“The Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program (IYLEP) is an annual series of summer exchange programs in the United States for Iraqi undergraduate students sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The program gives young Iraqis the chance to build their leadership skills and provides the tools necessary to developing their own youth-led projects for community change upon returning home.”
Source: https://www.meridian.org/programs/iylep/

Program Summary

Because of COVID travel restrictions, CC has been selected to virtually host 13 Iraqi and 4 American high school students for two weeks next month. As part of World Learning’s Iraqi Youth Leadership Exchange Program (IYLEP), we will provide rich virtual home stays with Center for Global Studies families. We will also facilitate “field trips” focusing on civic, environmental, and social topics that are affecting the lives of those living in our region – and in Iraq – including local government, education, climate change, and social injustice.
CC will utilize applied theatre techniques and skills (that we first used with our Mandala Theatre colleagues in Nepal) to inspire dialogue, cultural exchange, and creative problem solving.

From CC's President

“Stepping up to the challenge provided us by the restraints of virtual programming, we are more than excited about this opportunity to implement our “arts for understanding” methodology in this youth leadership hosting exchange. We will be exploring thoughtful civic and social issues affecting both USA and Iraqi youth while providing as nurturing a virtual experience as possible for our overseas guests.”
– Alan Steckler, Founder & President

Dates

CC will be facilitating two weeks of impactful programming for the student participants from July 5-18,2021.
Our goal is to provide the students with an experience that combines a meaningful home stay relationship with a significant encounter into the strengths and challenges of local community life.

Host Family Activities include

Host Community Partner Activities

Sessions include:

Program Facilitators

Alan Steckler, CC Founder & President, will oversee the IYLEP two-week home community experience. He has facilitated many of the virtual/in-person exchanges.
Tim Steckler will help facilitate each of the virtual exchange via IVC (interactive video conferences) sessions and the theatre sessions. Tim has conducted theatre-for-social-change workshops with youth in several countries, including teenage refugees in Jordan, Germany, and the West Bank.

Contact Alan Steckler at asteckler@creativeconnections.org for more information.

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