Each year, Partners of the Americas awards professional travel grants through the Education and Culture Program. The Education and Culture Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government administered by Partners of the Americas. The travel grants fund international travel between the U.S. and Latin America and the Caribbean for qualified members to visit other Partners of the Americas Chapters and affiliate organizations to work together on areas of mutual interest.
To support U.S. government priorities, we fund travel grants activities that closely align with one or more of the following goals:
- Civil Society Engagement
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA)
- Environmental Protection and Resilience
- Inclusive Economic Growth and Entrepreneurship
- Language Learning/Language Teaching
- Leadership Capacity Building
- Media Literacy/Countering Disinformation
This round, three U.S. members were awarded travel grants for outbound travel to Brazil, Chile, and Colombia and six members from Brazil, Colombia, and Paraguay received travel grants to travel to the United States. During the travel, members collaborate and build professional skills. Travel grants support a variety of programming, including sharing of bicycle infrastructure, fostering diversity through music, and refugee support and language acquisition.
Learn more about this round’s winners below and find them on PartnersConnect!
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Byron Arthur Schenkman |
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Hometown Washington, U.S. Exchange Destination Santiago, Chile Exchange Focus Areas
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Byron (U.S.) will connect and perform with colleagues in the Chilean music community over a period of three weeks, working to develop a more diverse and inclusive repertory and approach to performance. Trip programming will include music by women composers and composers who are People of the Global Majority. Byron will offer master classes and discuss the music profession with Chilean music students and to meet with faculty and university students. Another component of the trip will be to discuss strategies for welcoming diverse audiences to concerts in the U.S. and Chile. After their trip, they will invite a Chilean artist to Seattle to perform.
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Carlos A. O. Pavão |
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Hometown Georgia, U.S. Exchange Destination Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil Exchange Focus Areas
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Carlos A. O. Pavão (U.S.) will support communities by enhancing the relationship between Georgia, USA and Pernambuco, Brazil chapters through the development of an action plan regarding DEIA, inclusive economic growth, and leadership capacity building. By working with local community members on this plan and putting it into action together, sustainable cross-cultural work and relationships will be strengthened.
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Clebson Pereira de Melo |
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Hometown Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil Exchange Destination Maine, U.S. Exchange Focus Areas
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Clebson (Brazil) will promote the exchange of information, experiences and knowledge regarding urban mobility focused on the use of the bicycle (active mobility). He will present on and learn about the projects under construction, those that are already deployed and in use in the city, their benefits and necessary adjustments. In addition, he will share the value of participatory planning in urban bicycle infrastructure. After the trip, Clebson will take home the lessons learned about infrastructure to adapt them to his community.
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Daianne Castilho Silva |
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Hometown Goiás, Brazil Exchange Destination Nebraska, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., U.S Exchange Focus Areas
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Daianne Castilho Silva (Brazil) will visit educational sites to learn about English language teaching approaches applied in the USA and volunteer at NGOs to get a further global understanding of how refugees are incorporated into their new countries with an emphasis on language acquisition. Upon her return, she will provide teacher training courses to the Free English volunteers and share with her Chapter lessons learned for NGO administration.
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Isabel Cristina Pacheco Becerra |
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Hometown Barranquilla, Colombia Exchange Destination Florida, U.S. Exchange Focus Areas
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Isabel Pacheco Becerra (Colombia), founder of Fundación Fede which supports people with disabilities, will conduct Art Therapy workshop classes for people with disabilities at the ARC of Volusia County, Florida. Isa will also get to know various types of relevant service programs in Florida to see how they may be adapted to work in Colombia and the Fede Foundation. While in Florida, she will work to build partnerships, collaboration, and funding opportunities to expand the work of Fundación Fede. The long-term outcome of the trip is to promote the importance of Colombia/US and local communities supporting efforts that improve the quality of life for people with disabilities by providing opportunities for education and training in personal growth and independence, as well as family and community engagement.
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Lucia Helena Ferreira de Araujo Lima |
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Hometown Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Exchange Destination Indiana, U.S. Exchange Focus Areas
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Lucia Helena Ferreira de Araujo Lima (Brazil) will forge stronger ties and projects with the two chapters in Indiana, U.S. and Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil by visiting projects and their leaders. To reach this goal the plan is: (1) to meet the coordinators of each of 15 projects and events to learn from them and plan how to improve. Lucia will also identify a new project.
Finally, she will learn more about philanthropic activities and fundraising events to further strengthen the economic capacity of the cross-cultural collaboration’s work.
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O. Daniel Ayala |
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Hometown Asunción, Paraguay Exchange Destination Kansas, U.S. Exchange Focus Areas
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Dani Ayala (Paraguay) will visit at least five cities to perform a repertoire of Paraguayan Jazz fusion with a US colleague and give short lectures. During the Kansas trip, Dani will strengthen the cultural relationship, understanding, and respect between the state of Kansas and the country of Paraguay through performances, masterclasses, and conversations on jazz fusion, piano jazz technique, and Paraguayan folk music.
With music being a universal language, Dani will encourage cultural diversity (DEIA) through music. This musical perspective has no nationality but is influenced by two different genres to show that music as a universal language is the best tool to unite people and cultures.
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Ram Devineni |
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Hometown New York, U.S. Exchange Destination Bogotá, Colombia Exchange Focus Areas
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Ram Devineni (U.S.) will develop a program and workshops focused on environmental protection and climate change for young people in Colombia using puppets and storytelling so that they can put themselves into the characters. Ram will work with NGOs in Colombia to develop a curriculum using puppets and test it with several schools and cultural centers. Using the materials created, he would then implement it later in the year and showcase the work at theater festivals in Colombia and abroad. The plan is to research, design and implement the project in 2023.
Want to learn more about the Education and Culture Travel Grant Program and how to get involved as a host or traveler? Learn more at our website here: https://www.partners.net/program/travel-grants/
