President Obama Announces Commitment to the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund to Support Community College Student Exchanges Between the U.S. and Argentina

Washington, DC, March 23, 2016 --(PR.com)-- Today President Obama announced a new commitment to the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund that will create new partnerships to enhance regional cooperation and competiveness and provide new study abroad opportunities between the United States and Argentina.

The commitment from CAF: Development Bank of Latin America and Instituto Nacional de Educación Tecnológica (INET) via Argentina’s Ministry of Education will provide support to the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund in order to create the 2016 U.S.-Argentina Workforce Development competition. This grant competition will build partnerships and increase student mobility between Argentine post-secondary centers of technological education and U.S. community colleges in the themes of health, science, technology and economic development.

This new commitment to the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund builds off the recent commitment by MacroUniversidades – a network of 35 of the largest public research universities in Latin America and the Caribbean, under the leadership of the President of the Universidad de Buenos Aires and President of MacroUniversidades, Prof. Dr. Alberto Edgardo Barbieri. The MacroUniversidades commitment to the Innovation Fund was first announced at a White House event with Vice President Joe Biden on Dec. 14, 2015. The competitive grant competitions will create 15 new higher education institution partnerships and mobilize hundreds of students to and from the United States, Argentina and 18 other countries in the Western Hemisphere.

“Study abroad for vocational and technical students is the new frontier in global education. Partners of the Americas and its partners in the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund are proud to take the first steps to build this cooperation between Argentina and the U.S.,” said Steve Vetter, President and CEO of Partners of the Americas. “I thank President Obama; Enrique Garcia, Executive President and CEO of CAF Development Bank of Latin America; Esteban Bulllrich, Minister of Education of Argentina; and Gabriel Sánchez Zinny, Sub Secretary of Education and Employment, and Director Ejecutivo of Instituto Nacional de Educación, for making this important initiative possible.”

The 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund is a public-private collaboration of the White House, U.S. Department of State, Partners of the Americas, and NAFSA: Association of International Educators that was announced by Secretary of State John Kerry in January 2014. Since then, 70 Innovation Fund grants have been awarded to teams of 153 higher education institutions from 19 countries in the Western Hemisphere. Learn more at www.100kstrongamericas.org.

The mission of Partners of the Americas is to connect people and organizations across borders to serve and to change lives through lasting partnerships. These partnerships create opportunity, foster understanding, and solve real-life problems. Inspired by President Kennedy and founded in 1964 under the Alliance for Progress, Partners is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization with international offices in Washington, DC. Learn more at www.partners.net or via Twitter @partnersamerica.

With nearly 10,000 members, NAFSA: Association of International Educators is the world's largest nonprofit professional association dedicated to international education. Learn more about our work at www.nafsa.org and www.connectingourworld.org and on Twitter at @NAFSA and@ConnectOurWorld.

Follow the Innovation Fund and the overall initiative on Twitter with the hashtag #100KStrongAmericas.
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Partners of the Americas
Taylor Nelson
202.637.6206
www.partners.net
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