12/10/2007 - International Education Week 2007 Results

Congratulations to all of our CB, FLEX and YES participants – we are so proud of the contributions you each made towards this years IEW event! We would also like to send a big thank you to all of our Sponsored Programs cluster coordinators, host families and host communities for encouraging all of our students to participate in International Education Week 2007. The response this year was overwhelming – in total we received over 550 online reports! The Sponsored Programs staff has thoroughly enjoyed reading about the presentations and has taken great pleasure in the photos that have been forwarded. It is wonderful to see what strong enthusiasm the students have shown through sharing their stories and cultures; it is also impressive to hear of the strong support each of them received from their cluster coordinator and family.

With regards to our 2007 IEW cluster competition, the Sponsored Programs staff would like to congratulate the following 3 clusters who have won the opportunity to attend the CECF “Better Understanding for a Better World” Youth Leadership and Interfaith Conference in Orlando, FL this winter.

Northern Illinois Area Team, led by Robbin Lang. Robbin’s cluster averaged 15.25 presentations per student.

• Kezia-Lara Droste (CB)
• Aadil Fahim (YES)
• Nermine Geretalla (YES)
• Ann-Cathrin Alessand Schareck (CB)

Texas Gulf Coast Area Team, led by Wendy Walfoort. Wendy’s cluster averaged 12.67 presentations per student.

• Aygerim Aykhodzhayeva (FLEX)
• Tushna Karkaria (YES)
• Benno L’habitant (CB)

Columbia-Pacific “The Dalles” Area Team, led by Rymmel Lovell. Rymmel’s cluster (newly separated from the Col-Pac cluster) averaged 11 presentations per student.

• Saud Rashid (YES)
• Youssra Elfiky (YES)
• Hina Saifi (YES)
• Olga Tolmachova (FLEX)

Congratulations!!

We are proud of each of your clusters’ achievements in broadening the impact of the CB, FLEX and YES programs through these IEW presentations. We would like to extend our sincere appreciation for your support of the very important goal of mutual understanding that these presentations further. It is also a truly valuable experience for each one of the students on their road to leadership roles back home.

For those who are not familiar with CECF (Civilizations Exchange and Cooperation Foundation), it is an organization led by Imam Mohamad Bashar Arafat and Kimberly King of Baltimore, MD; the goal of CECF is to foster cooperation rather than confrontation among different religions and cultures. It explores the factors that led to the rise and fall of previous civilizations and seeks to understand how people of this millennium may benefit from lessons of the past in a world which is rapidly transforming into a global village. Please visit their website (http://www.cecf-net.org) for more information.