When you join the World Affairs Council of the Monterey Bay Area, you become part of an organization of thoughtful and engaged global citizens who seek to learn more about contemporary world affairs. You can see benefits provided to the public by the Council, and the additional benefits for members, on our web page at https://www.wacmb.org/membership/
Please join us at an upcoming event or discussion group and consider becoming a member of the Council or renewing your current membership.
Our Regards,
Judith Glickman President of The World Affairs Council of the Monterey Bay Area
Calling all high-school teachers, parents, students…
Interested in providing a focus on International Affairs and having your students compete locally for prize money and a trip to Washington DC for a national competition?
The World Affairs Council of Monterey Bay will sponsor a countywide Academic World Quest (AWQ) competition during the 2022-23 academic year.
Each Monterey County high school is invited to send a team of four students to compete in the Monterey County AWQ competition on February 11, 2023.
Each school must have a teacher serving as coach to a team of four high school students. Each coach who brings a team of four to the local competition will receive a stipend of $325.
Students in the top three teams in Monterey County will receive the following awards:
First place team members will receive $300 each and an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, DC to participate in the national AWQ competition in the spring of 2023. Their coach will also receive the trip and an additional $675.
Second place team members will receive $200 each.
Third place team members will receive $100 each.
For a look at 2021-2022 academic year competition click here.
For more detailed information contact Linda Dilger at AWQ@wacmb.org
As part of our growing cooperation with other World Affairs Councils throughout California, I am delighted to invite you to an All-California WAC online event: a talk by Dr. Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, on “US Foreign Policy Amid Global Crisis.” For decades, Dr. Haass has been among the premier American observers of US foreign policy in an uncertain world, and with the unfolding events in Ukraine his insights are critical. The talk will be moderated by Col. Richard Downie, US Army (ret.), and takes place on March 29 at 11:00 am PST.
Our sister chapter in Los Angeles is handling the logistics for the event, including this sign-in page. You will have the chance to note that you are affiliated with the Monterey chapter.
Please join me for this exciting California-wide online event!
Your World Affairs Council, in partnership with other California WACs, is pleased to invite you to a digital presentation by Prof. Dan Schnur on “Biden at a Crossroads: What We’ll Learn from His State of the Union Speech” (which takes place immediately after Dr. Schnur’s presentation).
We are pushing back our start of in-person luncheons from early January to late February because of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. This variant is expected to crest in Monterey County in January, and is highly contagious, even among the vaccinated who have not had a booster shot. For the health of our members, we thought a slight delay would be prudent.
Dr. Tom Johnson has agreed to push back his talk to us on Afghanistan accordingly. Members who have already paid for the luncheon (including me!) can choose to put that money toward the February talk or be reimbursed. Please contact us at info@wacmb.org to indicate your choice.
We will provide details about the February luncheon in the next few weeks. But please be advised that we will be requiring evidence at the door of full vaccination plus booster in order to attend. This is for the health of us all.
I very much appreciate the patience and support our members have shown. Better days are ahead — see you in February!
A National Youth Education Program of the World Affairs Councils of America
World Quest Competition tests high school students’ knowledge of international affairs. A fun, fast-paced contest, in which 4-person teams from schools compete by answering questions from 10 categories as specified by the World Affairs Councils of America. For more information about the national competition click here.
Purpose
Preparing the next generation of leaders, scholars, and decision-makers to thrive in a rapidly changing world – where our national interests are intertwined with the global community – is one of the greatest challenges facing our country. It requires a renewed enthusiasm for global studies in our high schools. Too many American students today fall behind their counterparts from other countries in their knowledge and understanding of world history, geography, and current international events. The mission of Academic WorldQuest is to close the gap.
AWQ Study Guide and Topics
The World Affairs Councils of America’s AWQ Official Study Guide is the primary resource to help students and teachers prepare for the topics covered in the timed question-and-answer AWQ competitions hosted by local Councils. Councils may adapt these topics to align with their local programming initiatives.
The AWQ Study Guide is also an essential resource for the Carlos and Malú Alvarez Academic WorldQuest National Competition, hosted by WACA every April in Washington, DC.
Winning teams are invited to represent their high school, city, and local Council at the national AWQ championship weekend, which includes the competition, unique programming planned to enhance the global education experience, and an opportunity to meet and engage with approximately 250 like-minded peers from around the United States.
Local event: Saturday, March 19th, 2022 10:00am -4:00pm
The winning team and teacher will earn an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C. to compete at the national level on April 29 & 30 2022.
For more information about the local competition contact the following:
For Study Guides contact: Maria Morgan at info@wacmb.org
For general event information contact:
Dora Salazar, Director Teaching & Learning at dorsalazar@montereycoe.org
Jessica McCue, Administrative Assistant at jmccue@montereycoe.org or phone 831.755.0346
The World Affairs Council of Orange County has been informed today that regrettably due to a non-COVID viral infection preventing him from being able to participate, we will need to reschedule in the future the event for next Monday, November 1st at Chapman University with Dr. Scott Gottlieb.
Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic
A Conversation with Scott Gottlieb, MD Former FDA Commissioner
Live streamed, November 1 at 7:30 pm
Our World Affairs Council of the Monterey Bay Area has been invited to participate in an upcoming World Affairs Council of Orange County program with Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, discussing his recent New York Times best seller, Uncontrolled Spread: Why Covid-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic. The program will be live streamed, November 1 at 7:30 pm. Registration fee includes a copy of the book. Please click here to register for this event.
Each WACMB award provides $3000 to the recipient. Click here for more information about the WACMB Scholarship Program.
Ari Korreshi MIIS, May 2022
Master of Public Administration
I will receive my MPA next spring (2022) and want to work in the State department. I will begin either through an internship or with the Foreign Service in American embassies around the world, then the United Nations, with my end goal being to become the Secretary of State, in the same fashion as Secretary Albright, who herself was born in Communist Europe. If the recently created positions of “U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate” and “White House National Climate Advisor” continue beyond the current administration, I would like to work in those offices as well.
I am from Communist Albania and came to the United States as the system was changing. The early years were challenging for my family, as we didn’t speak the language and had no connections. My parents worked two or more jobs plus overtime to make ends meet so I didn’t see them much growing up. I was just leaving high school when the Great Recession hit, so I had to work various factory and restaurant jobs while getting my associate’s degree, volunteering when I could. For my bachelor’s, I worked as a student assistant and volunteered as an English tutor, helping asylum seekers. After receiving my BA in linguistics, I joined the Peace Corps as an English volunteer in Albania, teaching at the pre-high school level.
To my parents’ chagrin, I am endlessly curious and questions like “Why is the sky blue?” were the least of their problems. I satiate that curiosity by being an avid reader, going through 40+ nonfiction books a year. Additionally, I have played video games throughout my life and what they have taught me is that the good guys do win in the end, but it isn’t easy: you have to take it one challenge at a time and you don’t do it alone.
Morgan Moore MIIS, May 2022
Joint Master’s Program:
• International Policy and Development and
• International Trade and Economic Diplomacy
Originally from Dallas, Texas, Morgan is a dual-degree candidate for a Master’s in International Policy and Development (IPD) and International Trade and Economic Diplomacy (ITED) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS). She graduated Cum Laude from Xavier University of Louisiana with a Bachelor’s in Political Science and a Minor in Spanish. She served in the Peace Corps as a Community Economic Development volunteer in Paraguay and is a Paul D. Coverdell Fellow at MIIS.
Morgan is a graduate assistant in the Enrollment department and works to build partnerships with historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). She also serves on Student Council as the MPA/IPD Program Representative. She volunteers teaching English to Afghan refugees and also works as a freelance Spanish tutor. She enjoys being active on campus in Peace Corps Club, MIIS Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA), BUILD Club, and Shades at MIIS.
Morgan aspires to become a Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. State Department (Political, Economic) or USAID (Program Development, Economic Growth). Prior to joining the foreign service, she hopes to build a career in the civil service or the NGO or private sectors. This summer she is looking forward to interning with American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact, a venture capital firm dedicated to investing in startup entrepreneurs committed to closing equity gaps in America by building scalable tech and social enterprises. She is honored to accept this scholarship and grateful to the World Affairs Council of the Monterey Bay Area.
Julius Clay Moye MIIS, December 2021
Joint Master’s Program:
• International Trade and Economic Diplomacy
•Nonproliferation & Terrorism Studies with a Financial Crime Management Specialization
Julius Moye is finishing his final year as a graduate student at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS). There he is pursuing a joint master’s program in International Trade & Economic Diplomacy (ITED) as well as Nonproliferation & Terrorism Studies (NPTS) with a Financial Crime Management Specialization. Prior to coming to MIIS, Julius served for nearly three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine, teaching English in a small town and playing English-language music concerts across the country. Originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Julius completed his undergraduate career at Tufts University in 2015.
Julius is incredibly grateful for the opportunity that the WACMB Scholarship has afforded with respect to furthering his career goals. With his graduate work, Julius focuses on strategic trade controls and the intersection of international trade, national security and corporate compliance issues. Currently a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist, Julius will spend his final year studying to become a Licensed Customs Broker. He hopes to bring these two domains together to begin a fruitful career in global trade compliance in the private sector, focusing on sensitive and “emerging and foundational” technologies. He then hopes to explore options for service in the public sector with an emphasis on trade security policy and enforcement. Ultimately, his dream is to bring back expertise gained in the field to Eastern Europe and to merge international trade consultancy with economic and social development in that part of the world.
Molly Ryan MIIS
Joint Master’s Program
• Ocean and Coastal Resource Management
•International Environmental Policy
Molly Ryan is a current Master’s student at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) focusing on Ocean and Coastal Resource Management and International Environmental Policy. Molly has been wrapping up her summer working with the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Vanuatu to the United Nations on climate justice issues at the international scale, a line of work which she hopes to continue as she finishes her studies at MIIS.
Prior to her time in Monterey, Molly received a certificate in Restorative Justice from the Vermont Law School after being evacuated from her post as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama in 2020. Molly has been specializing in international and domestic climate policy since she graduated from the College of William & Mary in 2018, working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the World Resources Institute (WRI), and the US Department of State.
Growing up internationally in a military family, Molly’s interest in world affairs started at a young age. She is grateful to the Monterey Bay World Affairs Council for granting her the opportunity to continue pursuing her passion for working on international climate policy through a restorative lens.
