Impact and Programs
Accomplishments
In 2018-19, 746 activities, covering 111 countries connected, informed, and engaged more than 22,000 people in learning about the world.
Covering Brazil to Vietnam and 51 countries in between, Global Minnesota’s free forums, in-depth seminars, networking socials, and explorations of cultures through cuisine reached more than 7,200 participants. Programs covered dozens of timely international topics, including climate change, U.S. relations with Iran, trade and investment with the UK, women in international development, the international fight against human trafficking, and an exploration of U.S.-Mexico relations with the Ambassador of Mexico.
In the area of international visitors, an Icelandic veterinary officer of zoonosis, a Ugandan senior parliamentary reporter, and a South Korean director of unity for human rights were among the 490 emerging leaders from 106 countries we hosted for professional exchange opportunities with Minnesotans. As part of our international professional exchanges program, we organized two Fulbright Enrichment seminars on Food Security and on Rural Economic Development that brought more than 170 Fulbright scholars from 76 different countries to our state.
From writing in Russian Cyrillic to exploring the native animals of Honduras, Minnesota classrooms traveled the world as 40 Classroom Connection international speakers from 24 different countries shared their cultures with thousands of school-age children. And more than 100 high school students competed in our annual international knowledge bowl, Academic WorldQuest.
And spanning International Falls to Rochester, Minneapolis to Mankato, nearly 7,000 participants attended 258 meetings to explore the year’s key foreign policy issues through our Great Decisions Discussion Groups.
Current Goals
In fiscal year 2020-21, our goals in a new, digital environment are to continue to deliver engaging, timely, and relevant programming across all of our program areas to a larger, more diverse audience. This will include our 13th annual Great Decisions Conference on foreign policy and continued support for the more than 50 foreign policy discussion groups in diverse settings across the state, including providing a full roster of local speakers on the 8 new Great Decisions topics.
In K-12 Education, our goals are to partner with school districts throughout the state to support their need for global learning in elementary classrooms; to increase the number of high school students engaged in building global knowledge through our annual Academic WorldQuest knowledge competition with at least 32 registered teams, and to connect more high school students with our full array of public programs.
Our goals for Professional Exchanges are to maintain the State’s role as a top 10 destination for U.S. State Department professional exchange visitors, and to continue to create meaningful interactions between emerging international leaders and Minnesota organizations and individuals.
In Public Events, we aim to grow and diversify our audiences and to find new ways to create and share content digitally, in Minnesota and around the world; to invite Ambassador-level speakers and international experts to visit Minnesota—digitally and in-person—and engage deeply with the community, corporate and media audiences; and to continue to offer dozens of free and low-cost events on a broad variety of global topics.
Community or Constituency Served
From the 2nd grader to the CEO, Global Minnesota connects individuals, and organizations from across the state to the world.
Geographic Area Served
Minnesota
