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Building Bridges Summit

Building Bridges was created to provide a platform for culture exchange, enhanced communications and progressive collaboration between the US and Middle East in an effort to expand the space for peace. Since there is a unifying power in education, the first Building Bridges Summit took place in March 2007 at the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

UC Davis Chancellor, Larry Vanderhoef and Delegata CEO, Kais Menoufy, traveled with a delegation from UC Davis to meet with 12 other universities, government officials and business leaders. Larry is a true leader with a mission to make UCD a leading university in the US and to build bridges worldwide between cultures, countries, schools, and more importantly - People.

• In the 5 days spent in the Building Bridges summit, the accomplishments included:
• Met with the heads and delegations of 12 universities
• Met with 4 Ministers, 3 senior executives of the government with Minister status, 3 CEO’s, and the US ambassador to name a few
  Communicated with over 250 people, most of which are very senior in their roles
• Signed 6 agreements for collaboration
• Identified initiatives with the Information Technology Industry Development Agency, Agriculture Research Center, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Library of Alexandria, and the BCBCB (a faculty/grad student exchange network across Lebanon, Cairo, Palestine and the US)
• Visited historical sites, ate the local food, experienced some of the past, present, and future of Egypt and more importantly met with Egyptians and experienced the true culture

The Building Bridges initiative has taken on a life of its own and is starting to grow within our local and global community.  The summit itself was very successful but nothing was more valuable than the relationships developed and the positive experiences shared by the attendees.  To bring leaders from the US, Egypt, Lebanon, and Palestine to discuss collaborative initiatives in education, technology, science and agriculture is a compelling tale to tell and even more profound to experience.  One returns with a feeling of excitement and gratitude to be part of this initiative and with pride to be part of a community that enables this progressive action towards collaboration and peaceful relations.

AUC Press from the summit: http://www.aucegypt.edu/newsatauc/main.cfm?ArticleId=677

For more information or to get involved with Building Bridges, please contact us at 916-609-5420 or via sitemail.

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