Opening Our Home to Ukraine
Jill Krieger joined our team as the Global Exchange Intern for the Summer of 2019. She is currently a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati majoring in International Business and Operations Management along with a minor in Spanish.
She is passionate about learning different Hispanic cultures. Jill has taken 6 years of Spanish classes and has intermediate proficiency. She hopes to be fluent one day and plans to study abroad in either Chile, Mexico or Costa Rica.
Jill has worked with American Red Cross in putting together a Sound the Alarm event that installed 75 alarms in 45 households in the Cincinnati area. Jill believes in the power of global diversity and inclusion in all environments and is excited to help the World Affairs Council promote this.
In this blog, she shares her first days as an ambassador for a visiting delegation from Ukraine.
When thinking of what the US Congress does you might think of all of the legislation they write or all of their numerous financial duties. However, what you might not know is that Congress has an international exchange program called OpenWorld. This is the only exchange program run through the legislative branch and its purpose is to establish relationships with former Soviet bloc countries. As a Global Exchange Intern with the World Affairs Council, I had the opportunity to spend two days with the Ukranian visitors.
The 5 Ukrainians who visited our area were well educated, well-established professionals and leaders in Ukraine. Some of their titles consisted of Head of the Department of Economic Development, Chief Specialist, and Lead Engineer. The focus of the meeting was Local Governance and Economic Development so they were given the opportunity to tour facilities with those themes in mind along with engaging in a dialogue with professionals who worked there. During their visit, they had the opportunity to visit with the Center for Local Government, local staff of Senator Sherrod Brown, Port Authority of Greater Cincinnati, Hamilton County, and The Banks Project, Covington Business Council and more.
It was very clear from the first gathering that the visitors were extremely interested in the meetings that were being held. For example, when visiting Flywheel, a social enterprise guidance hub, there were several questions being asked and answered during the presentation and tour of the facility. Through listening to their questions during the meetings I was able to see what kinds of things interested them personally. I had discovered that one of the visitors was extremely conscious about environmental sustainability which is becoming more common in the United States as well. He refused to use plastic straws and I asked him about the popularity of metal reusable straws in Ukraine. He told me that they were harder to get a hold of in the Ukraine which was why it was neat when a local restaurant offered to let him keep one the many reusable straws they had. These unique opportunities to engage in discussions with the visitors enabled me to see the similarities and differences between us and them.
It was evident as I spoke with another visitor how proud he was of his home country and its agricultural success. From our conversation, I could tell he was motivated and had confidence in Ukraine’s ability to accomplish so much more economically. This was further proven as I witnessed the budding business relationship between him and the European American Chamber of Commerce. They are going to remain in contact in hopes of helping bring Ukranian business to our area. To me this was one of the most memorable moments because after all of the effort I put into helping plan their trip, I firsthand got to witness the significance and impact these exchange trips can have. The visitors took great delight in touring our area. It was a joy to take them to eat Skyline Chili and Graeter’s Ice Cream as well as taking them on top of Carew Tower and to visit Washington Park. Their interest in our area demonstrates what an affluent, exciting place we live in and the capacity we have to expand our area globally.
