Tag Archives: Philippines

(Re)Visit: Philippines

At Cultural Vistas, immersive international experiences are everything; even after they’re over, we continue to learn from them. While new international experiences are not possible right now, we can still learn from our past experiences abroad. Over two weeks, Cultural Vistas is sharing photos and reflections from our alumni through our (Re)Visit series. Each day, we will focus on a different country or U.S. state that transformed them. These photos stay the same, but our perspectives continue to change. Thank you to our alumni for allowing us to highlight their stunning photography. We hope these photos inspire you to reflect,…

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Open Apertures, Open Minds: YSEALI Alum Photographs for Advocacy

Seeing Mount Kinabalu in Borneo as a thirteen-year-old-child was a turning point in Gab Mejia’s life. It was the first mountain he had seen up close and he felt a strange, yet powerful, desire to summit it. Though he was unsuccessful during that first attempt, the experience led to him discover his true calling in life. Gab kept returning to the mountains and volcanoes in Philippines to learn hiking and experience nature. During these many trips, he discovered that, even more than summiting mountains, what he really loved to do was use his camera lens to tell stories and share…

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Meet Our Intern: Jules Guiang, YSEALI

As a nonprofit, we have our mission in mind in everything we do. That’s why we at Cultural Vistas often host international interns ourselves, in addition to working with more than 1,000 organizations across the United States to facilitate Intern, Trainee, and Teacher exchanges through the J-1 Visa. These instances when we ‘walk-the-walk’ are, for me, among the most rewarding aspects of our work. This August, the tradition continued as we welcomed Jules Guiang from the Philippines to Washington, D.C. to experience the United States while training alongside our communications staff for eight weeks. Jules is 24 years old and is…

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