SBO Weinhold International Education Week 2024

U.S. Department of State's USA Study Abroad 2018 Year-in-Review Video and Report

You can access the video and online report here!

Tillerson out at State and Pompeo in...

...with Rex Tillerson out at State what does this mean for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and U.S public diplomacy efforts? 

Detailed Budget Estimates by Agency - Department of State and Other International Programs for FY19

President Trump's administration has proposed a 75% cut to the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs budget.

(Ctrl-F "exchange" for your reading pleasure) at 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-cont…/…/2018/02/sta-fy2019.pdf

More at https://www.state.gov/s/d/rm/c6112.htm

Seems a new Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) will be in place on Monday, November 13th!

Farewell and thank you, #Mongolia!
Starting November 13, please follow me @ECA_AS. https://t.co/3n0AlELkUn

— Jennifer Z. Galt (@USAmbMongolia) November 9, 2017

Thanks @Scott_Johnsn for the tip!

A Change in Senior Leadership at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA)

It appears (via @ECA_AS on Twitter) that Mark Taplin has left his role as Acting Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State yesterday and has handed the reins over to Alyson Grunder. Grunder is currently Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.  It's unclear if Grunder will be Acting Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs or if she is a permanent replacement.

Many thanks to Mark Taplin for his service to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and welcome to Alyson Grunder to her new role!

Save our State Department’s Education and Cultural Exchange Programs via Change.org

If you support the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State then you may wish to sign the following Change.org petition here!

"America First-A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again" and Proposed Cuts to the State Department

Proposed budget cuts to State Department and USAID are outlined on pages 33-34
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/2018_blueprint.pdf

Will We See the Elimination of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs' (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State?

According to Carol Morello of the Washington Post it appears that an early draft of President Trump's budget proposed the elimination of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs' (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State. Even if ECA is not eliminated they should expect significant budget cuts!

You can read screen shots of the paragraphs in the article pertaining to ECA below and the full article at http://wapo.st/2mSLUD6

You can read "America First-A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again" by White House OMB, 03-16-2017 at http://bit.ly/2nvW0II

Alliance for International Exchange press release, 3-16-17

"Alliance Opposes Unprecedented Proposed Cuts to State Department" available at http://bit.ly/2mwGLNX

International Education Week 2016 - November 14-18, 2016 #IEW2016

New #StudyAbroadBecause Video by Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs enhances website and digital outreach

Capacity Building for Undergraduate Study Abroad - “One-time Competitive Grants Program“ by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

I was alerted to the following Request for Grant Proposals (RFPG) from the March 5, 2010 HEI e-News by Education USA. This “One-time Competitive Grants Program – Competition A –Academic Programs” includes a component on “Capacity Building for Undergraduate Study Abroad.” I have generously copied and pasted the relevant information from the HEI e-News announcement below:

The purpose of this component of the competition is to build the capacity of U.S. institutions of higher education and of potential host institutions abroad to provide study abroad opportunities for U.S. undergraduate students. Proposals should follow one of three models:

(a) U. S. institutions with substantial experience providing study abroad opportunities may partner with international counterparts with limited experience receiving U.S. students in order to expand the capacity of the foreign partner to host U.S. students, particularly in locations that have been underserved by traditional study abroad programs.

(b) U.S. institutions with substantial experience providing study abroad opportunities may cooperate with less experienced U.S. partner colleges and universities to enable the less experienced institutions to develop programs with international counterparts or build their study abroad offices through professional visits of administrators, faculty and/or students.

(c) U.S. institutions with limited experience administering study abroad programs may seek to strengthen their study abroad offices or expand their capacity to administer such programs. Budgets for proposals submitted in this category should not exceed $60,000.

Anticipated award amount will be $250,000 on average. The deadline for submissions is April, 12, 2010. You can link to the full text of the RFGP to learn more at http://exchanges.state.gov/grants/open2.html

Photo credit: Killfile

Video of the Week – Secretary Clinton’s Remarks at Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for SA-5

For this video of the week I selected Secretary of State Hilary Clinton speaking at the ribbon cutting ceremony for SA-5 [State Annex 5] which is the new home of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. During her remarks, Secretary Clinton touched on international educational exchanges by saying "I’m very pleased that there seems to be a terrific sense of teamwork. We’re moving forward with our tried and true exchange programs and cultural initiatives, and we’re building new vehicles for public diplomacy. So it is – it’s exciting and it’s really gratifying for me, by the end of this year, to see all the progress that we are making together."



You can also read Secretary Clinton’s remarks here.

ExchangesConnect Video Contest – Change Your Climate, Change Our World

Earlier this week ExchangesConnect announced the opening of their 2nd annual video contest entitled “Change Your Climate, Change Our World.” Watch the following video to learn more about this great contest where four creative people will win an international exchange experience sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs!



Here is a video of Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announcing the launch of the ExchangesConnect video contest:


Find more videos like this on ExchangesConnect

Currently, I’m not planning to participate in this video contest because I am not very creative and because I won the grand prize (by random drawing) in the ExchangesConnect Where is iDrop competition back in October. My prize was a Flip Video Camcorder and I must admit it is pretty sweet. I haven’t had much time to fully investigate how and ways to use the Flip Video Camcorder for my blogging activities but that will come in time. Tentative plans are to create a YouTube channel for IHEC Blog and to post videos to my ExchangesConnect profile (http://connect.state.gov/profile/DavidComp). I hope to be up and running with my video plans in time for the upcoming Forum on Education Abroad conference coming up in March, 2010.

You can learn more about the 2nd Annual ExchangesConnect Video Contest here. Also, you might want to consider joining the current 14,475 members of the ExchangesConnect community here!