Stewart Herman shares his third post on the ups and downs of creating a net zero home, highlighting five important steps to take up the mountain of carbon reduction.
Stewart Herman gets into the nitty-gritty of global citizenship: quantifying, and then reducing, personal energy use. This is Part One of a three-part series.
This week we encourage you to watch a recording of a panel discussion that was held on the Concordia College campus earlier this month to provide more context on the crisis in Ukraine. Dr. Dan Karl Hamilton, longstanding dean of the German Language Village, and president of Transatlantic Leadership Network, and Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies Foreign Policy Institute, was the guest speaker.
This week, we are honored to share a post from former Lesnoe Ozero villager Diane Svetlana Baima. Sveta shares her history of learning Russian, exploring the nations of the former Soviet Union, and finally falling in love in . . . and with . . . Ukraine. Sveta and her Ukrainian husband Yurii have chosen to remain in Ukraine and defend the country that is so dear to them both, and she asks for our support in advocating for a peaceful resolution to the current conflict.
With COP26 underway in Glasgow, we offer a post from Jennifer Morgan, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, and a committed advocate and activist for climate justice.
After a year of not being able to offer residential programming due to COVID-19, we were delighted to be able to come together in multiple ways this past summer at Concordia Language Villages, both virtually and in-person. This week, the Language Villages team shares some behind-the-scenes moments from our summer staff orientations, discussing Outdoor Learning and Lived Language and Culture. This is part two of a two-part series.
In the aftermath of the trial of Derek Chauvin, Concordia Language Villages considers the ongoing impacts of systemic racism, and what we all can do next to create an equitable future in Minnesota and beyond.
In recognition of Earth Day, we offer a post from Liam DelMain, a committed advocate and activist for climate justice. Read how Concordia Language Villages shaped their approach to global citizenship, finding it much closer to home than they originally anticipated.
Meet the new Executive Director of Concordia Language Villages! Mary Maus Kosir discusses languages, globalization, and what’s ahead for CLV.
A statement from the Strategic Planning Council of Concordia Language Villages regarding the safety and well-being of children in immigration detention.
The holiday season means many different things to different people. For some, it is about family—spending time with loved ones near and far. For others, it is about traditions, both longstanding and new, that represent their cultures, customs and communities. The end of the year is also a time to reflect on the past year’s activities, events and special moments. We can consider what these moments mean to us now: how they have shaped our lives, affected our...
The mission of Concordia Language Villages is to inspire courageous global citizens. In this Blogpost, we send a message to all in the CLV community about our thought leadership discussions over the last year that helped shape a new way of capturing what is at the core of our educational goals.
Since 1961, the J-1 Exchange Visitor program has allowed citizens of other nations to participate in cultural exchange programs in the United States. This exceptional program is now under review and at risk. Christine Schulze outlines why the J-1 program is so valuable, both for the Villages and for the world.
In this blog, travel writer Marshall S. Berdan identifies the two things holding most American school children back from fully participating in—and profiting from—the new global economy: world language skills and a global mindset. But there are things that parents can do, both inside and outside the educational system.
A newly published book, Nordic Ways, provides insight into the Nordic model shared by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden of “hard-core economies with a heart.” Each of these countries places significant emphasis on gender equality, contributing to their overall strong economic performance. In celebration of International Women’s Day this week, we highlight the notable contributions that the Nordic nations have made to advancing gender equality in the workplace.
On February 9 I had the pleasure of participating in a strategic dialogue at the U.S. Capitol that brought members of Congress and the diplomatic community together with the leaders of people-to-people exchange programs from cities and towns across the country. The host, Global Ties, an organization that works with the State Department to host international visitors in U.S. communities, had asked us to look at the future of transatlantic people-to-people exchanges between the United States and Europe.
Every summer about 20,000 young adults from around the world join their college-age peers as camp counselors in thousands of camps across the country. International staff participate in all kinds of programs: science camps, sports camps, wilderness camps and language camps. For many, this is their first experience in the United States. This is citizen diplomacy at its best, made possible by the U.S. State Department’s J-1 Exchange Visitor program that has a category specially designed for camp counselors.
It was my privilege to have worked on the first certified Passive House building in the Americas = das BioHaus at Waldsee – the German Language Village at Concordia Language Villages (CLV) in Bemidji, Minn. Celebrating the 10-year anniversary causes me to reflect on how quickly time passes and the importance for all of making immediate, lasting improvements.
I have just returned from the German-Polish border, where on these days in 1945 the Soviet and German armies faced off against each other on the Seelow Heights—their final big fight before the battle for Berlin ended World War II in Europe.
Earth Day is particularly resonant for Concordia Language Villages. Since the first Earth Day began as an ‘environmental teach-in’ on April 22, 1970, the world’s languages have been enriched with a whole new vocabulary.
Lynn Elling joins us at the Peace Site on International Day. Last month we bade farewell to Lynn Elling, the founder of World Citizen, Inc. (http://www.peacesites.org). He died just a couple days short of his 95th birthday. He was a legendary peacemaker who was wholeheartedly dedicated in word and action to abolishing the concept of war. French villagers and staff in the Circle of Peace with their pole, “Puisse la Paix régner dans le...
I’ve been attending the UN Climate Conference in Paris. It’s a whirlwind of people, places, ideas and attending events. I can’t help but think of all the simulation games we do at CLV: Global Summit negotiations at International Day or other role-playing activities that are an effective learning strategy. It is powerful when kids can put themselves in the place of another and experience a different perspective.
International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of our efforts to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States.
