Copy
View this email in your browser
Spring 2018 Newsletter

Special Event June 5th!


Sponsored by PH International, Paul Richardson's documentary Resilience will be shown at  the Big Picture in Waitsfield, VT on Tuesday, June 5th, from 6:30 - 8:00 pm

In 1917, Russia was wracked by revolution, famine, war, and unrest. And yet, all that year children were born. Resilience is a film about some of those children, 100 years later, and their remarkable life stories. The film is in Russian with English subtitles.

“Beautiful and deeply touching. Hard lives and yet they survived and some remain optimistic and positive.” The book and film were created in collaboration with Russian journalists Mikhail Mordasov and Nadya Grebennikova, after the trio traveled 20,000 kilometers across Russia last summer.

Richardson will introduce the film, offer short readings from the book, and a Q&A and book signing will follow the showing of the 25-minute documentary. 

Watch the Resilience trailer here!
We are excited to announce the Future Cybersecurity Leaders Exchange, a U.S. Embassy London funded program. The program is a 14-day exchange in the United States for eight British 16-year-olds and eight American 16-year-olds selected from around the United States. The program is designed to provide a hands-on introduction to a range of cybersecurity challenges and provide a well-rounded look at cybersecurity and relevant themes including ethics, privacy concerns and alternative viewpoints. Dates for the exchange are July 20-August 2, 2018. For more information and to apply visit http://www.ph-int.org/csp/
Youth Leadership through Sport

The YLS program took place in Boston and Portland, Maine from April 26 - May 4. Fourteen Russian youth basketball players and seven adult coaches and sports administrators traveled from Arkhangelsk, Russia to the U.S. to learn about the power of sport for social change. 
Planting Trees to End Violence

SCOPE (School, Community and Police Engagement) program police officers and youth participants mark the International Day for Elimination of Violence on May 4th by planting trees in public areas of Batumi, Georgia. Their t-shirts read "Say no to violence" and "We have no time for violence, there is lots to do." 

                                          *************************                                                  
Reflections: Two Project Harmony alums share thoughts, memories and experiences from their '88 and '89 choral trips to Russia

 

Adam Wing and Timo Bradley reflect on their Project Harmony trips in the late 80s and how they placed them on the international stage (physically and metaphorically) and influenced their lives.

Adam Wing, Vice President of Global Business for AbleNet Inc., a world leader in technology, curriculum, and services for people with disabilities, reflects on his experience on a Project Harmony choir trip in 1988 to Leningrad, Moscow, Yaroslavl, and Tbilisi. In addition to fond memories, he recognizes that his Project Harmony trip may have contributed to the professional approach he took to international business years later.

“The Project Harmony experience involved learning about a new culture while sharing one’s own way of life, preparing extensively to deliver excellently to capture the attention of the audience, and traveling abroad to a region that was perceived as totally foreign and potentially inhospitable. This process was unprecedented at that time and it was exciting to be a part of it. We felt like pioneers and what we experienced in these unfamiliar circumstances were affection, admiration, and gratitude from everyone we met. I’ve been in the field of disabilities for over 20 years and an important component of my work is about shepherding cultural change. If you’re going to be in my field, you are signing up for advocating for a cultural evolution. As I think about Project Harmony, I’m curious about how that experience may have contributed to my comfort and confidence in navigating my work. Today, I have commercial partners in more than 60 countries, I have conducted business in person in nearly as many regions, and in every case I have witnessed the collaborative benefits of working with likeminded people around the world in order to achieve great results. This is an echo of what I experienced 30 years ago as an early Project Harmony participant – I feel honored to have had the opportunity to learn early on the benefits of reaching across the globe in order to achieve important outcomes.”

Project Harmony’s approach to introducing, respecting and understanding culture provided a potential framework that has carried into Adam’s work at AbleNet, where they often use the mindset “listen, learn and lead.” He added that in business meetings, the Project Harmony trip is one that is easy to reference: “People find it very interesting and exciting when I mention that I’ve been there.”

Timo Bradley, a partner of TimberHomes VT, a worker-owned timber frame construction company, reflects on how his Project Harmony trip impacted his personal development and how it changed his relationship with himself as an American-Finn.

“It was the summer of ‘89, a little while before the Soviet Union fell apart. Those were the Cold War years. I have to commend Project Harmony for having the vision to make it happen; that was earth shaking stuff what they were doing, trying to make those bridges across the world…I have some images of going to Leningrad and Petrozavodsk, I remember how plain things were, nothing flashy going on. From the outside, apartment buildings were quite plain. It was interesting walking into an apartment building, just how different it was culturally...yet you walk into someone’s apartment and inside it was very comfortable, we were well fed and well taken care of. At that point in those days there was not a lot of materialism and that left an impression on me. Most American kids are trying to get as many toys as possible, adults too, but materialism wasn’t as apparent there…

I remember we went to a summer camp in Karelia, Russia, an area that happened to speak Finnish because of its proximity to the border. My heritage is from Finland, that’s where my mom is from. I stood up introducing myself and said in Finnish, I am an American-Finn “Olen Amerikan Suomalainen”, which is just about all the Finnish I knew at that point. At that moment I got surrounded by a bunch of kids that were all speaking Finnish to me; somehow the light bulb got switched on. It was a moment where I said to myself, "Jeez, I’ve got to learn Finnish." After that year, I went back and finished up high school, then took a gap year in Finland and later went back again. I ended up living in Finland for almost 3 years in total. I attribute that in part to that one crystal clear moment on the Project Harmony trip. It definitely changed my life; I’m more international than I would have been otherwise. I’m married to a French-Canadian woman, we lived in Montreal for a year, now we’re living in France for a year. I’m not afraid to meet new people, try out different languages. It was a great trip during a formative time.”

Timo’s reflections remind us of how powerful these international experiences can be for individuals who are at an age where they are still figuring out who they are in the world. He didn’t go to Russia expecting to connect with his Finnish heritage, but this unexpected moment led to years of living abroad in Finland where he connected with a language and side of himself he had not fully discovered growing up in Vermont. Timo and family will be hosting a Russian this Summer as part of a PH exchange.

*************************

Please join PH International's new Facebook groups: "PH International Alumni" and "PH Vermont Host Families".
Copyright © 2018 PH International  All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
5197 Main St., Unit 6
Waitsfield, VT 05673

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

 






This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences
PH International · 5197 Main Street · Unit 6 · Waitsfield, Vermont 05673 · USA

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp