When an International Visitor's plane takes off from LAX to return home after an exhilarating experience in the United States, ICDLA's World Partners Program is ready to keep the dialogue going. Through ICDLA World Partners, we continue to reach out to our International Visitor Alumni by facilitating collaborations with resources the visitors met in the L.A. area, celebrating personal friendships that continue with their home hosts and helping our members and resources connect with alumni when they travel to their countries.

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ICDLA hosted our first World Partners international trip in 2015, where ICDLA President Janet Elliott and five ICDLA participants traveled to Kyrgyzstan. The trip arrangements were made by former ICDLA Director of International Programs Natalia Lvovich in collaboration with our Open World Alumni in Kyrgyzstan. During eight amazing days the group enjoyed private tours of museums and other historic sites in Bishkek and visited the U.S. Embassy there. They traveled on the Silk Road to Lake Issyk-Kul, where they stayed at a former Soviet resort on the lake and toured nearby ancient cave drawings sites. One of our alumni returned the favor of the hospitality she received in L.A. when she invited the group to experience a Kyrgyz feast with her entire family. A dinner on the final evening with our IVLP and Open World alumni was the perfect ending to a fantastic journey.​​

 

We look forward to planning another interesting ICDLA World Partners trip in the near future.