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2015 Report to Trustees

Central & South Asia trade experts receive their IVLP recognition on St. Pete Beach!

www.WorldPartnerships.org

World Partnerships, Inc. is a 501-c-3 not-for-profit organization under the US Tax Code (FEIN: 59-3651710). Contributions to World Partnerships are deductible as charitable donations for Federal income tax purposes.

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January 7, 2015

Dear World Partnerships Trustees:

Happy New Year from World Partnerships! We hope that you’ve enjoyed a peaceful holiday season, and

we send our very warm wishes to you for a happy and healthy New Year 2016.

2015 marked the 75th anniversary of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), the US

Department of State’s most prestigious professional exchange program. In our 15 years as State’s exclusive Tampa Bay regional IVLP partner, World Partnerships has positioned our community and its

outstanding professional and educational resources as a shining star of State’s IVLP network, and made Tampa Bay a respected and recognized part of the rich history of US public diplomacy. This past year was

exceptional for singular projects in our region. And, beyond the IVLP, we hosted two of our IVLP alumni

last year, who returned to follow up projects from 2008 (cancer care) and 2011 (security and counter-terrorism).

World Partnerships positions the Tampa Bay region every day as an important player in American foreign

policy and public diplomacy, and as a place for global business and education. Our internship program

and educational outreach programs are designed to prepare the global citizens of tomorrow that are fundamental to the new international leadership and workforce strategies being pursued in the Tampa

Bay area. Your leadership and support attracts significant economic benefits to the area, underpins US foreign policy around the globe, and brings the American experience to the new generation of global

leaders.

As 2016 begins, we wanted to report to you some of the highlights and accomplishments achieved by

World Partnerships this past year. We are especially pleased to report that James MacDougald and Ambassador Mel Sembler have re-joined the Board. We want to especially acknowledge our deep

appreciation for the long and valued Board service and counsel of William R. Hough, who stepped down this past year. And we want to congratulate our Executive Director, Mary Ellen Upton, for being a Finalist

in the non-profit executive category in the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s “Business Woman of the Year”

award! We are delighted to report major event sponsorships this year by Boston Holding Company LLC and St. Petersburg College, and Trustees James MacDougald and Matthew Nolan. And finally, we’d like to

acknowledge Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater, who supplied welcome bags and gifts to nearly all IVLP visitor delegations in 2015.

Now more than ever we need your help to raise awareness in our community about the work of World Partnerships, to identify and recruit new Trustees and sponsors, and to attract more individual and corporate support from within our community. 2016 is the year for World Partnerships to match our 4,000+ IVLP and Fulbright alumni with the needs of businesses and educational institutions. World Partnerships is the only IVLP host organization that maintains ongoing connections with IVLP visitors, thus facilitating opportunities to maintain permanent relationships between visitors and their counterparts in the U.S. World Partnerships current and emerging leaders are “connected” in their own countries, and they are willing to connect our business and educational communities with counterparts in their countries. Realizing the untapped potential of the World Partnerships global network will benefit our community, our businesses and students, and our organization. We need your help to make this happen.

Please take a few moments to read our 2015 report, which appears below. We are ever grateful for your

support, and look forward to our future work together.

All the best, with our very warm regards. Gary Springer & Mary Ellen Upton, World Partnerships, Inc.

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Website

Our website (www.WorldPartnerships.org) was completely overhauled during the autumn, and we hope

you’ll take a look at it soon! Look for a “What’s News!” section on the front page, coming soon. Please note that we now have a “Support Our Work” button on each page, and the ability to accept

contributions online. Mass audience fundraising will be promoted weekly through social media.

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The Impact of World Partnerships

394 IVLP Visitors, 50 IVLP Projects, 110 Countries (January-December 2015), making this

calendar year our second largest since our founding in 2000 (see Map above).

Our FY 2015 (10/1/14 - 9/30/15) State Department grant funding also increased to

approximately $78,000, which we expect to receive in January.

FY 2016 is off to a fast start, with 154 IVLP visitors in 14 projects since October 1, 2015!

We already have a number of projects scheduled beginning in late January.

Nearly $1 Million Community Impact: Our work brings significant benefits to the Tampa Bay community through direct spending on hotels, meals and transportation, and through new

connections for businesses, organizations and universities. Based on previous calculations by the

State Department, World Partnerships likely brought almost $1 million to the region last year. One example stands out: The Poynter Institute now markets itself as “international” thanks to hundreds of

IVLP journalists World Partnerships brings to train at Poynter every year. World Partnerships’ IVLP program has created an important revenue stream for Poynter, bringing almost $23,000 to the

institution in 2015.

Impact in Washington: World Partnerships is the only IVLP council that can program in

Washington. In collaboration with Chair Matthew Nolan, we were able to win projects and to provide

expertise in the legal aspects of regional trade integration for groups from South & Central Asia. State also called upon us when they were unable to arrange a meeting at the US Justice Department

to help women members of the Afghan Parliament deepen their understanding of US anti-corruption

legislation and prosecution. Matt organized a session for them in Washington with a former chair of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, a former DOJ corruption prosecutor, and other relevant

resources. This was a very important meeting for these Afghan parliamentarians.

Figure 1 Our World in 2015 IVLP Visitors

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Program Highlights – IVLP Special Initiatives:

To celebrate the 75th anniversary milestone for US public diplomacy, the IVLP created a number of special

initiatives. World Partnerships was a part of each special initiative this year.

Edward R. Murrow Program For Journalists: World Partnerships was

selected to host the 10th anniversary of the “Edward R. Murrow Program for

Journalists”, the flagship journalism initiative of the IVLP. During the seven day gathering from November 4 – 10, 2015, nearly 100 journalists from 80+

different countries examined the essential role of independent media in fostering and protecting freedom of expression and democracy around the

world.

While in Tampa Bay these journalists participated in a 2-day

advanced journalism training symposium at the Poynter Institute. World Partnerships arranged additional professional visits to Tampa

Bay print and broadcast media outlets, journalism educational

programs. We also arranged for

the Murrow group to perform a community service project –

planting over 5,000 beach-protecting sea oats – at Fort DeSoto County Park, and resulting in 500 volunteer hours. Our Beach BBQ

was sponsored by St. Petersburg College, who also brought along

faculty and students to volunteer with and meet the Murrows.

World Partnerships hosted a gala dinner honoring the Murrow journalists, with a keynote address by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Professional and Cultural Exchanges Dr. Mara Tekach, and

remarks by Ambassador Brent Hardt, Political Advisor to US Special Operations Command. The dinner

was sponsored by Boston Holding Company LLC, and Trustees James MacDougald and Matthew Nolan.

World Partnerships also created an unprecedented event for the Murrow delegation: Ambassador Hardt organized a first-ever briefing by US

Special Operations Command and US Central Command. US SOCOM

Commander General Joseph Votel

personally welcomed the journalists to his headquarters and publicly

thanked World Partnerships for the unique opportunity. General Votel

briefed the IVLP visitors on SOCOM’s mission, and conducted a 1-hour

Q&A session. Vice-Admiral Mark Fox,

Deputy Commander of US CENTCOM conducted a similar session focused

on his Command’s area of responsibility.

Figure 3 Murrow Journalists at USSOCOM Headquarters Figure 2 Murrow Journalists at US SOCOM Headquarters

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Global Security/International Crime: We continue to win special security projects thanks to the

excellent professional resources in our community, among them SOCOM and CENTCOM; the Pinellas,

Pasco and Hillsborough County Sheriffs, the US Coast

Guard, Stetson University College of Law, and the St.

Petersburg and Tampa Police Departments.

Women Leaders: World Partnerships hosted special

multi-regional programs for women leaders in justice, in entrepreneurship, in peace, in security, and for women

Members of Parliament (from France, Sweden and Afghanistan), recognizing our community’s deep resources

for women in leadership. These include the Centre for

Women, The Red Tent Project (Pinellas County Jail), Professor Luz Nagle (Stetson), The Spring of Tampa Bay,

and women leaders in the Federal, state and local judiciary, law enforcement, military, and education. State

Representative Kathleen Peters has been especially

committed to these programs.

Disabilities: In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), World Partnerships hosted a group from Belarus that included the World

Wheelchair Ballroom Dance Champion, and advocates for the blind, children with disabilities, and autism. Our intern, Alexa Davies from the University of

Florida, produced a video (http://www.worldpartnerships.org/alumni-at-work.html) of the master

dance class for local mobility-impaired children taught by our visiting dance champion at the University Of South Florida School Of Fine Arts (later used by the Department of State for the ADA

anniversary commemoration). Our sight-impaired visitor met with local software company Freedom Scientific, and thanked them for creating the program that allow blind Belarussians to “see” the

Internet for the first time in 2000. He told us he never dreamed he’d ever meet this company.

Southeastern Guide Dogs hosted the group for a training session. And Special Forces Master Sergeant Romy Camargo, a 100% disabled veteran and his wife Gaby met the group to discuss their

new “Stay In Step” fitness facility for severely injured military and civilians, the first local facility to allow quadriplegics and paraplegics to exercise standing up. Hana and her dance partner accepted an invitation from USF to return and dance at a Very Special Arts presentation in Tampa.

Journalism and Civil Society: In addition to the Murrow Program (see above), World Partnerships

attracted special journalism groups from Syria, Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan,

Pakistan and other regional delegations to our extraordinary community resources, including The Poynter Institute; the Tampa Bay Times and the Tampa Tribune, La Gaceta (the nation’s only tri-

lingual weekly newspaper); WFLA and WTSP; WMNF-FM (community radio) WEDU and WUSF (public television); City of St. Petersburg; and Nielsen (media research headquarters). Each of these groups

also met with public affairs officers at SOCOM or CENTCOM.

Regional Trade Expansion: In recognition of the trade negotiation experience of World

Partnerships chair Matt Nolan and president Gary Springer, State has sent four large special regional

groups from South and Central Asia to discuss deepening of trade relations between India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri

Lanka. These groups include business executives, Chamber leaders, government officials, and trade negotiators. Two of our IVLP alumni from Afghanistan recently completed their country’s accession to the World Trade Organization, a major step to expand commercial interaction with their neighbors, and with the US.

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World Partnerships Educational Outreach

Our educational mission is to educate the World about America, and to educate Americans about the

World, and 2015 was another successful year for educational outreach.

World Partnerships at Enterprise Village: In collaboration with the US Department of State

Passport Services Office, our World Partnerships “storefront” at Enterprise Village – the national

paradigm for economic education for 5th graders – provided nearly 15,000 students with a “Youth Passport” and information about traveling and studying abroad. Nearly half of our IVLP visitors – and

especially our Women Leaders projects – visit and experience this educational treasure in our

community. Another first: This year we also

hosted Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Professional and Cultural Exchanges Dr. Mara

Tekach at Enterprise Village and Finance Park.

http://www.worldpartnerships.org/world-

partnerships-live.html

With the right partner, this project will link 15,000 area schoolchildren with students of our

IVLP alumni for “live” multi-cultural experiences across the Internet.

Public School Partnerships – “Journeys in

Journalism”: Last year solidified our collaboration with

the internationally-recognized JHop Times, at the “Journeys in Journalism” program at John Hopkins Middle School. Student journalists conduct a Q&A

session with our IVLP journalists, take them on a tour of their media and broadcast production facilities, and

publish stories about our visitors. State Department official Mara Tekach was a featured TV and print

interview for JHop last year. In 2016, we will expand our work with this public school program to Melrose Elementary and Lakewood High.

Internship Program: We continue to attract the best

and the brightest students for internships: Daniel

Woods (Salve Regina University – Rhode Island), Alexa Davies (University of Florida), Corey Nedev (St. Petersburg College), Ana Ramirez (University of Central Florida), Cody Jurbala (University of South Florida), Gabrielle Silberman (Berkeley Prep), and Andrew

Samson (American University – Washington, DC).

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World Partnerships in 2016…

With a full Federal Fiscal Year budget in place for the first time in many years, we are expecting a busy

IVLP schedule this election year, in addition to the Fulbright Visiting Scholars Program and other special projects at State, among them:

Cuba and Iran Special Initiatives

We expect to see the first Cuban IVLP delegations coming to the US this year, now that the US Embassy has reopened. More than likely, the first groups will be cultural and educational

exchanges, and we have expressed interest at the Department of State in hosting Cuban delegations in Tampa Bay, especially given the historical ties our region has with Cuba. In

addition, we expect to hear soon about a delegation of English teachers from Iran.

Fulbright Visiting Scholar Enrichment Seminar

Building on our highly successful 2014 contract to host Fulbright Visiting Scholars for an

enrichment seminar on climate change and the oceans, we plan to compete for the 2016-17

series of seminars. Our 2014 project represented the first time Fulbright had ever done an enrichment seminar in Florida.

“Virtual Exchange” Initiatives

One of State’s new initiatives is to increase “virtual exchanges” – where US students interact over

Skype and social media with their foreign counterparts. We plan to compete for special project

funding throughout the year in partnership with the Pinellas Education Foundation, and the Journeys in Journalism Programs at Melrose Elementary, John Hopkins Middle School and

Lakewood High School, and with St. Petersburg College.

World Partnerships Alumni Projects

Beyond the IVLP projects, we continue to work with our IVLP alumni to develop fee-based

projects and new revenue streams for our organization. At the moment, these include: Water Resources Management (Kenya); MBA Study Abroad (Ukraine); College Education Missions

(China); Trade & Business Mission (Mumbai and Chennai, India); and, Cancer Care Partnership

(Macedonia, with Moffitt Cancer Center). We are also developing a new network with select alumni to advise and assist us in marketing our fee-based services.

We expect to welcome alumni back to Tampa Bay throughout the year. An Egyptian journalist

alum is being sent to Florida to cover the 2016 Presidential Primary and the general election. A

political scientist from Finland will also travel to Florida to study and write about the 2016 elections.

Figure 4 Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Dr. Mara Tekach with student journalists at John Hopkins Middle School.