Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund (CDAF) competition! The 2022 competition was the most competitive to date, with 39 winning teams selected out of 72 applications. The winning teams reflect a diverse range of exchange programs and various communities across the United States. Applicants competed on five themes:  

  • Strengthening democratic institutions; 
  • Protecting the environment;   
  • Bolstering outreach to underserved communities;   
  • Building community through arts, sports, language, and technology; and,  
  • Fostering alumni network development  

CDAF was launched in 2019 to empower U.S. citizen alumni of U.S. government sponsored exchange programs (ExchangeAlumni) to support their communities and build on their exchange program skills. To date, 189 teams of U.S. citizen ExchangeAlumni have been granted over $1.5 million to build on their exchange programs skills and address the needs of their communities. Through CDAF, ExchangeAlumni across the United States have been reaching out to underserved communities, addressing media literacy education, protecting the environment, and building community through arts, sports, language, and technology. Their projects address issues faced by people in the United States and around the world.  


Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund 2022 Winners

Backyard Sessions 2022: In the Lab Edition is a week-long professional development project offering local Denver hip hop dancers, music producers, and youth arts education providers the opportunity to explore new ideas, take risks, and learn new processes for creating performance work. Dancers will be mentored by a team of industry professionals, and participate in daily movement workshops and laboratory time to the accompaniment of an original score created by the music production team, led by DJ A-L. At the end of the week, the work will be shared at the annual live performance of Backyard Sessions, where the audience is invited to share feedback and have a dialogue about the pieces performed.  Alumni Team: Next Level  

Breaking the Mold: Shattering Cultural Barriers via an International Exchange of Pottery and Earthenware aims to address the loss of communal spaces and regularly scheduled gatherings through an international pottery exchange initiative. Local artists from Okayama, Japan and Colorado, USA will create pieces of earthenware that feature their unique pottery styles in exchange for an unfamiliar style of pottery, using art as a vehicle for cultural exchange. Communication via virtual platforms will allow artists to connect during and after the event, creating a space for cross-cultural awareness to develop organically. Alumni Team: Fulbright U.S. Student Program, Critical Language Scholarship  

Bridges Across the Pacific: English Language & Skills Exchange to Prevent Human Trafficking is a community leadership and outreach project that connects students based in the United States and Vietnam  to address the root causes of trafficking: poor education and job prospects. This project focuses on preventing trafficking before it starts by increasing access to economic opportunities and by teaching English and valuable workforce readiness skills such as digital literacy, internet safety,  teamwork, and leadership to Vietnamese youth. English proficiency and strong workforce readiness skills will enable the most at-risk youths to access improved educational and economic opportunities for advancement out of poverty - reducing their risk of being vulnerable to traffickers. Alumni Team: National Security Language Initiative for Youth, Gilman, Benjamin A. International Scholarship Program  

Building Community through Language and Art in Malta is a three-week summer class series designed for and with local and migrant women. During the program, arts based activities will be woven into English language classes and culminate in weekly events co-produced with local organizations to emphasize the importance of community engagement and  initiate and nurture relationships across differences. Alumni Team: Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program, Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching  

Building Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in the Daly City Filipino Community seeks to jumpstart the professional development of young social entrepreneurs in the Filipino American community, with a focus on youth in Daly City, CA. Through a culturally relevant and community-based workshop, this project will provide youth with strong examples of Filipino American professionals and their career paths. The objective is to encourage more business ownership, entrepreneurial endeavors, and financial empowerment of Filipino Americans in the Bay Area — all within a framework that is culturally-responsive and relatable. Alumni Team: Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program  

Critical Language and Pronunciation for Students (CLAPS) aims to instill in underserved elementary and middle school students a passion for language learning and close the existing achievement gap. This virtual after-school program for students in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s neighborhood schools will introduce participants to eight critical languages, with an emphasis on language fundamentals, pronunciation, and cultural competence. CLAPS encourages students to consider participating in government exchange programs. Alumni Team: National Security Language Initiative for Youth, Benjamin Franklin Summer Institute  

Dancing to Connect Vietnam 2022 is a collaboration between Battery Dance of New York and Arabesque Vietnam, and includes youth engagement workshops in Danang and Hoi An, Vietnam. The project will train eight Arabesque teaching artists to conduct Dancing to Connect workshops, with both companies taking part in a final performance in Danang and a studio showing in Ho Chi Minh City. Alumni Team: Fulbright Specialist Program, Center Stage  

Echoes & Footprints: Exploring Candombe and the Afro-Uruguayan Experience will work with ethnomusicologists, historians, and linguists to explore, document, and promote the evolution of culture rooted in the African diaspora in the Americas. The long cultural shadow of slavery produced new forms of music, dance, and literature that are not widely known. The project will document Uruguay’s Candombe, a percussion musical form and socio-cultural space recognized by UNESCO in 2004 as an intangible world heritage asset, and teach local Uruguayans how to most efficiently promote it to the United States using the most modern digital marketing tools. Alumni Team: Peace Corps  

Ecopreneurship: Empowering Women in the Cham Islands focuses on the commitment by the Cham Islands of Vietnam to eliminate plastic waste on the island by 2025. The project will support sustainable development efforts and lasting impact by implementing a refillable shop model to reduce the use of plastic waste, and enhancing the existing Material Recovery Facility (MRF) with the addition of a compost center for local farmers. These projects will be implemented in collaboration with Chàm Islands-Hội An World Biosphere Reserve and the Women’s Union to diversify the island’s economy, promote the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and forge a more economically and environmentally sustainable future for Cham Island communities. Alumni Team: Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program  

Empowering Nigerian Youths to Think Critically About Energy focuses on increasing the energy literacy and critical thinking skills of high school students in Nigeria. Students in high school today will design the energy systems of tomorrow – and they must do so in a way that can meet the cost, energy, and environmental needs of their society. Regional workshops will connect global energy experts with secondary school science teachers, providing teachers with specific activity-based energy literacy lesson plans and teaching concepts to use  at their schools. The project ends with a competition in which students demonstrate their critical thinking skills and grasp of energy concepts by examining energy solutions for Nigeria’s future. Alumni Team: Fulbright Foreign Student Program, Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program  

Empowering Paraguayan Communities Through Birding will focus on training members of OPADES Birding Team and local community members near Ybycuí National Park, Paraguay in ecotourism strategies with a focus on birdwatching. The goal of the project is to provide an alternative income generating opportunity in an underserved community and promote sustainable conservation efforts to help protect the vulnerable Atlantic Forest. Alumni Team: Peace Corps, Becas Hayes  

Enhancing Production & Marketing of Tunisian Olive Oil: Path to Financial Sustainability & Democracy builds on the long-standing socio-economic heritage of Tunisian olive oil. Growing and distributing olive oil is a backbone of the Tunisian economy, which this project aims to enhance. With attention to olive oil marketing and production, it also aims to improve the financial sustainability of the country, which will support Tunisian efforts for democracy. Alumni Team: Fulbright Specialist Program, BridgeUSA Scholar   

Exchange Alumni Ambassador Program is a professional development and outreach program created by and for historically underserved students to help promote international education programs funded by the U.S. Department of State. The month-long professional development training program will prepare about 20 alumni from historically underserved backgrounds to give professional presentations about the array of international education programs that are funded by the U.S. Department of State and available to other historically underserved student populations in their local communities throughout the United States to promote more equitable representation. Alumni Team: Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program  

Greenworks: Artistically Beautifying Trashed Channels in Eastern Indonesia addresses eastern Indonesia’s long-standing issue of poor garbage management, particularly on the populous island of Ternate in North Maluku. It is common to find garbage in the streets, drainage channels, and ocean, which often obscures the beauty of the island, which is why this project will clean and artistically improve the channels that drain stormwater to the ocean. By highlighting that these shared spaces can be beautiful, the project aims to discourage people from using them as garbage dumps, instead, redirecting garbage to locations like Khairun University where garbage can be processed  more responsibly. Alumni Team: Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program  

Implementing a Strengths Mindset to Build Resilience in Africa seeks to build and pilot a strengths-based leadership curriculum that can be used to train NGO leaders across Africa to improve the positive mindset and resilience of their constituents. The project leaders are from the United States, Benin, Uganda, and Tanzania, and will leverage the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) network for feedback regarding the program curriculum. The ECAN Tanzania NGO, operating in Manyara, Tanzania, will host the pilot program. Alumni Team: Mandela Washington Fellowship Reciprocal Exchange, Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders)  

International Women's Resource Center (IWRC) will be a community of learning, support, and resources for immigrant women. IWRC will provide  basic education, family literacy, health literacy, workforce preparation, and community building services in-house or through partnerships in Los Angeles. Programming will be flexible and include hybrid offerings to take into consideration participants’ schedules and distance from the Center, with the goal that the project model can be duplicated across the United States and abroad. Alumni Team: Fulbright Specialist, Professional Fellows  

JaZz Rendezvous will highlight the role jazz plays in the quest for freedom, democracy, and civil rights through a multi-day event in Grand Bassam and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. U.S. and Ivorian musicians, linguists, artists, students, and music lovers will convene in-person and via Zoom to learn from one another, celebrate the diversity of the jazz culture, and pay homage to  jazz. The event includes a fashion show by jazz dancers, a follow-up special exhibition at The National Museum of Costume, a jazz poetry slam at the American Space of the Universite’ Felix-Houphouet Boigny (UFHB) Abidjan, and a presentation on the evolution of African jazz. Alumni Team: English Language Fellow Program, International Visitor Leadership Program  

Localizing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Palapye SDG Champions will create a cohort of “SDG Champions'' in the Serowe/Palapye district of Botswana. Through two online sessions and a five day, in-person workshop, 30 unemployed or underemployed youth participants will have the opportunity to increase their awareness and understanding of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how they can be supported at the local level. Youth will receive training, support, and mentoring in community engagement, job seeking and employability skills, and create personal action plans. Youth will also  be connected to local and global educational, funding, networking, and employment opportunities to support the implementation of their action plans. The project aims to create a replicable model of youth outreach such that all Botswanan youth may become “SDG Champions.” Alumni Team: Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program, YALI Regional Leadership Center (RLC)  

MentorRing Alumni is a resource for exchange program alumni to share their strategies and guidance with new exchange participants, and improve the exchange experience. MentorRing is designed to enhance international exchanges by leveraging a cloud-based platform to find and connect with peers. By providing personalized guidance and sharing the ups-and-downs experienced themselves during an international cultural exchange, mentors can help shape the next generation of exchange participants. Alumni Team: Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals, Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange  

Parents Mobile Academy (PMA) is a community project that will provide activities for 100 parents from underserved communities in Bacolod and Manilla, Philippines, to upskill, learn  about relevant issues affecting children and families, and engage in community building. The training program includes a focus on the media’s impact on families, family planning, children’s health and wellness, and parent-child communication at home. The training will also benefit participants financially by providing them with hands-on experience in small-medium enterprise training such as baking and dessert preparation. Alumni Team: Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms, International Leaders in Education Program  

Projeto Hip Hop BR-US promotes education, entrepreneurship, and community-building through hip-hop culture. The project will take place in Rio de Janeiro and bring together artists from the United States and Brazil. Workshops will cover elements of hip-hop, graffiti, and dance (breaking, popping, and locking). The objective is to engage and collaborate with communities of practice in order to learn from one another and co-create work that will culminate in a presentation during the end of project celebration. Alumni Team: Next Level  

Reading to Learn: A peer mentoring program is a peer tutoring reading program that will empower students to improve comprehension of texts and hopefully develop a pleasure for reading using two research-based strategies: teacher modeling and peer tutoring. U.S. preservice education students will serve as teacher-tutors to senior secondary (high school) students in Botswana. The project aims to simultaneously help students build global community and reading comprehension. Alumni Team: Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program  

Resilience augmented comic book and street art workshops in Bogota, Colombia uses comic book workshops and augmented reality mural painting for disadvantaged girls in a cultural center run by Fundación Niñas de Luz in Bogota, Colombia. Alumni Team: American Arts Incubator Program, Eisenhower Fellowships Program  

Resilient Words project will host a series of podcasts recorded live at the Bowery Poetry Club featuring interviews with writers and poets whose work addresses compelling social issues and discusses their personal stories. The goal is to present the issues in a creative and literary way, to go beyond the talking points and/or conflicts. 'Resilient Words' will make the issues personal from poets and writers who have experienced these problems and thought deeply about them before putting them into words. Alumni Team: International Writing Program, American Arts Incubator Program  

Scaling Professional Development in Online STEM Education in Senegal aims to scale online STEM education and foster education resilience in Senegal. The project provides STEM high school teachers with tools, practices, and ideas for effective online STEM education, opportunities to experiment with diverse online STEM activities, and knowledge on STEM careers to better motivate and inform their students. Specific activities will be organized for students to be more comfortable studying online and more aware of STEM opportunities. Alumni Team: Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, YALI Regional Leadership Center  

Steps to Success: Empowering Women Leaders in Rural Morocco will provide a series of trainings for women leaders from rural communities in the Beni Mellal-Khenifra province of Morocco to increase the participation and effectiveness of female representatives in local government councils. Over the course of four workshops from June to October 2022, participants will identify leadership skills and work with mentors to apply them in practical settings. These trainings will equip women leaders with the skills and experience they need to create sustainable changes in their communities. Alumni Team: Peace Corps, International Visitor Leadership Program  

Stories of Family Separation: Oral Histories of the Cold War is a documentary podcast project that aims to collect oral histories of individuals who have had first-hand experiences of being separated from their family members due to events related to the Cold War. The project aims to preserve the stories of individuals who are in their twilight years and build bridges between marginalized communities by demonstrating family separation is a basis for mutual empathy and understanding. The team will collaborate with the Divided Families Podcast to interview individuals who have lived through the Korean War, Vietnam War, bombings in Laos related to the Vietnam War, events regarding the Taiwan Strait, Operation Pedro Pan in Cuba, and many more. Alumni Team: Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program  

Strengthening Conservation and Tourism Organizations of Lima´s National Parks System is designed to develop a sustainable outdoor recreation tourist industry in the deserts north of Lima, Peru. The project seeks to share the expertise of the United States National/Federal Land Management system around balancing ecosystem stability with commercial recreation that takes place on federal lands. Peruvian participants, partnering with U.S. state and federal agencies, will conduct in-person visits to desert and dune systems in the U.S. Southwest. The goal of the project is to engage more NGOs, government officials, and community members in a conservation ethic using the U.S. National Parks and federal land management systems as a foundation for development. Alumni Team: Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative  

Teachers' Writing: Creating Community and Connection Across Cultures is a partnership between the Manchester School District in New Hampshire and the Hato Mayor District in the Dominican Republic. Teacher-leaders from the two communities will participate in a two-week institute focused on the teaching of writing in a second or other language. Teachers will create an implementation plan to put into practice what they have learned in their classrooms and share their learning with other district teachers. Alumni Team: Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Program  

The Arca Project aims to develop leadership skills and community building among young artists  from underserved communities in Mexico City, Mexico. Led by Jessie "DJ Nebraska" Davis and Miguel "Funky Maya" Rojas, participants will work together using art and technology to design and execute a production that will serve to renovate Jukebox Studios while addressing a common theme; How can expanding your creative expression empower you to contribute to your community? Students from past Next Level Mexico residencies have been selected to step into leadership roles to execute the project, as well as to share the knowledge, tools, and resources they’ve acquired with their individual communities. Alumni Team: Next Level  

The Global AfroxChange Conference 2.0 will gather Black-led study abroad organizations serving underrepresented students across the U.S. with international educational experiences. The project will serve as the second iteration of the conference created to address the barriers that these organizations face in providing education abroad experiences for their students. Conference participants will network with fellow attendees, engage with Black education abroad experts through workshops, and develop skills in areas critical to the growth and success of their programming. Alumni Team: Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program, Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program  

The Role of Local Communities in the Context of Global Affairs: A Focus on Social Entrepreneurship Communities and Diplomacy seeks to build a more robust public-private ecosystem to support social entrepreneurs. Working with Ashoka Romania, the Municipality of Făgăraș, Romania, the Țara Făgărașului Community Foundation, and business owners, entrepreneurs, and Ukrainian refugees from the area, this project will convene a series of workshops and training sessions to amplify the impact of social entrepreneurship at an international level. The objective is to better support social entrepreneurs, clarify the role of the Community Foundation, and create opportunities to unleash the talent of Ukrainian refugees. Alumni Team: U.S. Speakers Program, BridgeUSA Secondary School Student  

Uganda Women's Beekeeping Cooperative: An Initiative for Economic Empowerment and Environmental Conservation will address the lack of economic opportunity for women in Uganda as well as promote environmental conservation through beekeeping. Fifty women and girls in Mukono, Uganda will participate in a five-day training on the basics of beekeeping, cooperative models, and financial literacy. The overall goal of this project is to equip women in Uganda with the skills, resources, and knowledge to engage in a beekeeping and honey cooperative that will increase their income, improve their livelihoods, and contribute to a stronger and more climate-change resilient environment. Alumni Team: Mandela Washington Fellowship Reciprocal Exchange, Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders  

U.S LatinXchange Alumni Speaker Series will bring together Latinx exchange applicants, grantees, and alumni to establish a community, provide leadership opportunities, and inspire future Latinx exchange program applicants to study abroad. Latinx applicants often face barriers to going abroad (e.g. family, identity) and U.S. exchange Latinx alumni lack a collective community to return to and build upon their exchange experience. This project seeks to change this by hosting a speaker series featuring panels of Latinx alumni of government and privately-funded U.S. exchange programs. Speakers will be recruited  from across the diaspora and audio and video recorded  to transform their events into digestible podcasts and videos for the general public. The Speaker Series will also include online and in-person panels at Hispanic Serving Institutions and community colleges to connect with the administration (e.g. college counselors or study abroad advisors) and student groups at these institutions, and in turn, enable Latinx exchange applicants, grantees, and alumni to build connections, leverage awards, and discuss overcoming barriers to studying abroad. Alumni Team: Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program  

U.S.-North Korea-South Korea Youth Workshop: Envisioning Peace on the Korean Peninsula in 2050 will address the dearth of youth perspectives in peacebuilding and policymaking processes of the U.S.-ROK-DPRK trilateral relations. Youth from the United States, South Korea, and North Korea will collaboratively envision what sustainable, inclusive peace means on the Korean Peninsula under the guidance of experienced dialogue facilitators, and design a series of creative policy proposals with feedback from experienced policy and diplomacy professionals. Investing in, listening to, and encouraging mutual understanding between youths of these three countries are critical to permanently resolving conflict on the Korean Peninsula. Alumni Team: Critical Language Scholarship  

Ukrainian Leaders Development Program: TESOL Innovations, Collaborations and Results is a professional development project for Ukrainian teachers and students of English from underserved regions of Ukraine. The project will bring together five U.S. TESOL professionals—alumni of the U.S Department of State’s English Language Fellows program—as virtual workshop facilitators and 50 Ukrainian teachers as participants. The program will feature 10 virtual teacher training workshops on a variety of topics, such as Cultivating Conversation and Cultural Curiosity; Academic Writing Strategies; The Five Parts of a Story; Valuing student experience; and more. Following the workshops, the U.S. facilitators will join virtual classes led by the Ukrainian teachers, participating in their lessons and working with their students, as the Ukrainian teachers implement some of the new pedagogical tools, techniques, and resources from the workshops. Alumni Team: English Language Fellows Program  

USG Alumni-led Workshops to organize and train Palm Sap collectors in the processing and marketing of high-value Bioethanol Products from Nypa fruticans consists of two five-day capacity-building workshops aimed at training rural underemployed workers in The Philippines to become Cooperative Members and Entrepreneurs. Fifty participants will be trained in sap collection, processing, product development, and entrepreneurship to manufacture and market high value bio-ethanol products derived from the sap of Nypa fruticans, a natural component of mangrove forests that has the potential to restore ecosystems, mitigate climate change, and provide sustainable rural livelihoods. The project will engage MMSU USG alumni to deliver proven technologies and practices developed at the National BioEnergy Research and Innovation Center (MMSU-NBERIC), and other USG alumni who are members of the Fulbright Philippines Agriculture Alumni Association  to serve as leaders, organizers, and speakers. Alumni Team: Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program  

Women’s Empowerment Through Sport: Development Camp for High School Track and Field Coaches and Women Athletes will address the lack of equity in sport that still exists between genders and in underserved communities. The project seeks to impart the hard-earned wisdom and life experiences of an Olympic Coach and world class, professional track athletes through hands-on training sessions, live demonstrations, workshops and small group work. The camp curriculum includes:  offering strategies for creating equity in co-ed sports teams, providing insight into developing a women specific coaching model, sharing tips on how to be your best in sport, and giving guidance on how to leverage your unique talents for potential collegiate and career opportunities. The ultimate goal is to empower camp participants to embrace their potential and become successful leaders. Alumni Team: Sports Envoys Program  

Youth International Leadership Initiative (YILI) seeks to increase the involvement of diverse students and recent graduates in international affairs opportunities and careers. Through the cultivation of an online community, YILI will provide mentorship, guidance, and learning opportunities for students and recent graduates underrepresented in international professions, including students of color, individuals of lower socio-economic status, and those from non-coastal areas. The organization's goal is to make the international affairs field more accessible and equitable. Consequently, we will work to include historically-excluded, local youth voices in global foreign policy conversations. Alumni Team: Expo Youth Ambassadors, Expo Youth Ambassadors