Text: State Dept. Launches Educational Exchange Program with China
(Exchanges encouraged to deepen U.S.-China cooperation)The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is launching its first exchange program between secondary school students and teachers in the United States and China "for the purpose of mutual education and the development of student participation in community affairs."
The pilot program is expected to be the first of many in support of the 1998 Protocol signed by President Clinton and President Jiang Zemin of China to "deepen cooperation between the United States and China."
Following is the text of a press release about the program:
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the SpokesmanDecember 19, 2000
U.S. Department of State to Launch U.S. China Youth Exchange Initiative
In June 1998, Presidents Clinton and Jiang Zemin signed a Protocol to deepen cooperation between the United States and China. Toward this end, the Youth Programs Division in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is launching a project to establish and support linkages between secondary schools in the United States and China. The program will develop linkages between schools and communities in the U.S. and China for the purpose of mutual education and the development of student participation in community affairs.
Through a $98,000 grant, iEARN-USA, in partnership with Sister Cities International, iEARN-China, and the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, will implement the project by recruiting and selecting schools in the U.S. and in China in early 2001. The partners will manage a pilot partnership between two high schools in the long-time sister cities of Phoenix, Arizona, and Chengdu, China, which will conduct reciprocal exchanges of students and teachers in Spring 2001. Students at partnered schools will work on joint projects via the Internet. Delegations of both students and teachers will travel between paired schools. The delegations will stay in their partner communities for three to four weeks, living with host families, attending school and participating in extracurricular activities, and visiting cultural and educational sites.
This pilot program is the first of many in supporting the exchange of students and teachers between American schools and schools in a Chinese community with which they are linked. Further information on iEARN can be found at http://www.iearn.org.
The U.S. China Youth Exchange Initiative is supported by the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which fosters mutual understanding between the United States and other countries through international educational and training programs. The bureau does so by promoting personal, professional, and institutional ties between private citizens and organizations in the United States and abroad, as well as by presenting U.S. history, society, art and culture in all of its diversity to overseas audiences. For further information, log-on to http://exchanges.state.gov or contact:
Carolyn Lantz, Program Officer Phone: (202) 619-5053 E-mail: [email protected]
or Catherine Stearns, Public Affairs Advisor Phone: (202) 358-0334 E-mail: [email protected]
U.S. Department of State Office of Citizen Exchanges Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Youth Programs Division
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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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