Coe College launches international program, teaching diplomacy with Consulate to Kosovo
Students are meant to learn valuable international skills while leveraging a special Iowa connection.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - Two Coe College students will be working with several international groups including Iowa’s consulate to the Republic of Kosovo this summer.
This is all through a program Coe College is launching called Global Pathways.
”It’s going to expose them to multiple facets of diplomacy and allow them to really have career exploration,” Alissa Boguslaw, organizer for Global Pathways, said.
Those two students will be putting what they’ve learned at Coe to the test. The goal is to strengthen their diplomatic skills and practice international relations.
”The consulate, being Iowa’s only foreign consulate, is a really valuable resource to provide students with hands-on learning about diplomacy and enables us to leverage the relationships and and initiatives of the Iowa-Kosovo partnership,” Boguslaw said.
Kosovo is a relatively new country in southeast Europe and has ties to Iowa. The Iowa national guard helped facilitate peacekeeping talks after war in 1999 while Des Moines is also home to one of Kosovo’s two US consulates.
Now, as one of the world’s youngest countries - leaders are interested in forming relationships around the world.
“Initiatives like this are really crucial to Kosovo’s legitimacy and its ability to enact its sovereignty through diplomatic ties,” Boguslaw said. “It therefore has to enact its sovereignty and enact its legitimacy through diplomatic ties and really grassroots diplomatic recognition campaigns. “
The program begins this summer. Over the course of the summer they’ll also be tasked with doing a project centered around their goals.
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