As a member of the State Department’s Council to Empower Women and Girls through Sports, Jessica Mendoza truly engaged in “fieldwork” by leading a softball clinic for teenage girls in Nicaragua.

Sports Diplomacy Softball Envoys: A Hit in Nicaragua

Under the Department’s Empowering Women and Girls through Sports Initiative, Olympians Jessica Mendoza and Ruby Rojas went to Nicaragua as sports envoys in February of 2013.

The girls basketball team works with Tamika Raymond on drills and skills.

Empowering Women and Girls: WNBA Basketball Envoys in Ukraine

The State Department and NBA worked together to send former WNBA players Tamika Raymond and Nykesha Sales to Ukraine as Sports Envoys from January 28 to February 2, 2013.

Youth exchange participant and host family.

Experience America through a High School Exchange

Every year, the State Department brings almost 2,000 high school students from almost 50 countries to live with an American host family and go to high school for a year.

Woman throwing hay on top of a pile of hay

Photographing the Color of Hay

Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Romania, Kathleen Laraia McLaughlin shares some of the photos she took in Romania of the changes she witnessed between urban dwellers and those from the rural areas.

Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Jennifer  Birdsall (in red) and U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia Paul Wholers watch  at the American Corner in Tetovo as children collect books donated by  communities in Nebraska.

Reading Connects Communities in the U.S. and Macedonia

Images from Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA), Jennifer Birdsall, during her time in Macedonia.

Kiesha Brown teaches ball handling to the girls from Shenhe Migrant Workers Elementary School in China.

Envoys Tamika Raymond and Kiesha Brown Travel to China

Working with the Women’s National Basketball Association, the U.S. Department of State sent former WNBA stars Tamika Raymond and Kiesha Brown to Shenyang, China.