Successful Session of the People-to-People Working Group

January 21, 2010

Deputy Assistant Secretaries Alina Romanowski

Deputy Assistant Secretaries Alina Romanowski and Spencer Boyer co-chaired the U.S. delegation to the first session of the People-to-People Working Group under the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Charter. They discussed with Georgian counterparts a wide range of opportunities to promote the sharing of U.S. and Georgian experience,, focusing primarily on education and exchanges, culture and sports, and consular issues.  Both the U.S. and the Georgian sides vowed to increase their commitment to improving English language teaching and learning in Georgia. 

The U.S. Government announced that the Peace Corps will double the number of volunteers in Georgia this spring and the State Department intends to expand the number of Fulbright English Teaching Assistants and introduce an ACCESS Microscholarship English-teaching program for underserved Georgian youth.  Romanowski and Boyer launched the publication of Briefly Close, a collection of jazz interviews by Georgian writer Kakha Tolordava co-funded by the Embassy.  The delegation heads met with alumni of USG exchange programs, members of the media, and Georgian NGO recipients of the Embassy's Democracy Commission Small Grants.  They visited the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, and the Youth Palace as well as the Georgian National Museum.