Background of “Study of the U.S. Thematic Institute for Foreign Undergraduate Students on the Environment”

The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA) has awarded a grant to the East-West Center to administer the “Study of the U.S. Thematic Institute for Foreign Undergraduate Students on the Environment.” The purpose of the institute is to provide a group of 18 undergraduate leaders from various countries with a deeper understanding of the United States and its the environmental movement by engaging advocacy, market, policy, cultural and scientific approaches to environmental issues and seeing how these approaches are intertwined. The theme of environmental stewardship will examine a diversity of actors from regulators, activists, to businesses involved in the environmental movement. The program will also look at environmental challenges and the need for active leadership to deal with these challenges.

The institute aims to provide a transformative learning experience for participants through introductions to a broad spectrum of American life; enhance networks of understanding linking participants with U.S. environmental actors and each other; transfer, where applicable, lessons from the U.S. to the participants’ countries; provide opportunities for U.S. practitioners to learn about participants’ countries environmental challenges; link the next generation of foreign leaders in the environmental movement with the U.S.; and develop collaborative projects among participants themselves and with U.S. organizations.

The institute will be organized by the East-West Center in collaboration with over twenty other organizations.
The first five weeks will be at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the final week will be a field study to San Francisco, California, and Washington, D.C.