Global Ambassadors This series brings university students to 6th-12th grade classrooms to speak about their experiences studying abroad. Its goal is to expand students' knowledge of world cultures through a first-person presentation. Global Ambassador Visits - February 2009 Killough Middle School, Alief ISD Students If you are a college student interested in sharing your experience studying abroad with secondary students, contact edursvp@wachouston.org. Teachers The Global Ambassadors are selected through a rigourous application process to ensure that the presentations are interesting and substantive.  Our goal is to expand middle school and high school student's knowledge of world cultures through a first-person presentation.  If you would like to bring a Global Ambassador to your classroom, please contact edursvp@wachouston.org with specific details about preferred dates and times. Global Ambassadors Thousands of students from the Houston area have lived or studied abroad during their college career. The World Affairs Council of Houston announces the Global Ambassadors program to bring some of the most outstanding of these college students to 6th-12th grade classrooms to speak about their experiences abroad. Past Global Ambassadors PLEASE NOTE: THE PAST GLOBAL AMBASSADORS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE Global Ambassador Alec Walker Over the past three years, Alec has participated in two semester-abroad programs, three summer internships in other countries, and three international student conferences, all of which he describes as having contributed to his personal development and to his sense of “belonging to an increasingly global pool of interconnected future leaders.” He has traveled throughout and worked in Beijing, Republic of China, Tokyo, Japan Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, Malaysia, and Singapore. During one of his study abroad semesters in China, Alex took courses in Mandarin, Chinese politics, history, philosophy, and literature. He is proficient in Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and Mongolian. Alec attends Rice University and plans to graduate in spring 2009 with double degree in Chemical Engineering and Asian Studies. Global Ambassador Krisztina Petho Robertson Krisztina is a senior at the University of Houston majoring in Psychology and Spanish. Born in Serbia to an ethnic Hungarian family, she’s had the opportunity to grow up as a bilingual person in the immersion of two very different cultures. At home she spoke Hungarian with her family while at school she studied and spoke in Serbian. Krisztina has traveled throughout western and eastern Europe, visiting Spain, Andorra, Cyprus, Monaco, France, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Austria, Croatia, Bosnia, and Macedonia. In the summer of 2008, she visited Mexico for the first time and after living with a Hispanic family and immersing with the culture, she decided to earn a minor degree in Spanish. Krisztina believes that visiting other countries and learning their language opens our eyes and changes the state of our mind. She is fluent in six languages; English, Hungarian, Serbian, Croatian, Spanish, and Greek and has studied German, Latin and is currently learning Portuguese. She plans to graduate in spring 2009. Global Ambassador Claudia Espinosa My experiences in Mexico and Argentina As an International Studies major at St. Thomas University, Senior Claudia V. Espinosa has traveled to many fascinating places. Her regional concentration is in Latin American studies and she will graduate in May. Growing up with Mexican parents in Houston, she was inspired to discover her heritage by studying abroad in Mexico and Argentina. Her experiences enhanced her knowledge of each country’s culture, history, economics, and politics. She took courses in Mexican History, Mexican Literature, and performed an Independent Study of Argentina. She is currently applying to graduate schools for international studies where she hopes to complete her Ph.D. and continue to study abroad. Claudia also enjoys teaching private flute lessons, volunteering, dancing, reading, and exercising. Global Ambassador Laura Adal Jordan and back-packing through Tunisia and Egypt Laura Adal is a senior at the University of St. Thomas majoring in International Studies with a minor in French and Arabic. As she grew up in Houston, her Syrian parents raised her to speak both English and Arabic. At the age of thirteen, a family vacation to Syria affected her deeply, revealing the beauty of Middle Eastern culture coupled with the hard reality of the developing world. Ever since, Laura has taken every opportunity to return to her ancient homeland. After high school, Laura lived with relatives in Damascus for three months and rented an apartment in a little town called Dhour Schweir in Lebanon. While at St. Thomas Laura chose to travel to Jordan with the Council of International Educational Exchange, where she studied Arabic and International Conflict Resolution and Diplomacy. Following her college semester she backpacked in Egypt and Tunisia. Laura has also traveled extensively throughout Europe, visiting Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Through her experiences overseas, Laura hopes to dedicate her career to improving international relations and human rights. Global Ambassador Khouloud Khammassi Culture, Travel and Education Systems of Tunisia  Khouloud holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Linguistics from the Institute Superieure des Langues de Tunis in Tunisia. She has cultural, linguistic and educational experience in the United Kingdom, Egypt and the United States. She is a Fulbright scholarship-recipient and currently a teaching assistant for classes in Arabic at the University of Houston. She is also a multilingual speaker of Arabic, French, English and Spanish Global Ambassador Patricia Manjarrez Study Abroad in Europe and Taiwan Patricia Manjarrez is a senior International Studies major with minors in Business Administration and Spanish at the University of St. Thomas. She has traveled to Argentina, Spain, Taiwan and Eastern Europe. She will graduate in May with a degree in International Studies concentrating on Latin America and East Asia. Spending her childhood in both Mexico and the United States encouraged Majarrrez to learn about other cultures and world politics. As part of the Model EU in Argentina, she took a Contemporary Taiwan course with UST faculty and attended a regional study of Latin America with the Director of the Center for International Studies. In June, she plans to travel to China to work on her senior thesis: "Challenges to China's Future Economic Growth and Development."

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