Recap: Intercultural Exchange Program, Summer 2025
CIEP Recap
The Community-Building Intercultural Exchange Program (CIEP) 2025 was a five-week virtual program that took place from July 13 to August 13, 2025. The program focused on fostering global citizenship, intercultural connection, and civic leadership among youth from various countries, including Pakistan, Libya, Egypt, Turkey, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, India, and the United States.
Program Goals
The program's structure included both required and optional sessions. Required components were Global Issues workshops, Civic Leadership workshops, and one-on-one calls with a designated "culture partner" from a different country. Participants were also offered optional foreign language lessons, professional development sessions, and "Culture Coffee Chats" with other peers. The main goals were to help participants gain a deeper understanding of global issues, foster intercultural friendships, and develop skills in civic leadership, digital literacy, and foreign languages. At the end of the program, participants were expected to submit a final project proposal for a service project and a creative project based on what they learned.
Key Takeaways and Participant Feedback
Participants generally rated their experience as "Excellent" or "Good" and reported gaining a greater understanding of global issues, new intercultural friendships, and improved communication and leadership skills. Many expressed that they were "Very likely" to participate in another program from The World in Us.
Positive Experiences: A favorite part for many was the language classes, particularly Japanese, as well as the Culture Partner calls and SDG/Civic Leadership workshops. One participant noted that the civic workshops gave them the confidence to start a project on their own. Another stated that the culture partner calls were enjoyable because they allowed for meaningful conversations and the formation of friendships.
Challenges and Areas for Improvement: Some participants highlighted challenges with communication and scheduling. Specific issues included sessions being canceled or rescheduled at the last minute, poor communication from instructors, and difficulties in getting partners to be committed to their calls. Suggestions for improvement included implementing more interactive group activities, providing more frequent sessions, and offering email reminders about upcoming sessions. One participant suggested a system to track if partners were meeting.
Civic Leadership Workshops Recap
The Civic Leadership workshops provided a structured approach to developing and implementing community service projects.
Week 1: Understanding Issues - This session defined a social issue as the "gap between what is and what should be." It guided participants through brainstorming and researching a problem, identifying its root causes and affected communities, and defining a clear mission or vision for their project.
Week 2: Research and Evidence - This workshop focused on building a strong foundation for a cause. It defined research and evidence as "credible, reliable data or insights" that validate ideas and build trust. The session taught participants how to find and choose the right resources, organize them, and fact-check information to avoid inaccuracies that could "heavily flaw" their projects.
Week 3: Action Plans and Project Management - Participants learned to turn their solutions into reality by creating a detailed action plan with specific steps and deadlines. The workshop also covered project management stages (Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closure) and strategies for organization, like the Pomodoro Technique and the Eisenhower Matrix. The session also provided a case study of The World in Us's founding process and management system, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and focusing on impact over numbers.
Week 4: Budgeting and Fundraising - This session taught the importance of budgeting for community projects, emphasizing that it prevents burnout, enables smarter spending, and builds trust with donors. Participants learned how to create a budget, including tracking income and expenses and setting financial goals. The workshop also introduced fundraising through grants, providing examples of youth-focused grant opportunities.
Week 5: Personal Branding and LinkedIn - The final workshop defined personal branding as creating a "distinct identity and reputation" to achieve professional goals. Participants learned to build a personal brand by identifying their strengths, defining their target audience, and creating a consistent message. The session also provided a comprehensive guide to creating a professional LinkedIn profile, including tips for a high-quality profile picture, a compelling headline and "About" section, and showcasing achievements with quantifiable results.
SDG’s Recap
The CIEP also included weekly workshops focused on different Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The workshops covered topics such as "Digital Justice and Misinformation , "Climate Resilience and Youth Action", "Tech: Innovation and Inequality", and "Global Well-being & Belonging".
The "Climate Resilience and Youth Action" workshop explored how climate change disproportionately affects different communities and highlighted the role youth can play in finding solutions. It defined climate resilience as a community or individual's ability to "withstand, adapt to, and recover from climate-related disruptions". The workshop emphasized that youth are not just future leaders but are leading climate efforts now.
The "Digital Justice and Misinformation" workshop taught participants how to navigate information in the digital world. It defined and differentiated between misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, and provided tools and skills for verifying digital content. The workshop also covered the importance of digital justice, which includes ensuring equal access to digital tools, fair representation, protection from online harm, and the inclusion of youth in decision-making about technology.
The "Tech: Innovation and Inequality" workshop examined how technology can both reduce and deepen social inequality. It encouraged young people to see themselves as creators of technology and to use innovation to address real-world problems and make tech more inclusive. The workshop highlighted the "digital divide," which refers to the lack of access to the internet, devices, or digital literacy.
The final SDG workshop, "Global Well-being & Belonging," focused on youth mental health as a global challenge influenced by cultural, social, and emotional factors. The session underscored that mental well-being is not just about individual struggles but also about the environments in which people live. It stressed the importance of a sense of belonging for mental health, especially for immigrant youth. The workshop also addressed the various forms of stigma (public, self, and structural) surrounding mental healthcare and offered ways to help others and practice self-care.
Conclusion
Overall, the CIEP 2025 program successfully delivered on its mission to empower young leaders and foster global connections. The program showed that it is possible to transcend geographical boundaries and create a truly global community of informed and engaged young citizens.
