January 2007

Topic: Difficult moments in the training class room. Come and share your training "war stories" and how to survive! Practice your compassion skills as you listen to others tell their stories! Or simply come and re-connect with colleagues and friends.

February 2007

Reverse Culture Shock: Sometimes the Toughest Part is Coming Back Home

Reverse culture shock is often overlooked as an area professionals focus on in training and preparation for overseas work. However, as its importance becomes clearer, more programs are incorporating post-training on this topic to give the sense of completion and support that is very much needed for many.

In this meeting, which will be co-facilitated by SIETAR members Claire Stienecker and Stephen Moles, we will conduct an exercise on reverse culture shock. We will also listen to a panel of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers tell us about their time in the Peace Corps and their reverse culture shock experience upon their return to the United States. This will be followed by and Q&A session (time allowing).

This meeting is great for anyone who has returned home and had a hard time adjusting after extended time abroad, no matter what your experience or background!

March 2007

EVENT #1:

SIETAR DC cordially invites you to join us at a reception during the IMI conference.

We will take this opportunity to pay tribute to Bob Kohls and Chuck Vetter, two prominent interculturalists who greatly contributed to our field, who passed away this past year.

EVENT # 2:

Event: Special Running of Bafa Bafa Simulation

How would it feel to go to an Alpha doctor if you are a Beta patient? How would a Beta doctor treat an Alpha patient? Explore these questions and facilitation techniques for the classic cross-cultural simulation game: BaFa BaFa.

If you are familiar with the game, this session will offer ideas for modifying the debriefing to fit a variety of contexts. If you are not familiar with the game, this is a superb opportunity to experience the game with seasoned facilitators.

The medical context has provided a challenge but over a period of several years, a group of consultants have revised the game and debriefing to take medical issues into consideration. Learn about these revisions from a panel of interculturalists who have helped conduct BaFa BaFa for160 first-year medical students. Prepare yourself to be considered for the pool of consultants who work with the medical students, if you choose.

Sandy Fowler and Judee Blohm will run the session.

June 2007

Our next meeting, which will be the last of this academic year, is coming up soon! We are happy to announce that Dr. Jaime Wurzel, President of Intercultural Resource Corporation, is flying in from Boston to speak to our group.

Presenter: Dr. Jaime Wurzel (for bio see below)

Title: Applying Intercultural Concepts to the Promotion of Positive Cultural Change in Organizations.

This presentation has three equally important goals. The first is to stimulate discussion on the application of intercultural anthropological concepts to organizational culture, The second is to showcase theoretical and instructional tools that would allow members of organizations identify and articulate the cultural assumptions that drive their work. The third purpose is to illustrate, with video excerpts of previous workshops, the process by which members of an organization attempt to identify their organizational cultural assumptions. Participants will examine the implications for cultural change in organizations.

BIO:

Jaime S.Wurzel, Ed.D, is President of Intercultural Resource Corporation. (A firm that produces educational and training videos and multimedia software). He is a Professor of Education at Salem State University in Massachusetts, and former Associate Professor and Director of Intercultural Studies at Boston University. He was born in Bolivia, and has lived, studied and lectured in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. He is the author of numerous articles, and his book, Toward Multiculturalsim, is widely used

in schools and universities. He has also written and produced the following high quality training programs: The Multicultural Work Place ; The Intercultural Classroom, Hidden Dimensions In Business Interactions, Better Together than A-P-A-R-T , Chinese Cultural Values. The Cross Cultural Conference Room. Dimensions in Intercultural Relations (DVD and CD-ROM (See: www.irc-international.com.) Dr. Wurzel is a faculty member of the Intercultural Communication Institute in Portland Oregon, former member of the Board of Directors of the United States Chapter of SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education Training and Research.) He is an adjunct faculty of the Ottawa Law School and Medical School. He has consulted and conducted seminars nationally and internationally on cultural variation and diversity, organizational processes and community building.

September 2007

Welcome back after the summer break! We hope that you all had a fabulous summer! We look forward to seeing you later this month at the first SIETAR DC meeting of this academic year.

UPDATED:
Topic: The movie will be "SPANGLISH".

Synopsis of the movie:

When a Mexican mother and her daughter come to the United States, the mother, Flor Moreno, gets a job as a maid at the home of a successful chef John Clasky, his insecure wife Deborah, their two children, and Deborah's mother. Despite Flor's lack of an English language vocabulary, she tries the best she can to assist the Clasky family in more than just house cleaning matters. However, when Flor is forced to live with the family over the summer, she has no choice but to bring her daughter, Christina along. Deborah, much to Flor's disliking, treats Flor's daughter much like her own and at the same time she hurts the feelings of her own daughter, Bernice, as well as Flor. When John's dreams begin to unravel, he begins to feel like his whole world is coming down around him, but with the love of his children and with the help of Flor, he finds himself trying to get through it all. Flor's daughter Christina, through which this story is told in a college letter to Princeton University, serves as a translator for the beginning of the film, but after Flor breaks the communication bridge by learning to speak English, Christina must learn that things come and go in life, but family is the most important thing a person can have.

November 2007

This is to announce this month's SIETAR DC meeting. It will be held in conjunction with Stepen Moles, Training Design Specialist at Peace Corps (and long-time SIETAR DC leader and inspirer) on Thursday, November 29, 6:45 - 9:10 PM during his class at George Washington University (exact location will be sent out later).

We are very fortunate that Luby Ismail will be our featured speaker this month. Please see below for her very interesting professional profile.

Lobna "Luby" Ismail

President

Lobna "Luby" Ismail, founder and president of Connecting Cultures, Inc., http://www.connecting-cultures.net/index.html is a training specialist with over fifteen years of experience in the areas of cross-cultural communication, international cultural competency, Islamic awareness and religious diversity.

She is the author of "Doing Business in the Middle East and North Africa" and "Finding Diversity." She is frequently used as an expert by national media and major international news programs and recently received press in Associated Press, The Washington Post, BBC World News and PBS' Religion and Ethics News.

Selected as a Peace Fellow for Seeds of Peace and a Malone Fellow in Middle East and Islamic Studies by the National Council for U.S. and Arab Relations, Luby participated in a study visit to Saudi Arabia . She has been selected to present at Iraqi Reconstruction conferences, the Arabian Society for Human Resource Management conference in Bahrain and the Society for Human Resources' Workplace Diversity and annual conference as a professional on the cutting edge of emerging cultural and religious diversity issues and Islamic awareness.

Luby has conducted training for Federal and State agencies, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and private corporations including AETNA, Walt Disney World, Department of Justice, Fairfax and Montgomery County Public Schools, Foreign Service Institute, IBM, Shell Oil, Sunoco, Institute of International Education, Exxon Mobil, and NIKE, Inc.

She holds a Master's degree in Intercultural Relations from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a B.A. in International Service from The American University in Washington , DC . She has traveled throughout Europe , including Bosnia and Croatia , and the Middle East , including Egypt , Saudi Arabia , Bahrain , UAE, Jordan , the West Bank , Jerusalem and Israel .

December 2007

'Tis is the season and we would like to invite you to join us for our annual SIETAR DC holiday party. This year, we'll celebrate on Sunday, December 9th, 5-8 PM.

As in years past, this is a pot-luck event and we ask you to bring a dish to share (when you rsvp, let Ursula know what you would like to bring so that she can coordinate the goodies). Also, please bring a wrapped gift as we plan to have fun with our traditional "Yankee Swap" . The idea of the game is that you find a "treasure" in your home (or a thrift shop - don't spend more than $10 if you buy new!) that has been sitting there for a while and is yearning for a new owner (smile). In the past, knitted place mats, used intercultural books or DVDs, or party favors have been among the many gifts that have been exchanged (accompanied by stories and lots of laughter).

We look forward to seeing you there.