Bridging Cultures: School of Diplomacy Undergraduates Lead in American-Yemeni Virtual Exchange Program

The School of Diplomacy and International Relations is proud to announce that undergraduate students participated in the summer intensive edition of the Qisasna (“Our Stories”) Virtual Exchange Program from July 21-31. The program was organized by AMIDEAST in partnership with the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy (ICRD) and supported by the J. Christopher Stevens Virtual Exchange Initiative of the U.S. Department of State.

The Qisasna virtual exchange program aims to foster cultural exchange and leadership skills between American and Yemeni students through professional training in storytelling and podcasting. Five undergraduate students—Jeremiah Robinson-Hagans, Breitner Baptiste, Julia Brown, Avery Kachmarsky, and Jaxon Carey—participated, demonstrating excellent digital communication and academic cooperation. This inspiring program connects students from countries around the world, allowing them to exchange ideas, learn the value of digital cultural collaboration and create a joint podcast project.

Over eleven days, students received professional training on podcasting and audio storytelling, with a detailed overview of podcast production steps, including research, writing, publishing and promotion. After the training, students collaborated on issues of mutual interest and developed their own projects.

At the School of Diplomacy, I see every opportunity as valuable. My personal reason for participating in Qisasna is that a Diplomacy student should be skilled in all aspects of communication. One area I lacked was media. This program not only taught me how to create trending topics that attract interest but also how to use video editing software to produce our podcast.

Said Breitner Baptiste.

As part of their final project, each member of the team was assigned a specific role to contribute. One of the highlights of the exchange was an episode that the team created on the use of social media by teachers and professors in educational settings. The episode titled ''The Rise of Social Media Professors’’.They aimed to learn more about how widely social media is used as instructional material, as well as its potential benefits and drawbacks.

Avery Kachmarsky explained,

As the Podcast Outreach Manager, I led outreach efforts to educators in both the United States and Yemen, inviting them to share their unique perspectives and experiences on our podcast. We were honored to be joined by the Chair of the Department of History at Seton Hall University for our first episode.

The finished podcast series was hosted on a virtual listening platform where students, the project team and participants from both countries valued the power of voice from different cultures to connect people across continents. The Qisasna project connected students through a hands-on experience in digital communication, emphasizing global dialogue.

Julia Brown shared,

I’m interested in working in international development after graduate school, so engaging with different people with diverse backgrounds through Qisasna Projects is also reaffirming that we are still so similar despite our geographic origins.

Building on the success of this intercultural experience, students gained essential skills in remote teamwork, podcast production and cross-cultural collaboration to share their stories with the world. As digital communication continues to play a crucial role in global diplomacy, the Amideast Qisasna project serves as a model of intercultural learning that prepares its students not just to consume knowledge but to produce through audio storytelling.

Categories: Education, Nation and World