The Office of Citizen Exchanges in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) at the Department of State sponsors professional, youth, cultural, and sports exchange programs to facilitate cooperation and collaboration between the people of the United States and other countries throughout the world. Through grants both to individual American experts and to American nonprofit institutions, including Alliance members, the office supports projects that promote sustained and substantive contact among American and foreign professionals, artists and performers, coaches and athletes, and youth communities.
The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is the flagship ECA professional exchange program. IVLP annually brings to the United States approximately 5,000 foreign nationals from all over the world to meet and confer with their professional counterparts and to experience America firsthand. The visitors, who are selected by American Foreign Service Officers overseas, are current or potential leaders in government, politics, media, education, the arts, business, and other fields.
Read more about the many programs within the State Department’s Office of Citizen Exchanges.
The following Alliance members partner with the State Department in administering federally funded citizen, professional, and/or youth exchange programs:
Professional/International Visitor Leadership Program
- American Councils for International Education
- Cultural Vistas
- FHI 360
- Global Ties U.S. [formerly knows as National Council for International Visitors (NCIV)]
- Institute of International Education (IIE)
- IREX
- Meridian International Center
- World Learning
High school (youth)