To the Cultural Vistas community:

The influx of new, daily developments regarding the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 has created great uncertainty. I want to assure you that our team at Cultural Vistas continues to closely monitor and assess the impact of this global pandemic.

The health and well-being of our exchange participants, hosts, and staff is our highest priority.

As we take steps to keep our exchange community healthy and safe, we can report that, to date, no Cultural Vistas participants or staff have been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus in the U.S. or in any of the international locations in which we operate.

Moving forward, we are committed to taking all the necessary precautions to provide a safe environment that does not put members of our community at undue risk. As such, we are assessing the impact of our programs and services daily and continually planning for future scenarios, including adjusted program models and planned events as warranted and/or recommended.

Earlier today, the U.S. Department of State and the German Bundestag announced the difficult decision to curtail the 2019-2020 Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals / Parlamentarisches Patenschafts-Programm für junge Berufstätige (PPP). Our team is currently working in earnest with our program partners to facilitate and support the safe return home of our German and American participants in light of the early conclusion of the program.

Cultural Vistas will continue to assess the impact of this global pandemic and will issue additional guidance as it becomes available. At this time, we continue to advise our exchange program participants to monitor the latest developments and adhere to all local and national public health directives.

We realize this continues to be a fast-evolving situation and have developed the following page to house our latest information and updates regarding COVID-19:

Cultural Vistas Coronavirus Updates

We are here for you and we will get through this together.

We encourage you to take advantage of this information and join other members of our community in taking the preventative steps to help keep us all safe and healthy.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Clinton, PhD
President and CEO

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PLEASE NOTE:

As of Friday, March 13, Cultural Vistas has closed its offices in Berlin, New York City, and Washington, D.C., begun working remotely. This will continue through at least Friday, April 3 and will be assessed on a weekly basis thereafter. We do not expect any significant disruption to our daily operations.

We appreciate your patience and understanding during this challenging time.