The U.S. Embassy in Brazil announced today the 45 students from Brazilian public schools who have been selected to participate in the three-week cultural exchange program, “Youth Ambassadors 2012” in the United States.
To celebrate the program’s 10thanniversary, the U.S. Embassy and the Department of State have selected 45 students ten more than in previous years. Young people representing 26 Brazilian states and the Federal District will participate in the program in January. Here is the full list of the 2012 Youth Ambassadors is the full list of the 2012 Youth Ambassadors (PDF – 548KB).
To further celebrate the 10th anniversary of the program, former Brazilian and American Youth Ambassadors have also been selected to participate as mentors to the 2012 students during the first part of the exchange program in Washington D.C.
Brazilian Youth Ambassadors selected:
- Fabiano Marques Jácome – Ouro Branco, MG (JE 2003)
- Janssen Villian da Costa – Lauro de Freitas, BA (JE 2009)
- Mayara Felix Silva – Olinda, PE (JE 2005)
- Níkolas Iubel – Curitiba, Paraná (JE 2007)
- Raquel Helen Santos Silva – Belo Horizonte, MG (JE 2008)
American Youth Ambassadors selected:
- Margareth Kahn – Seattle, WA (JE 2010)
- Valentina Duong – Charlotte, NC (JE 2011)
Coordinators selected to accompany the group of 2012:
- Juliana Viola – Associação Alumni – São Paulo, SP
- Maria Rute Leal – Centro Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos – Curitiba, PR
The Youth Ambassadors will spend a week in the U.S. capital, Washington DC, where they will attend meetings with U.S. government officials and visit historic monuments, museums and organizations. During The next two weeks of the program, the group will divide into four sub-groups that will each travel to a different U.S. state (North Carolina, Washington, Montana, Oklahoma and Ohio) to live with an American volunteer host family. They will also attend classes at an American high school where, in addition to learning about the daily lives of American students, they will have the opportunity to make presentations about Brazil and develop action plans to strengthen their community volunteer projects in Brazil.
This year, more than 7,000 students from every Brazilian state competed for placement in the 2012 program, which involved 64 partner institutions throughout the country. Since its inception in 2002, 249 public school students have represented Brazil in the United States as Youth Ambassadors.
The 117 semi-finalists not selected to travel to the U.S. in January 2012 will be invited by the U.S. Embassy to attend an English language and American culture immersion course in July 2012.
Youth Ambassadors Program:
The Youth Ambassadors Program was created in Brazil and is now being replicated in 25 countries. The partners of the U.S. Embassy in this initiative are: FedEx, Merck, Dow Brazil, Microsoft, Bradesco, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, United Airlines, National Council of Education Secretaries (Consed) and Binational Centers. Nike and IBM have become partners of the program as of this year.
