Ep 45 | Expanding Our World View: Global Diplomacy & Southern Hospitality

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The idea is if we can um introduce the United States to people and to professionals around the world and we can bring them into the country on a short three-week exchange with people who are doing similar things or who are interested in similar topics, and we introduce them to our people who are doing these things. We're not reinventing the wheel, instead, we're strengthening the network and we're learning from each other. And then they go home with a new understanding of what America is and who Americans are. There's no application to apply, so people can imagine this. Imagine this. You're sitting at your desk and the phone rings and someone says, Hi, this is so-and-so from the U.S. Embassy. And I'd like, I've seen the work that you're doing in combating homelessness or in promoting uh education or promoting English as a second language, you name it. There's about 103 different really cool topics. And they say, I've seen the work you're doing. It's really exciting. I'd love to be able to put you on an exchange for three weeks in the United States. Uh, you probably hang up the phone, right? Sounds too good to be true. Also, who is this person? But um, yeah, that's how it happens. They invite people to come on these exchanges, and then there are 84 communities in the United States that the U.S. Department of State trusts to manage the IVLP on the ground. And we're one of them.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Every time you scroll your newsfeed, there's conflict and crisis both at home and abroad. It's made it easy for us to associate a person's home country with whatever crisis we last read about. And vice versa, many people outside the U.S. view Americans through the lens of a trope. This may sound like a global problem, but these global habits of perception follow us back into our own neighborhoods, limiting our ability to collaborate and unify. My next guest is looking to remedy that one conversation at a time. She's the founder and executive director of Gulf Coast Diplomacy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization facilitating and strengthening connection between the people of the Gulf Coast and the global community. Today she's going to share how she coordinates international visitors, the benefit for students, and how you can participate in and contribute to unity both home and abroad. Serving Southern Hospitality and Global Diplomacy, Gulf Coast Ambassador Gina Melosson. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Oh my gosh, what a beautiful intro. And thank you for inviting me.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

You are so welcome. I'm so glad that we can talk about this. This is something that I'm personally excited about, but I think it's one of those underdog programs that people don't realize how much it benefits our community. So, but before we dive in, I wanted to ask you a question because I know you studied abroad. I did. And so I'd love for you to, you know, paint a picture of before studying abroad, Gina, and after studying abroad, Gina, because I think it speaks to the impact that gaining those global perspectives can give. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Well, the first time I went abroad, I was it was a high school summer program. Um and before Gina going abroad was I wouldn't say shy, but I think um more um focused on her small sort of the world and um definitely curious, but it it was more based on books and my knowledge was based on books and maybe what I'd seen um in movies, right? So I had an idea that I could fight Nazis if I just married an Austrian captain and I could spin on the hills and sing songs, and wouldn't that be a lovely life? Uh, you know, I was a teenager, maybe maybe get a little sheltered because I look at that now, I'm like, okay. Um I went to Japan and I saw wow, there really is it's not just what the books say, but there really is a big wide world out there and people who think differently than me. And um I was intrigued. I went, I had a junior year study abroad experience, and I went back to Japan when I was in university. And so we have to understand I went away for university. So that was that was a culture shock in itself because I was from Mississippi and I went to Washington, DC, and I was in an environment with students from all 50 states, and we were all very different. So that got me interested uh in learning more about cultural differences. And when I went to Japan that second time, because I was a little bit older and I was responsible for finding a job, I was responsible for finding housing for myself. Um I became much more independent and self-reliant, and I discovered that there were things about the United States that I hadn't realized before. And being abroad taught me more about my own country and helped me appreciate my own country more than actually living here had. So, you know, a fish doesn't know when they're in water, and so that was a really um pivotal point for me was recognizing who I am and the the environment I grew up in, and also appreciating differences in people. So not I don't have to agree with other people, but just to understand where they're coming from, I think helps make my life more enriching and definitely my personal relationships stronger because of that.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

What did you learn about America while you were abroad?

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Um, well, I didn't tell you this, but I also spent some time in Russia. So yeah, so not as an exchange student, but I I just for funsies. I would I I don't think I would really call funsies that, but I it was definitely interesting times, and I was for work actually. And um what I learned in Russia about the United States was that we have this thing called rule of law. You know, of course we know that we have a rule of law, but being in a country where there is no rule of law makes you understand, oh, it's a real blessing to live in a place where um I don't have to guess what the law is because one law enforcement officer says this is what you have to do, but the other law enforcement officer says, No, this is what you have to do. And this government office says you have to pay this amount to us, and the other government office says, We're the only government office you have to pay an amount to, and forget about that other one, but you know, um if you there and there are consequences to actions. And um, you know, we have a different situation in the United States, and I will say in Russia, um I moved from Russia to New Orleans, and my friend said, Oh my gosh, because when I moved to Louisiana, New Orleans was the crime or the murder capital of the United States. And they said, Don't you feel afraid? And I said, No, because um random crime is one thing, but living every day knowing that something random could happen and and too bad, so sad, that's a totally different experience. Oh wow, what a good conversation to go down such a dark road.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

No, I think it's important because um it illustrates the contrast between you know you describing yourself as a hills are alive, kind of a teenager to one that is figuring things out and making assessments about the world around her. And that's not something you can learn in a classroom alone. I think classroom supports that, but that's why um you know looking for opportunities to expand perspective is important. And you're right, I did not know that you were in Russia, so that's really interesting. Is that what are those two experiences, Japan and Russia combined, what inspired you to start Gulf Coast diplomacy?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Um, well, I also lived in Italy. Oh, and to spend a considerable amount of time in Croatia. So if you combine, and as a child in Germany when my dad was stationed there. Um, so I was living in Russia and moved to Louisiana, and I really missed certain elements of living abroad, and that is the connecting with different types of people. And I had a friend, we were both in the junior league, and we were doing our mandatory volunteer work, and she had just returned from teaching English for four years in Jordan, and she said, I really miss it. I really miss that exploration and every day finding something new. It's like being a three-year-old again, right? Oh, this is how this works. I didn't know. This doorknob works this way. Oh, this spice tastes like that. That kind of just joy of discovery. And she actually found, she went home and Googled and found the organization in New Orleans that does what we do here now in Pensacola. And we went to their membership party. And within a month, I was volunteering for them. And within two months, she was on their board. And I worked there for a while, and then I came here with the idea that I would go back to Louisiana, but I liked it here. And I was still working for them for that office here in Pensacola. And I worked here long enough that people in Washington were saying, uh, why are you marketing the state of Louisiana from Florida? And people in Pensacola were saying, Cool job, but why don't you do it for us? And so I talked to my boss and said, This is what I'd like to do. And she said, You have my blessing. Explore, try this. Yeah, right? Amazing. She gave me some names of people in the country who um work on this program. And the program is called the International Visitor Leadership Program of the IVLP. It's one of the many programs we do, but that's our predominant program. And um, I knew that the IVLP could bring some phenomenal things to Northwest Florida because I'd been living here for a few years, and I knew that Florida could give some phenomenal things to the IVLP. And the IVLP is considered the premier exchange of the U.S. Department of State. So the State Department has so many different exchange programs, both for professionals and for youths. Um, but the IVLP is is top top line. It's considered like the most effective toolbox in an ambassador's public diplomacy toolkit. Right. So the idea is if we can um introduce the United States to people and to professionals around the world, and we can bring them into the country on a short three-week exchange with people who are doing similar things or who are interested in similar topics, and we introduce them to our people who are doing these things. We're not reinventing the wheel, instead, we're strengthening the network and we're learning from each other. And then they go home with a new understanding of what America is and who Americans are. There's no application to apply, so people can imagine this. Imagine this. You're sitting at your desk and the phone rings and someone says, Hi, this is so-and-so from the U.S. Embassy. And I'd like, I've seen the work that you're doing in combating homelessness or in promoting uh education or promoting English as a second language, you name it. There's about 103 different really cool topics. And they say, I've seen the work you're doing. It's really exciting. I'd love to be able to put you on an exchange for three weeks in the United States. Uh, you probably hang up the phone, right? Sounds too good to be true. Also, who is this person? But um, yeah, that's how it happens. They invite people to come on these exchanges, and then there are 84 communities in the United States that the U.S. Department of State trusts to manage the IVLP on the ground. And we're one of them.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Wow. Okay. That's incredible. So the IVLP is kind of the program that has the it's the program that acts as a bridge from the US government to your program, the Gulf Coast Diplomacy. Is that a good way of describing it?

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Well, we partner with the Department of State and we manage the IVLP for them on the ground. So it's really the IVLP is a bridge between the United States and the rest of the world. I see. Okay. Um, Margaret Thatcher, Anwar Sadat, Indira Gandhi, Tony Blair all came to the United States when they were young and up and coming through the IVLP.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Yeah. It was actually Margaret Thatcher's first time in 1967 into the United States was with the IVLP. And here's a neat thing that I just realized as we're talking. I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna have to write this down. The IVLP was founded in 1940. And it was founded to help combat Nazi propaganda efforts in South America. So I'm getting chills because I'm just realizing all I need to do right now is go find a hill in Pensacola. Do we have any? And run around and sing a song because, you know, there's a connection.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Oh my gosh. You need to start singing immediately. This is so exciting. Wow, that's so crazy. That what an interesting time for that program to be started considering the events that were happening in 1940. Right. So, how do Escambia County students tie into this program? Well, there are a couple of ways.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

So, one way is just a is very a passive way, right, for them, in that we take international visitors to meet with different people in the community, whether they're they could be school administrators, they could be teachers, they may come in and they may observe a classroom for a few minutes, or occasionally if we visit a school, the school may say, Well, can they talk to their students about whatever country they're from? And so we'll do a presentation if the visitors speak English. If they don't, we have interpreters. So we do bring them in, especially for education groups. I'm taking three um adults, and these are adults, um, three people from Malawi, Mozambique, and Uganda who work with youths in their own countries, taking them to West Florida to find out the magic that's happening at that school. So that's one way that students can know about what's happening if we happen, just so happened to come into their classroom. Another way, though, is we have a program called Youth Diplomats. And so I started working with the IVLP in Pensacola. We we found I founded the organization in 2008. In 2009, we received our first visitors. In 2011, I got a call from someone, an office in Washington that I was working on with IVLP, and they said, We have another opportunity, and it's youth programming, and we think you'd be great at it. Would you like to try? So since 2011, uh Pensacola has hosted what are called youth ambassador groups. These are U.S. Department of State groups, and they're sponsored by uh very various American embassies around the world, and they'll come in for eight to 13 days into our community, and our IVLP visitors stay in hotels, but these youths stay with families. And we love it when we have families who volunteer who have a teenager or a youth of their own. I mean, that's ideal. They have to have, they can share the same room if they are of the same gender, but they have to have their own bed. So bunk beds, twin beds. We can't put them on a mattress or an air mattress or a sofa. Um, they can share the family bathroom. And I keep them busy during the day, the work workday hours, doing leadership activities, and then whatever their focus of their of their program is. So we're having a group of 18 youths from Malawi, Mozambique, and Uganda coming, and they'll be with us for they're actually gonna be with us for two weeks. And in January, and they're looking at the environment. In January, we had I think it was 12, maybe 15 Brazilians who were in town for 11 days. And I civic engagement, I think, was the focus. Um, last July we had nine who were here for eight days from Greece, Estonia, and Azerbaijan. So we're doing leadership activities, keeping them busy, and we do things on the week. Well, we'll do like one thing on the weekend with our youth diplomats program. And host siblings who were teenagers are welcome. If they're not in school, they're welcome to come with us. And we feed them lunches. It's a lot of fun. Uh, if it's during the summer, then the host family siblings, they're welcome to come the whole time. But we understand that sometimes they have jobs and so they might come in and out of the program.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

But um and so this is different than the program that's in the high school, right? So tell me about that because I was over at a friend's house one day and had just having coffee with her, and her teenage daughter rushed through the door, just swung it open. She she doesn't speak to me normally. And so, you know, she's 16, 17. So she came in and plopped down a huge notebook full of stuff and said, Mom, Meredith, guess what? I just did this program and she described it, and I realized soon that it was your program. And that just warmed my heart because you could see how her eyes lit up about um, you know, different cultures and knowing about the world. And there was some um something where she got up and spoke. Tell me about that. Okay, so that's actually a third thing, Meredith.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

But we incorporated it into the second thing. Ah, okay. So she she had attended our, it sounds like she had attended our diplomacy begins here summit. So in 2022, the State Department selected three cities Chicago, Portland, Oregon, and Pensacola. Isn't that crazy? Imagine that. Our tiny little town. Imagine that. Oh, I threw our I threw our hat in the ring. Okay. Yeah. Good. I threw our hat in the ring and I selected the proposal that I had written to host a summit in Pensacola, and it was focused on um local initiative to global. I I can't remember our phrase exactly anymore. That's it was such a stressful time. It was last September. That's okay. It focused on STEM and the STEM, um, STEM items, STEM, STEM, STEM and technology that was happening in Northwest Florida. And as part of that, so we had people coming in and talking about what they were doing. We had educators come in, we had scientists, we had all sorts of STEM professionals, and we also had a diplomacy uh assimilation. And we brought in our friends from the National Museum of American Diplomacy in Washington, D.C. And Lauren Fisher is wonderful, and she uh arranged this uh assimilation for 33 youths from Escambia County high schools, so there were some from Santa Rosa high schools, and then also I think we had about 10 or 12 from UWF. And this is a very um hands-on, fun activity. And yes, she would have gotten up to speak representing the um, maybe she was representing the U.S. Department of State or or an imaginary country that's part of this simulation. And uh it ran for about an hour and a half and gave them some negotiation skills. And just it's I'm gonna tell you, they're so much fun to do. Even adults have fun with these. But what we do with youth diplomats is so let me back up. We were doing these youth ambassador programs, bringing in youth from other countries, to the point where I realized we have we have this great body of knowledge and activity, and we have so many kids here that probably would benefit from it. So, because these programs are called youth ambassadors, we didn't want to say, Oh, look, may I introduce you to the youth ambassadors of Mexico and the local ones? Like that's kind of won won't. So we so uh they're the local youth are called youth diplomats. They meet one Saturday a month for about three hours. They set their agenda. So I give them every six months uh the calendar and cards with all the possibilities of what they can explore, but more cards than can fit on the calendar. And then I step back, I don't do anything really, I mean, at all. And they negotiate it, fill out what they're going to do, and then there's further negotiations because they have to put it in the Or they think it should happen. And inevitably, we will have one or two of these simulations. And I run the simulations. Um, and these are again um National Museum of American Diplomacy Simulations. Also during the pandemic, I had um two interns who are really good writers, and we wrote some of our own simulations. So that's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Yeah, they're all right. And which which high schools um had participated in this and which high schools might participate in this? Because I'm wondering, like a parent listening to this right now is thinking, wow, especially think about all of the military families that just like how you grew up, that can immediately see the benefit in this, that don't need to be convinced of how valuable it is to learn how to connect with people that are different than you. And then, you know, on the other side, people who are Pensacola locals, born and raised, might see the value of knowing how just to communicate with somebody that grew up in a different neighborhood than you. That's right. So tell me who what schools did participate in that and which ones might in the future.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Okay, so I was I planned the entire summit. I had a committee that focused on education, and they are the ones who reached out to the superintendents' offices. So I don't remember which specific high schools participated. I do know they were from the two counties. However, I can tell you that remember, I told you we have these youths coming in um this week. When they leave, they're going to Washington, D.C., and five local youths are going with them. And I was part of that hands-on um selection. So we have a youth from Pensacola High School, we have someone from West Florida, we have someone from Booker T. We have someone from Catholic High School, and we have someone from Gulf Breeze High School. And they were all selected, fully funded exchange. They'll they'll fly up on a Saturday, Sunday, I believe they're doing some sightseeing. And then Monday and Tuesday, they have several appointments, meetings at the U.S. Department of State where they're going to hear, because this group is focused on the environmental issues, they're bringing in experts and environmental issues. And so presumably people will have questions for the experts by that point. Uh, they're also going to the office that has youth exchanges. Again, the State Department has so many exchanges. These are fully funded. I mean, fully funded exchanges. I wish I had known about these. Yeah, read free money.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

Free money parents, free money.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

We we've had kids go for free critical language scholarship um overseas to Moldova. We've had two go over to Germany. We've had someone who was offered a one-month summer scholarship with a group to Argentina and Chile. And with, for example, with the critical language scholarship, once you do that, if you do because there's a high school one and there's a college one, when you do the the college one, um, you are given preferential hiring with the US federal government.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

That's a huge, huge, huge benefit. That's a huge perk. Yeah. When you think about the kids that started with you in 2008, that that means if a student was 15 when they first participated in 2008, that means that they're 30 now.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Well, right? 2008 is when we started IVLP. So that was the professionals. Ah, okay. So 2011, we started with international youth. And 2017 is when we started the local youth program. So we've built on it slowly, slowly. But I will tell you, I see where you're going. I'm super excited because we're a small office. We're the little office that could. I mean, we're two and a half, really two and a quarter people. And the other full-time person is a former youth diplomat. So she went to school in Boston and she graduated this year, and she is now. So I feel like my plan for youth diplomats to take over the world, it's my little joke that I tell her, is coming into full, you know, to fruition. And we're going to have a um an intern this summer who also is a graduate of the youth diplomats program. And our our internships are are paid. So I don't, I mean, they get real, they get real live work experience and they get real time with these international visitors, just as you have when you've come to some of our community coffees.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Yes, I love those community coffees. I think they're so fantastic. It's like traveling the world, but just in a coffee shop, because you go from table to table and get to listen to people's real lived experiences and the things that you know they ask you about. You kind of, I don't know. I guess the first time that I talked with someone from um your program who was an international visitor, I expected these really heavy hitter questions because they were the adult diplomats. And uh they wanted to know what I ate and how I did my hair. And what that did for me is it really made me go, wow, um, these are women just like me, you know, they may live a different life, they may wear a hijab every day. They, you know, uh they were journalists, I think from Jordan actually. And but they were just connected, just like me. And I know that's one of the benefits that you really try to instill in anyone that comes with within any sort of inch of your orbit, right? But as we wrap up, I'd love to hear what would you in addition to that, what would you hope that people would get out of this program for their children?

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Okay. Well, the first thing is our applications for the youth diplomats program are opening up, and the applications should be live on our website, GulfCostDiplomacy.org. They should be live by the end of this week. And um it's a year-long program. We we do all kinds of activities with the youths. For example, how do you write a resume if you've never had a job? But we uh good tips for public speaking, but also how do you serve your country? So we our service to the nation. So we bring in people from different jobs who come in and talk about what they did and or what they're doing. Um, and then when we have IVLP, this is where it clicks in with the IVLP visitors. We have IVLP visitors in town, we'll bring them in and we'll do some cultural sharing activities so that the youths really get an understanding of the world out there. And it enhances the IVLP and it enhances the local youth's experience. The other thing that I would like to share is that we have um this will be our fourth year with Camp Global. And Camp Global is something that I created in the summer of 2020 when we we were like, what's happening? We don't have any visitors coming. So it's an online summer camp, and it is running the third week of June, and that also will be online by the end of the week. And two hours, two and a half hours, I guess, I think it's two hours a day, Tuesday through Friday. And we are partnering with the American Corner in Kosovo for this. So it's it's American Corner Pristina, actually. We're partnering with them, and uh we'll explore leadership and soft skills through through that. Um, so if a if a student wants to do youth diplomats, we take we encourage them to come through it all four years if they want, but if they're a senior, they're still welcome. So if there's a student now who's in eighth grade, that student is eligible to apply. We still start our year. Last year we started in May. This year we're we're having to push it back because of this youth group that's in town right now, or will be in town. We're gonna start our youth diplomats program in June. And that way our nine of the people who've just left eighth grade, they're, you know, they're so young. But by the time we we get them interested. So by the time they hit high school in the fall and they have all those other options and activities, they still remember how much fun they had with us. We also have an opportunity in July for people to be host families. We are going to get um some youth from Paris, or I guess it's from France, not just from Paris. So it's going to be a French speaking exchange. Um, but they also speak English, so I shouldn't say French speak they're we're going to get an exchange of people from France. Yeah. Yeah. Um and they will be with us for I think it's nine days. And so we're looking for host families for that. Um, again, I keep them busy during the work days. You have them on the weekends and the evenings, and your kids can earn service hours by participating with us. What else, Meredith? We have so much fun. Oh, coffees. I love it when youth come to our coffee. So these coffees are open to the public. I post them all about them on Instagram. Now we do have member people who pay to be members of our council, and so they will get an email. But I will also post these things on Instagram. Sometimes we don't know about them until like eight days in advance. Occasionally we'll have more notice. But uh, we will have a coffee or a tea, and I will ring a bell, or if we're using interpreters, we'll sit around a table and you can just talk about anything, anything at all. And then we'll ring a bell, and then you go and sit at another table, and you get to meet a whole new set of locals. So that's a good, it's a good networking for locals, and then you get a meet a whole new set of uh international visitors. And when we've had, I'll tell you, our international visitors love it when we get high schoolers to come, and parents are welcome to come as well. We get high schoolers and their parents coming, sometimes high schoolers by themselves, and they say, American kids are phenomenal. Oh we had no idea. And you know why? Because they're seeing things like Jerry Springer on TV. So that's part of that's part of what we're doing as well. We're giving our youth these opportunities, but then we're also making sure that people when they leave Pensacola know that here's the things they come to Pensacola Thinking. They come to Pensacola Thinking. Americans don't really love their families. Women oftentimes don't wear many clothes, and they're they're really looking for, because it's gonna happen soon, a car is gonna go through a fruit stand, you know, some kind of car chase. It's so bizarre.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

But it makes sense because that's every movie scene um and every, you know, Jerry uh Springer episode. I think you're just missing a hair pulling incident, and then you've got it, you know, got the full circle. But thank you so much for sharing this. I think it's a great program, and I I do hope that parents get involved. So thanks for making time today. Oh, you're welcome. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County Public Schools.