Program Participants

Fatima Silva Leyva - Trujillo,Peru

Fatima has been training at the Franklin County Board of Development Disabilities since the beginning of the year. She is a teacher at home in Peru and specializes in early childhood education. Fatima, a CORE participant, will be receiving training here in the social sciences, social services and counseling. Able to reconnect with an old Peruvian friend living in Columbus for 15 years, Fatima is enjoying her time here and the work that she is doing. Fatima wants to work hard to improve her English and interact with locals.

Past Participants

_Neebo "Caesar" Anicetus - Ghana

Caesar arrived in Columbus on October 10th. He will be spending a month here in the US working with the National Youth Advocate Program. In Ghana, Caesar is the District Director for a new youth program. He hopes to learn more about youth advocacy here in Columbus.

Emmerentiana Nkede - Kumba, Cameroon

Emmerentiana has been interning with the Franklin County Board of Development Disabilities since January and will be staying in Columbus for a year as a CORE participant. Her training specializes in early childhood development which is a continuation of her work as a pre-school and nursery teacher in Cameroon. The United States has offered plenty of surprises and cultural adjustments for Emmerentiana including seeing snow for the first time and experiencing winter weather; however, she loves working with two to six year old children at the Development Center.Check out her powerpoint presentation on Cameroon!

Luka Sydstal - Stockholm, Sweden

Luka is a correctional officer for the Kriminalvården Prison and Probation Service in Stockholm, Sweden. During his time in Ohio, Luka worked for the Marion Correctional Institute to gain insight into the United States correctional system. He is also a trained debriefer for the Swedish prison system and hopes to compare and contrast the debriefing process of the US and Sweden. Luka hopes to gain beneficial experience both professionally and culturally.

Patrizia Kasik - Frankfurt, Germany

Patrizia is a social worker from Frankfurt, Germany who works with troubled children and adolescents in the Child Protective Social Services Department. While in Columbus, Patrizia trained at The Village Network. She hopes to share her professional experiences with her colleagues in the US and gain new experiences to increase her personal growth through her training in Columbus.

Sonja Arnold - Munich, Germany

Sonja is a social worker from Munich, Germany. She works as a counselor at IG Initiativegruppe Interkulturrelle Begenungund Bidung, which provides career integrating counseling for immigrants, emphasizing language and career skills. While in Columbus, Sonja trained at the Columbus Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS). She hopes to gain fresh input and new methods of counseling from the US to use in her professional work in Germany.

Catarina Vidmark - Karlstad, Sweden

Catarina arrived on September 30th and she stayed with us until late October. She is from Karlstad, Sweden, where she is a social worker for families, addicts and youth. During her stay in Columbus, she worked for Union County Court and Community Mediation Services, where she learned more about family mediation options. She was also interested in comparing Sweden and American family law.

Shadiya Sbeit - Mi'ilya Israel

Shadiya Sbeit, from Mi'ilya Israel, worked in Columbus this summer for 2 months through the Global Partners Program. During her time here, Shadiya specialized in social work at the Clintonville Beechwold Community Resource Center. Back home in Israel, Shadiya works at the Diagnosis and Rehabilitation Center in Nazareth as a facilitator of education, and to improve and promote working skills.

Saul Ontiveros - Mexico

Saul Torres Ontiveros was a global partner who worked at Commercial Control Services during his time in Columbus. Before arriving in the U.S., Saul worked as a maintenance technician at his father's grocery store and took other jobs around his community. While working with CCS, Saul gained new skills in electrical work that will help improve his knowledge and technical ability back home.

Past Participants Provide Positive Survey Feedback

The Columbus International Program recently sent out a survey to its past program participants and received very positive feedback. On a scale from 1 to 10 participants rated different aspects of their CIP experience. The average ratings were between an 8 and a 10, with the program's ability to meet professional goals ranked at an 8 and cultural and social events rated at 9.5. At the same time, all respondents stated that the element of career training served as the most positive and enriching experience while with CIP. Overall, participants said that their CIP experience had a major impact on their attitude and understanding towards culture, society, and politics in the United States.

While CIP strives to make participant's experience in Columbus and the United States the best that it can be, a major component of the program is how the training and learning experience is applied once a participant has returned to their home country. Most participants said that they applied what they learned at their workplace and with their colleagues, however, a response from a Ukrainian delegate showed how he went above and beyond. Vadym Sabinin, an attorney from Luhansk, Ukraine commented that he shared transparency and openness lessons learned in the US as part of a series of presentations given on urban planning to eight different regional centers in Ukraine.

Lastly, all participants said that they are very likely to recommend CIP to a family member, colleague, or friend, which was the highest rating possible to give for that question. In some final comments, a participant said their CIP experience changed their outlook on life, another got new job because of their training, and yet another said they were extremely happy they had contact with our organization.

Thank you to all of our past participants for doing the survey! Your feedback was extremely valuable for us to learn about your experience and to improve the experience for our future CIP participants!

The Jefferson Center
57 Jefferson Ave., Ste. 3
Columbus, OH 43215