In March 2011, President Barack Obama announced his new “100,000 Strong in the Americas” initiative where the “goal is to increase higher education exchanges between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean to 100,000 each year in each direction.” The program aims to “foster region-wide prosperity through greater international exchange of students” to foster leadership and innovation in a new generation. One goal of both initiatives is to build and strengthen “new and existing partnerships between community colleges, public and private universities and colleges, states, and other consortia” in an effort to increase exchanges in the fields of academics and research.

Similarly, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s “Science without Borders” initiative is an opportunity to create “substantial new partnerships between Brazil and the United States to expand international study and research.” The Brazilian government and private partners will fund 101,000 students “to study and conduct research abroad over the next four years.” Most of these scholarships will go to students studying in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs. The Brazilian government will provide funding for 75,000 students while the private sector will supply 26,000 scholarships. The expectation is for at least half of these students will study in the United States. Recently, the first cohort of students received placement “in more than 100 U.S. universities in 42 states.”

Sources

• Fact Sheet: Educational Exchanges for the 21st Century: 100,000 Strong In The Americas and Science Without Borders,The White House
• 100,000 Strong in the Americas,U.S. Department of State