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FIVE QUESTIONS
Changing the world at home
Christina Prkic, an attorney for Weiss Serota Helfman, is president of the Miami Council for International Visitors.
Q. What is MCIV?
A.
It's a volunteer-based, nonprofit community organization that organizes
professional programs, business meetings and educational programs for
international visitors. They come through the U.S. State Department. We
are part of the National Council for International Visitors.
U.S.
embassies abroad work with various local communities and identify
emerging leaders, journalists and dignitaries who would benefit from
coming to the United States for a three-week program. They visit three to four U.S. cities. In Miami, we host anywhere from 300 to 400 visitors a year. They stay in Miami
for about three days. Two weeks ago, we hosted 12 African and Middle
Eastern visitors from nongovernmental organizations. We had them meet
with the Center for Nonprofit Management at the University of Miami; The C-1 Center for Nonprofit Effectiveness; and the Alliance for Human Services.
I took a visitor from Syria
to Casa Juancho for dinner and to a member's home. They have one-on-one
exchanges with members of our community who have a shared interest in a
discipline, whether its arts, education, sustainability,
anticorruption, women in politics. We match our local resource base
with their professional interest.
Q. MCIV, along with other organizations, hosted a summit last week. What was it about?
A.
We held the South Florida Summit on Citizen Diplomacy. The topic was
''Opening Doors and Building International Relations.'' It's part of a
larger group of summits held throughout the country this year. Various
organizations that work in international relations discussed ''citizen
diplomacy.'' The concept is that every individual citizen has the right
and responsibility to help shape U.S. foreign relations -- one handshake at a time.
The ultimate goal, at the conclusion of all the summits, is to present to the president and Congress a citizens action plan.
Q. What can individual citizens do?
A.
It can be as simple as opening your home and having dinner with a
visitor. It's as simple as reading what's going on in international
news; taking part in dialogues. The visitors walk away with a sense
that America
is not such a bad place. We would be remiss if we did not realize there
is a low international opinion about Americans. This is an interesting
and critical time. Americans do not have a good public image abroad.
How do we strengthen and improve our public image and dispel ideas
about Americans? By having coffee with a visitor and developing
friendships.
I
still keep in touch with some visitors; some of our members have
traveled to see them, worked together on social programs. That is the
goal, to increase people's involvement in global education.
Q. How did 9/11 affect your programs?
A. Post 9/11 we have opened up new programs. We are seeing more visitors from Iraq and the Middle East.
Programming has changed; there's more focus on religious diversity,
minority integration, women in politics. We've had an opportunity to
reach out to new resources in Miami.
Q. How do you recruit community volunteers?
A. We like to joke that you can see the world without leaving your living room.
• Go to www.miamiciv.org for more information.
Editorial Board member Nancy Ancrum prepared this report. |
