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PRT Kirkuk Hosts IVLP Alumni Program
 
July, 2011
PRT Kirkuk Team Leader Fletcher Burton addresses a group of exchange program alumni at a lunch in Kirkuk, Iraq.

PRT Kirkuk Team Leader Fletcher Burton addresses a group of exchange program alumni at a lunch in Kirkuk, Iraq.

Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Kirkuk hosted a lunch and briefing event on July 7, 2011 for Kirkuk-area alumni of State Department educational and professional exchange programs.  Invitees included 25 alumni of the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) and two former grantees from the Fulbright summer scholars program.  Alumni made presentations, spoke with PRT officers, and had a chance to hear from PRT Team Leader Fletcher Burton, himself an alumnus of the flagship Fulbright Scholarship program.  The message was clear: exchange alumni are part of a larger group of remarkable individuals; they were chosen for their leadership; and the U.S. Mission wants to stay in contact and support them in their activities as they progress in their careers.  The PRT Public Diplomacy office coordinated with the Embassy Baghdad’s Public Affairs Section (PAS) to distribute Exchange Alumni materials, which were provided in local languages, and several grantees shared the remarkable stories of their experience in the United States.  One grantee told of meeting former President George W. Bush, and other countered with a story of his meeting with President Barack Obama – each during an IVLP program.  Several spoke of a new inspiration born of their new experience to work to make Kirkuk and Iraq better. 

While USG-funded exchange programs in most countries can call upon grantees from decades past to form a broad community, exchange programs in northern Iraq were drastically disrupted in the past decades, making grantees from the past few years a new group with no older mentors in the local society.  The U.S. Mission is now planting seeds to grow solid contacts in future years, and will therefore pay special attention to ensure they take root—and to ensure that returning grantees continue to see the American people as active and available sources for guidance and partnership. The U.S. Mission will therefore encourage ongoing contact with grantees as they progress toward their leadership roles in Iraqi society.