-Staff Spotlight: RJ Paulisick-

November 1, 2011

GCIV welcomes the newest member of our team, RJ Paulisick, Program and Technology Coordinator.

Robert John (RJ) Paulisick, a native of Washington D.C., is a recent graduate of Georgia Tech earning his B.S. in International Affairs. While at Tech he performed undergraduate research analyzing expert opinions concerning nanotechnology applications within the nuclear energy and nuclear weapons industries. He has previously worked as a research associate for the India, China America (ICA) Institute and the British Consulate General. RJ also has extensive experience as a web developer and designer from his internship with local interactive marketing firm, What’s Up Interactive. He speaks a little German and when he’s not playing piano, he’s out playing basketball or tennis.
You can email RJ at rj@gciv.org.

If you are a former GCIV intern, please share with us what you are doing now. We hope all former interns or volunteers will share your memories/comments about your experience at GCIV.

Comments - no responses

 

-Celebrating 500 Programs-

September 30, 2011


GCIV program director Emily O’Harris has reached a significant milestone. She recently completed her 500th international exchange program. Over the past five years, Emily has designed and implemented professional and cultural programs for visiting leaders from over 125 countries. GCIV staff, board members, volunteers, friends and family celebrated Emily’s accomplishment and the power of citizen diplomacy in September with a party at Pura Vida. Do you have a favorite story about Emily? Do you have any memories or comments to share about your experiences with GCIV and hosting international visitors?

Click here to view more images from the celebration.

Comments - 2 responses

 

-Invaluable Programs and Lasting Impressions-

August 29, 2011

This blog post continues our retrospective, compiled in 1998 by former GCIV executive director Anne Hansen. Please be a part of our 50th anniversary celebration in 2012 by leaving comments about your GCIV memories, reasons for hosting, and beliefs about the impact of our shared work.

Great Decisions GCIV became the coordinating office for the Great Decisions discussion groups in 1993 for the state of Georgia, with Rosalie FitzPatrick managing the program. This combination of GCIV members and Great Decision participants provides a forum for the visitors to speak to interested groups about their countries and to observe U.S. citizens in small groups discussing foreign affairs.

No history of GCIV would be complete without a special mention of James Kindell, long time program officer since 1977, who died in April 1996. Mr. Kindell, as he was known by all, will be remembered for his hearty laugh, his southern cooking and his love of gospel music. In 1993 he was given the NCIV award for outstanding program officer for the many group programs he coordinated during his twenty years. Ada Almering reminisces, “Mr. Kindell was always most involved with the GCIV office holiday party, his fried chicken was famous, his pound cakes were sacred. On the day of the office party he was always busy organizing the mid-winter AID Seminar – typing on his knees because all extra chairs were needed elsewhere for the party.”

One last anecdote from Dorothy Beasley, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals and a new GCIV board member in 1998, depicts the way the visitors and programs of GCIV interface with other international endeavors in the city and how Americans exchange ways of doing things with people from other countries. She says, “As a new member of the board, I have already had many experiences which have enriched my life and those of others as we reach into the global community.” She goes on to recount a breakfast meeting with the chief editor and head of programming for Croatian television, which helped her in the preparation for two Croatian law students who would be coming to spend a semester at Georgia State Law School. Juvenile Justice CenterShe also entertained an Indian visitor over “grits, biscuits and can syrup” while they discussed the use of mediation in settling disputes in both their countries. She later arranged for the visitor to have a productive meeting with the Justice Center of Atlanta, a mediation center.

Comments - no responses

 

- Many Past Homes and Many International Programming Responsiblities –

July 20, 2011

This blog post continues our retrospective, compiled in 1998 by former GCIV executive director Anne Hansen. Please be a part of our 50th anniversary celebration in 2012 by leaving comments about your GCIV memories, reasons for hosting, and beliefs about the impact of our shared work.

After its beginnings back in the Haas back bedroom, ACIV/GCIV has been located in a number of offices, all donated. From the Biltmore Hotel, the office moved to the First National Bank at North Avenue and Peachtree Center, briefly in the Bank of the South, the Habersham Hotel and Georgia Tech, the First Union Bank at 10th and Peachtree Streets and at Tower Place in Buckhead.

The First National Bank, once home to GCIV offices, was demolished in 2006.
Photo courtesy Atlanta Time Machine.

In addition to the primary objective of programming for short term visitors, GCIV has several other programs and projects which it oversees. The International Women Associates, a group of 130 women both American and international, meet once a month from September through May for social coffees in members’ homes for programs of cultural interest. This group has its origins as the Committee for Wives of International Students in 1967 under the Atlanta International Student Bureau. Later called Friends of Internationals, the name was changed to International Women Associates in 1985. One of the earliest volunteers with this group was Ada Almering who in 1998 still conducted a monthly reading group for international women at her home.

Another women’s group, the International Businesswomen’s Network was formed in 1982 by Gema Dillard to promote interaction among women who worked in the international field or who had origins in other countries. Meeting monthly for lunch and a speaker on an international topic, in 1998 this group had 100 members.

In 1972 Helen Sebba took over the management of the Language Bank, a file of translators and interpreters who could be called in emergencies and for business needs. Mrs. Sebba, herself a translator, brought more professional screening and evaluation to the bank. When there were few language resources in the city, especially for emergency situations, this list of interpreters and translators was used extensively by the police and emergency agencies, hotels, hospitals and the airport. In addition businesses were referred to the names in the Language Bank for translation services. As the expertise in languages within the community increased and more commercial resources were available, then need for the Language Bank decreased and in 1995 it was phased out.

Comments - no responses

 

- Volunteers have always been the Foundation of GCIV -

June 29, 2011

This blog post continues our retrospective, compiled in 1998 by former GCIV executive director Anne Hansen. Please be a part of our 50th anniversary celebration in 2012 by leaving comments about your GCIV memories, reasons for hosting, and beliefs about the impact of our shared work.

The unique aspect of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is that the community groups are volunteer-based and locally funded and managed. The concept of the program from the beginning was to have local citizens who best knew their own communities and resources to set up the appointments for the visitors. Former Secretary of State Dean Rusk said at the 1965 COSERV Conference, “For one thing, the government simply can’t do what you are doing. We can’t render that kind of individual, sensitive and personalized service such as you can and do render in your own communities. This voluntary spirit is of course a keystone in the understanding which other people may have of us, an asset beyond price in this total world situation.”

Mongolian visitor, Mr. Bold Sanduijav, volunteering for Hands on Atlanta Day at Centennial Olympic Park.


International visitors are constantly amazed by the widespread use of volunteers in the United States and GCIV attempts to build a volunteer experience into a visitor’s program whenever possible. The visitors have helped in soup kitchens, cleaned up yards for the elderly, delivered meals on wheels to AIDS patients and helped build Habitat for Humanity houses. The international visitors are also amazed and initially suspicious that our GCIV volunteers, known as “citizen diplomats,” do all of this voluntarily just for the opportunity to exchange ideas and discuss a wide range of topics with their visitors.

Some wonderful anecdotes have been passed down through the years by volunteers. Eve Silver recalls accompanying a visitor from Africa to his many appointments and at the end of the day taking him to visit the Atlanta Zoo because he was so homesick for his native land and the animals there.

Hans von Spakovsky says that he especially enjoyed his meetings with election officials from newly-freed countries and sharing with them his experiences as a member of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections.

Lorraine Carribean told us, “I have had the good fortune of having visitors at my dining room table sharing their lives and their countries. I have had arguments and shared laughs with Great Decision members, and I have had the great opportunity to become a better more informed citizen through pizza and beer with fellows from here and abroad.”

Peggy Helm, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant and former Spanish teacher who also speaks French, talks about one of her most memorable visitor experiences. “I hosted a Japanese gentleman, the director of Japan’s largest newspaper, on a tour of Atlanta. You should have seen the puzzled looks on people’s faces as they heard us conversing in French as his English was hard to understand.” She has had the opportunity to visit many of her international guests in Brussels, Paris and Guadalajara, Mexico.

Dieter and Chris Franz had the wonderful experience of taking the Queen of Lesotho to an Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performance and then backstage afterwards to meet Robert Shaw and the guest violinist.

What is your favorite experience with a GCIV delegation or IVLP participant? Feel free to share stories or photos.

Comments - no responses

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »