutier-en-l'Île, France will continue their annual high school exchange this upcoming fall. The October 19 to November 2 visit by a 35-member delegation from Noirmoutier, including 21 students, is the latest exchange in the 23-year relationship between the Floridian city and the congenial island off France’s west coast.
The exchange initially began in 1995, when Crestview and neighboring cities sent a group of community leaders to France. Two years later, in 1997, the relationship between Crestview and Noirmoutier was ...
Tacoma, WA Celebrates 1st Student Exchange with Biot, France
On April 8th, the city of Tacoma, Washington welcomed 19 eighth grade students from the College I’Eganaude in its sister city of Biot, France. This marks the first-ever student exchange between Tacoma and Biot, who have traditionally had a very strong arts exchange program. Recently, the two cities have looked for more ways to expand their relationship.
In October 2012, Biot become Tacoma’s 12th sister city; and while most Sister Cities relationships focus on ties stemming from common geography, size, or economy, Tacoma and Biot’s commonality is glass blowing. ...
Dortmund Comes to Buffalo in April for 40th Anniversary Tour
The Oberbürgermeister der Stadt (or Lord Mayor) of Dortmund, Germany, will lead a delegation of 20 government, education, and business leaders to Buffalo, New York, to help celebrate the two sister cities’ 40th anniversary next month.
The delegates will attend the ground breaking ceremony on April 15 for a future park on the shore of Lake Erie, to be named Dortmund Park as a testament to the two cities’ historic partnership. Lord Mayor Ullrich Sierau and the others will then spend the rest of the day meeting with their American counterparts and building upon their ...
Philippine High School Students to Spend Summer in Virginia City
The deadline is fast approaching for high school students from Cagayan de Oro, in the Philippines, to apply to visit Norfolk, Virginia, as part of a new summer exchange program between the two sister cities later this year.
The Philippine students will stay with Norfolk High School students and their families during the first half of July, and are expected to visit local monuments, museums, parks, souvenir shops, and the city’s naval base. They will also visit the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The new program was organized by Cheryl McGarrigle, chair of ...
Virtual Classroom Links Schools in Highland Park and Puerto Vallarta and Modena through Poetry
A virtual classroom project launched this month, connecting Elm Place Middle School in Highland Park, Illinois, to Los Volcanes School in Highland Park’s sister city Puerto Vallarta, in Mexico.
The joint effort of the Highland Park Sister Cities Foundation (HPSCF) and the Puerto Vallarta Sister Cities Committee connects the classes of Elm Place teacher Lori Wyatt and Los Volcanes teacher Raul Gibran through the study of poetry.
Using a virtual platform called Edmodo, students will explore the values we share with people in other countries. The project also enables ...
Three Generations of Citizen Diplomacy
In 1972, Kettering, Ohio established their first sister city relationship with Steyr, Austria. Since then, they have created lasting traditions and legacies together. The two cities have overseen five adult homestays and have conducted an alternating youth exchange for the past 40 years.
Kettering and Steyr also participate in cultural exchange: they have been sending music and performance groups to each other’s cities since 1980. Their most outstanding cultural exchanges include when Kettering sent their civic band to Steyr to help celebrate the city’s 1,000th ...
Sister Cities International Receives Grant from the Stevens Initiative to Expand Virtual Exchange for Special Education Students
WASHINGTON, DC, (November 6, 2017) - The Stevens Initiative today announced the award of a 1.5-year grant to Sister Cities International, one of 13 new grants funded through an international competition to use online, collaborative learning to increase cross-cultural understanding and equip young people with the skills needed to thrive in a 21st century economy.
Sister Cities International is among the second cohort of virtual exchange programs to be funded by the Stevens Initiative, an international effort to build career and global competence skills for young people ...