Youth Agricultural Exchange Students Report Back Home Again |

Youth Agricultural Exchange students talk about their experiences abroad. Learn from Matthew Metzger, Betsy Robinson, and Mr. Bill Fox what they saw, learned, and experienced.

Joice Regina Dill de Brito e Cunha Visits Muncie |

Joice was delivered to Anderson, IN by Jhani Laupus. There, she was picked up by Martin Limbird. She was the guest of Martin and Mary Catherine Limbird for the duration of her stay in Muncie.

Two Gauchas Visit Lafayette |

From January 20 through February 12, the two teachers from Rio Grande do Sul visited Indiana on separate projects, but with overlapping itineraries. The January/February visits of Joice Dill de Brito e Cunha and Cecilia Ines Luz provided the local group with two special occasions to get together.

Teacher/Actress Reports on Trip |

Joice Regina Dill de Brito e Cunha, or just "Joicey" as we knew her, visited Indiana Partners from January 20 through February 10, 2004. She spent four and a half days in Indianapolis, six days in Muncie, four and a half days in Lafayette, and five days in Terre Haute. This brief article gives some highlights of her visit.

A Long Lasting Exchange |

One the pleasures of being involved with our partners in various exchanges is that the relations established aren't just for that moment, but extend over the years. This was brought home recently by a e-mail from a young Gaucho who was in Lafayette as part of the Youth Ambassador's Program in 1996.

Indiana Partners President Receives New Appointment |

Indiana Partners' president Lilya Wagner has been appointed to an important new position. Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University Executive Director Gene Tempel announced the appointment of Lilya Wagner as the new Director of the Women's Philanthropy Institute.

A word from the VP for Membership |

As you know, USAID money for anything other than the "middle East" has become extremely limited. Therefore, Indiana Partners receives very little grant money from this source which had always been the mainstay of Partners. That makes your support of Indiana Partners important – even beyond the moral support it always represented.

The Partners of the Americas Annual International Convention has been scheduled for November 18-20 in Antigua, Guatemala. Information will begin appearing on the Partners home page at http://www.partners.net in the near future.

Gleanings |

The Indiana Partners, Inc., 2003 Annual Report will be released soon. Watch for an announcement of its availability on our Home Page. In the meantime, here are some gleanings from president Leslie Barratt and from the treasurer.

On April 14, 2004 Illinois Partners of the Americas/Sao Paulo, Brasil held its Annual Meeting in Chicago. Leslie Barratt was the Guest Speaker. She outlined the types of projects Indiana and Rio Grande do Sul have and discussed the demographics of our members.

Education and Culture Program Travel and Project Grants for 2004 |

The U.S. Department of State has provided Partners of the Americas with a generous grant to fund travel exchange and small project assistance grants under the Education and Culture program for 2004. The same requirements and procedures of previous years apply.

Youth Agricultural Exchange Students Report Back Home Again |  

Matthew Metzger; North Manchester, IN
The Youth Agricultural Exchange to Brazil was my first experience abroad. Although I've traveled much of the United States and have seen many different aspects of American agriculture, I have always wanted to expand my horizons and see other countries And boy, was it a learning experience!

The first week was spent visiting various farms and ranches in the southern region of Rio Grade do Sul. We were told that these farms were larger than the average farm in Brazil. One farm we visited encompassed approximately 25,000 acres. We spent an entire afternoon four-wheeling across pasture after pasture of all kinds of grasses and then owner said we had barely begun to see the property. At the rate we were going it would have taken about four days to see it all.

After the week of farm visits, we spent one week at the agriculture boarding school, Bom Pastor. Bom Pastor is one of only a few schools of its kind in Brazil. In the morning, from seven to noon, the students attend regular classes. The standard curriculum- Math, Portuguese, Geography, German, and Spanish, in my opinion, were not the exciting part (but have you ever tried to learn German when it is taught in Portuguese?). The fun part came in the afternoons. After lunch and a short break, the students would go to their technical studies, which were the agriculture classes. Two to three different courses would be offered every afternoon. The courses would either be theory courses or practical courses. The theory courses would be classroom work and would explain in detail an aspect of agriculture. The practical courses would then apply the knowledge gained through the theory courses by taking the students onto the farm and putting them to work! I'm proud to say that I now know how to prune peach trees and I'm pretty sure Mr. Fox received a great lesson in driving tractors. The whole concept of applying classroom knowledge in a real setting made the students more interested in what they were doing and it made it much more fun for us!

I could go on and on about the great time I had in Brazil. Betsy, Corby, Mr. Fox, and I created memories that we will never forget. I strongly encourage anyone who is even remotely interested in agriculture in other countries to take this trip. Everyone you meet is so nice because they are excited to see young American students who take agriculture seriously and who know the importance of agriculture on a world-wide level. This is an amazing trip and a wonderful opportunity for anyone who chooses to take advantage of it. Just think about it! How many times in your life will you get the chance to visit another country? YAE is a great program and I thank Indiana FFA and Partners of the Americas for putting this together for us.

Betsy Robison; Mulberry, IN
My experiences in Brazil were wonderful. The people there were spectacular! We spent much of our time learning and collecting information about different agriculture techniques and products used and produced within South America.

One of my most memorable moments was when we visited a Hereford beef cattle farm. It was enormous compared to the farms here in Indiana. It was also nice to see the same breed of livestock we raise here at home. The most interesting aspect of the farm was that they mostly use pasture methods of feeding the cattle. We learned all about the different grasses and plants that they plant for the cattle to graze on. This trip to Santa Maria was one of my favorites.

Porto Alegre is a beautiful city. I loved touring the city. Our host families were awesome! I would love to go back and visit them.

Visiting the Secretary of Agriculture in Porto Alegre was also special. He seemed very open to relations between the Indiana FFA, Partners of the Americas, and Brazil. I hope that in the future our relations will grow stronger and many students will be able to enjoy a trip like this.

It really was life changing. It is amazing how much you learn about yourself when set in completely new and different surroundings. I’d like to thank everyone that was involved in putting this trip together. It truly was an amazing and wonderful experience.

Mr. Bill Fox; Frankfort, IN
I could not believe it was winter. It rained only a few days while we were there and the temperature was in the low 60’s during the day and maybe the high 40’s at night.

The scenery is beautiful. There are mountains with waterfalls in the east and rolling farmland in the west and south. Most of the people live in the larger cities. Very few live on the farms. In the west and south, the farms are large and diversified. They raise cattle, soybeans, wheat, and pasture. It looks much like Texas and Oklahoma.

We spent one week at Bom Paster School, which is an agriculture boarding school. It was much like an American school except the students stayed at the school. Lights were out at 9:30 pm and the bell to rise sounded at 6:15 am. Breakfast was at 6:45 am and classes started at 7:30am. We attended classes in German, Portuguese, Spanish, sociology, and agriculture mechanics. On Friday, the students went home for the weekend. Our students got the chance to go home with a few of the Brazilian students for the weekend. Overall, the experience was very educational and fun for students and adults.

Joice Regina Dill de Brito e Cunha Visits Muncie |
By: Hal Roepke

Joice was delivered to Anderson, IN by Jhani Laupus. There, she was picked up by Martin Limbird. She was the guest of Martin and Mary Catherine Limbird for the duration of her stay in Muncie.

Joice’s program was prepared by Pam Nicholas, Director of the Muncie District of Very Special Arts Indiana and Program Director of the Muncie Center for the Arts. The program was designed with a focus on teaching children with special needs.

Although a snow emergency was in effect for most of the time, causing two-hour school delays, Joice was able to visit drama classes and meet special education students at Anderson High School on Monday and was invited to return on Tuesday. On Monday evening she attended a rehearsal of the White River Youth Choir. She had met the Director, Don Ester, when the choir visited Rio Grande do Sul in 1999.

On Wednesday Joice visited the special education classes at Wilson Middle School. That evening she enjoyed dinner with the Nicholas family, which is hosting Bruno Braun, a Youth Ambassador from Gravataí.

Then on Thursday Joice spent most of the day with Nancy Barnett and her special education classes at Southside High School. Mrs. Barnett has developed several craft projects that lead to professional quality products; note paper, paper weights made with fossils found in Indiana, knitted items, etc, that are on sale in the “I CAN” gift shop at Southside and in several local shops. It was a very impressive experience.

On Friday classes were cancelled, but Joice had the opportunity to show her video and discuss her teaching of English through Drama, for teachers at the Muncie Center for the Arts.

In the afternoon we spent an hour with Chin Sook Pak, a teacher of Spanish at Ball State University. Ms. Pak showed a video made by her students designed to teach Hispanic people in East Central Indiana how the legal system works. Her students visited Hispanic families to find out what legal issues they needed to know about in order to avoid trouble and then prepared the scripts for several short videos that will be copied and distributed through local social service agencies. Like Joice’s use of drama to teach English, the students developed their Spanish skills in order to create the videos.

Later on Friday afternoon, I took Joice to Kokomo where Bill Fuller met us and took Joice to Lafayette.

Two Gauchas Visit Lafayette |

From January 20 through February 12, the two teachers from Rio Grande do Sul visited Indiana on separate projects, but with overlapping itineraries. The January/February visits of Joice Dill de Brito e Cunha and Cecilia Ines Luz provided the local group with two special occasions to get together. Lou and Bill Fuller held a reception for Joice, while Sallie and Brian Fahey provided a similar affair in honor of Cecilia's visit.

Joice Cunha is an English as a second language teacher from the Brazilian-North American Cultural Institute in Porto Alegre. Joice is also a professional actress and director who has performed in more than 20 plays. The purpose of her visit to Indiana was to discuss and explain how she uses Drama to help students learn to express themselves in the new language they are learning. The idea for
this approach sprang for a meeting in 1998, with Jim Nulty, CEO of Very Special Arts, Indiana and member of the Indiana Partners of the Americas. See more on this in the article about her program in Indianapolis.

Cecilia, also an ESL teacher is connected with English TECH. Her interest in this visit is to study Volunteerism. The U.S. leads the world in volunteer activity by private citizens and many thoughtful Brazilians are interested in emulating this dedication in Brazil. In fact volunteerism is one of the activities our southern chapter seeks for the youths who come in the Youth Ambassador's Program. Cecilia is an active volunteer in a poor community near Porto Alegre and desires to involve Partners more in that activity. Upon her return to Porto Alegre, Cecilia spoke to a Rotary Club whose members expressed interest in contacting the Lafayette Rotary Club to explore interest in Cecilia's project.

Joice's contacts in Lafayette included: the director of the Oral English Program at Purdue University; Rita Zello, Chair of the Special Education Department at Harrison High School; Sue Lucas at the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy; and a special meeting of area language teachers arranged by Janice Wheater Cowen at the West Lafayette High School. On the theatrical side, she visited a rehearsal and spoke with the directors at Harrison High School and at the Lafayette Civic Theater, where they were rehearsing A Chorus Line.

Cecilia started with Harry Brown, the Director of the Greater Lafayette Volunteer Bureau and Jim Smyth, Director of the United Way of lafayette. She also met with Don Fitzgerald at Jefferson High School, Pam Stall at Murdock Elementary School, and Howard Grabois at Purdue University, all of whom promote volunteer activities among their students.

There are interesting logistical problems associated with having overlapping visitors. We prefer not to have two in the same town at once and we also want to minimize the time spent by our own volunteers in moving people from city to city. In this case, on one day, Joice was scheduled to move from Lafayette to Terre Haute, while Cecilia was to move from Terre Haute to Muncie. This hand off was arranged to take place over a pleasant lunch at Arni's, a restaurant on Indianapolis' North Side.

Peter and Betty Cook were the hosts for Cecilia while Paul and Barbara Dixon hosted Joice. Both were guest of Bill Fuller at the Lafayette Rotary Club lunch on their respective days in Lafayette.

Joice Regina Dill de Brito e Cunha, or just "Joicey" as we knew her, visited Indiana Partners from January 20 through February 10, 2004. She spent four and a half days in Indianapolis, six days in Muncie, four and a half days in Lafayette and five days in Terre Haute. This brief article gives some highlights of her visit. The full Report can be viewed at http://www.math.purdue.edu/~wrf/cunharpt.pdf If you have time for nothing else, read her Summary at the end of the report.

In a mix of activities, both professional and cultural, Joice attended 11 classes, 10 meetings, taught three classes, gave six lectures, attended three church services, watched three plays, one opera, two movies, one basketball game, visited two museums, three rehearsals, and was honored in two receptions after one of which the group watched part of the superbowl game. However, for Joice, the interactions with people were more important for what they gave to her and she to them.

As is typical with our Gaucho/Gaucha visitors, home stays and professional contacts are arranged by Indiana Partners' members. Host families included a City Councilman, Michael O'Brien, and wife, Kathy Nytes, in Indianapolis; a University Vice President, Martin Limbird, and wife, Mary Catherine, in Muncie; a Portuguese professor, Paul Dixon, and university administrator wife Barbara, in Lafayette; and an economist, Don Richards and special education teacher wife, Jennifer, in Terre Haute.

Jim Nulty, CEO of Very Special Arts, Indiana, arranged her program in Indianapolis. Along with numerous activities, Jim arranged for her to give a work shop including presentation of a video showing plays put on by the Drama Club of Instituto Cultural Brasileiro Norte-Americano in Porto Alegre. Exposing those with whom she met here to this program was an important part of Joice's program. She presented similar programs in Lafayette to a group of language teachers, arranged by Janice Wheater Cowen; a drama class in the Anderson (IN) high school arranged by Hal Ropeke; and a special presentation in the Community Theater in Terre Haute, arranged by Leslie Barratt. Many other professional contacts were also arranged and carried out during her stay in Indiana.

One the pleasures of being involved with our partners in various exchanges is that the relations established aren't just for that moment, but extend over the years. This was brought home recently by an e-mail from a young Gaucho who was in Lafayette as part of the Youth Ambassador's Program in 1996. At the time Thales Stucky was about 16 years old and came to us from the small town Ijuí, in central Rio Grande do Sul. Thales is now 24 years old, a graduate in Law and working in that field for a Chicago firm with a branch in Rio Grande do Sul.

Our relationship with the Stucky family goes beyond meeting Thales as a YAP. In fact we knew him before he entered that program. Thales mother Rosana had been a guest in our home when she visited the States on a nursing program. As one of those connecting moments, when Thales was a YAP, he asked to see "the room where my mother stayed". Then in 1986, Lou and I were in Rio Grande do Sul, we were the house guests of Rosana and Joao Stucky for several days. Of course, that was before Thales came in the YAP.

For those who have met members of this family, Thales reports that his mother, Rosana, completed her Master's degree in nursing about four years and is considering going for a Ph.D. His father, Joao, is continuing his work as an orthopedic surgeon. Thales brother Jules, also a YAP alumnus, is studying medicine in Porto Alegre where he and Thales share an apartment. Marcel, the youngest is in High School.

A question Thales put to me is how to find Fellowships or Scholarships which could help him meet the cost of graduate law study in the U.S. Thales desires to pursue an LLM degree. He would welcome information about this from any of our readers. Please send that to me and I will continue this long lasting exchange with Thales.

Indiana Partners President Receives New Appointment |  

Indiana Partners' president Lilya Wagner has been appointed to an important new position. Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University Executive Director Gene Tempel announced the appointment of Lilya Wagner as the new Director of the Women's Philanthropy Institute.

The Women's Philanthropy Institute will be operating as part of the public service program of the Center On Philanthropy at Indiana University. Lilya is currently Associate Director of Public Service and will now carry the additional title of Director of the Women's Philanthropy Institute.

Lilya has been associated with the Center on Philanthropy since January 1991. She is a nationally and internationally recognized speaker and workshop presenter. She is a member of the Philanthropic Studies faculty and teaches graduate courses for Indiana University. Lilya is also a recognized author; her latest book, Careers in Fundraising, received the 2002 Skystone Ryan Research Prize, awarded by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She has managed a number of special projects for the Center on Philanthropy, including curriculum development and the Hispanic Stewardship Development Partnership. Lilya has served as a mentor to a number of our students, especially young women.

Indiana Partners adds its congratulations to Lilya.

A word from the VP for Membership |

As you know, USAID money for anything other than the "middle East" has become extremely limited. Therefore, Indiana Partners receives very little grant money from this source which had always been the mainstay of Partners. That makes your support of Indiana Partners important – even beyond the moral support it always represented.

We are off to a good start for 2004, with several new members and the return of many faithful past members. However there are several of you, my friends, who have not responded to my last letter. Find that envelope addressed to me, fill out the Information Form and send it to me along with your check.

If you're not sure of your status, go tohttp://www.math.purdue.edu/~wrf/Members.html

You'll also find an Information Form there.

We look forward to hearing from you.

The Partners of the Americas Annual International Convention has been scheduled for November 18-20 in Antigua, Guatemala. Information will begin appearing on the Partners home page at http://www.partners.net in the near future. On the Partners page are links to Quatemalan interests such as:

"Antigua is among the world's best conserved colonial cities, it is a magic and captivating small town that makes you feel time might have stopped some 300 years ago. From its colonial architecture to its beautiful surroundings; strolling through town on the cobblestone streets, you will experience the splendors of ancient times!"

Watch for future announcements, but put these dates on your calendar now.

The Indiana Partners, Inc., 2003 Annual Report will be released soon. Watch for an announcement of its availability on our Home Page. In the meantime, here are some gleanings.

From President Leslie Barratt's Report:
We had fewer than usual Gaucho visitors for several reasons: September 2001, new visa restrictions, economic conditions in both countries and attitudes about the U.S. On the other hand, fast internet transmissions, cheap telephone rates, and fast mail service have helped us. These modern communication devices lessen the need to travel, but aren't optimal for membership growth.

We were active in many projects that started in 2002: the recipe cookbook, the new electronic newsletter, the Viva Vila project in Alegrete, and the nursing project in Ijui were all ongoing. The full report will provide more details about these projects.

Our continuing involvement with the Bi-National Center in Porto Alegre provided Liz Peixoto as Teacher-in-Residence.

New projects also emerged in 2003: Ronda Villines studied architecture in Rio Grande do Sul, Ball State University started a joint class with PUCRS, students of Mel Sharpe are trying to help Partners with public awareness, and our dream of an agricultural youth exchange got off the ground with a planning trip by Abby Dougherty and a pioneer group visit by three students and a teacher.

From the Treasurer's Report:
The year 2003 was marked by a precipitous drop in Membership in Indiana Partners, which was offset largely by a similar decrease in expenses. One explanation for the drop in expenses is the decrease in number of North-bound gauchos. This in turn is probably due to a decline in the value of the Real.

Our financial position remains strong in terms of our expenses.

When the report is available, you will also be able to read all the minutes of the your Board of directors for 2003.

Maintain contact with Partners by book marking these web sites:
http://www.bsu.edu/web/indpartners
http://www.partners.net