September 9, 2009

 

Hungarian Roma Student Group Visits Embassy As Part Of Cultural Exchange Program

 

 

Critical Mass Leadership Education (CMLE) and Orbis Institute, two American young leaders educational organizations, with the support of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State, regularly organize exchange programs for the students and teachers of the State of Colorado and those of Central Eastern Europe.

 

 

 

This year’s Emerging Youth Leaders Project took place in the Spring and the end of Summer: the American students traveled to Europe in June, while a group of about 25 ethnic Roma students from Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic came to the United States between August 17 and September 12 as part of the exchange program, and were borading with host families.

 

 

The CMLE Hungarian Roma student group in the Embassy Conference Room with Chargé d'Affaires, a.i. Mr. Zoltán Gábor (fifth from left)

 

 

During their programs, the students studied the life, history, and current socio-economic situation of the Native American Indians, participated in team-building trainings and field trips in Denver, Colorado, while in Washington, DC, they met groups of Afro-American students, visited cultural institution such as museums of the Smithsonian Institution, American historical memorials, the Open Society Institute, and the US State Department.

 

 

The CMLE Hungarian Roma student group in the garden of the Embassy with Chargé d'Affaires, a.i. Mr. Zoltán Gábor (fifth from left) and Cultural Attaché Béla Gedeon (first from right)

 

 

Seven Hungarian Roma students of the group, accompanied by CMLE staff and a Hungarian high school English teacher from Gandhi High School in Pécs, Hungary visited the Embassy of Hungary in Washington, DC on Wednesday, September 9, where Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. Mr. Zoltán Gábor and Cultural Attaché Béla Gedeon welcomed members of the student group, who shared their experiences with the US exchange program, the situation of the Roma in Hungary and their future perspectives. The students talked frankly and openly about discrimination, unemployment and lack of perspectives the young Hungarian Roma face during their every day life. The Embassy offered to help with their individual projects in the framework of the exchange program and their higher educations plans both in Hungary and the United States.