Understanding our evolving world is the first step toward changing it.
Founded in 1963, Cultural Vistas is a nonprofit exchange organization promoting global understanding and collaboration among individuals and institutions. We develop international professional experiences that create more informed, skilled, and engaged citizens. Our programs empower people to drive positive change in themselves, their organizations, and society.
We believe that sustained immersion in a country and language and professional experience, even more than travel or study abroad, promotes confidence and skills that create successful careers and nurture leaders, whether they are community activists or change agents at a global level.
Every year our 30-plus unique exchange programs reach thousands of individuals and organizations in the United States and more than 130 countries around the world. We invite you to join us as we work together to reach thousands more.
By the Numbers
Our Mission
Cultural Vistas equips the next generation of global leaders to solve complex challenges by connecting lives to exchange knowledge, values and perspectives.
Our Vision
We envision a world where experiential skill-building opportunities are a widespread means of fostering a shared understanding and appreciation of diverse peoples, values, cultures, and aspirations, thus bringing the world closer together.
Our History
Cultural Vistas was officially incorporated as a nonprofit in 1963, and since then has grown into the leading exchange organization of its kind – with a focus on providing professional experience – now helping more than 6,000 students, professionals, and emerging world leaders to make the world a better, more peaceful, and collaborative place each year.
We have come a long way over the last 50-plus years from what began in the 1950s as part of an international cooperative undertaking to rebuild war-torn Europe.
Since that time we have:
- Produced 150,000 alumni and counting, including prominent leaders in governments, Fortune 500 companies, international media outlets, NGOs, tech startups, human rights organizations, among others.
- Welcomed international interns, teachers, and trainees from more than 150 countries into thousands of U.S. businesses, NGOs, and classrooms, through our role as a J-1 Visa sponsor.
- Expanded our diverse portfolio of international programs to include the:
- International Visitor Leadership Program, the longest-running State Department-sponsored exchange program, for which we serve as one of eight implementing partners.
- Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals, a reciprocal exchange we have administered since 1983, funded by the German Bundestag and U.S. Congress.
- Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship, a nationally-competitive fellowship, funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung, that has developed more than 500 transatlantic leaders over the last three-plus decades.
- Alfa Fellowship Program, supported by Alfa-Bank in Russia, for Americans, Britons, and Germans to complete language training and a high-level professional development program in Moscow.
- Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, the U.S. government’s signature initiative to build the leadership capabilities of youth in the region, and strengthen ties between the United States and Southeast Asia.
- Grown from a handful of staff to over 60 full-time employees who collectively speak more than 20 different languages with offices in Washington, D.C. and Berlin.
