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History & Accomplishments

The Birmingham International Center is the nation’s oldest cultural-education organization. We serve as a clearinghouse for international economic development and intercultural education across the state of Alabama. Founded in 1951, the Birmingham International Center has grown into the premier resource for international business-education needs, including intercultural training, heritage and arts programming, and foreign trade. We are Alabama’s connection to global opportunity, leadership and social competency.

BIC’s programs have led to significant Birmingham cultural assets: Japanese Garden tea house at the botanical gardens, the Moroccan fountain on 5th Avenue North and valuable art acquisitions from Italy and South Korea at the Museum of Art.

The Birmingham International Center (BIC) operates as Alabama’s premier liaison organization to international businesses and cultural interests, and serves as the volunteer host for the state’s foreign economic development initiatives. We cultivate the leadership needed in successful international relations by delivering high-quality in-school multicultural programs to Alabama’s youth. In addition, we bring corporations together through experience and understanding so that more energy can be devoted to fair trade and commerce opportunities. We demonstrate a spirit of understanding and tolerance for all cultures – in an increasingly-shrinking world.

Programs & Services

Global Education

Arts in Education

BIC’s education program plays a fundamental role in the overall program. It is our goal that students and teachers will come to appreciate the culture and accomplishments of the spotlighted countries, as well as an understanding of the importance of a multicultural perspective in the classroom. Activities include:

Unique Techniques

A workshop for Visual Arts Teachers, Artists, and Others, scheduled for early fall. The goal is to provide specific information and classroom art activities related to the Spotlight country.

International Education Week

Created as a joint initiative between the United States Department of State and the United States Department of Education, IEW is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. The observance is designed to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States. One week during the month of November is set aside to observe International Education Week. The BirminghamInternationalCenter observes IEW by providing educational programming to various school and community organizations throughout the Birmingham Metropolitan area.

Professional Development Workshop

An in-service conference for teachers of all grade levels (Kindergarten through college), offered during the month of February. The hands-on workshop sessions provide content and techniques for all subjects and grade levels. An average of 300-400 kindergarten through twelfth (K-12) grade teachers from schools throughout Alabama and other surrounding states attends the conference, which in addition to acquiring lesson plans on the spotlighted country, addresses issues facing many contemporary classrooms, including cultural and language barriers that continue to arise as the population grows and diversifies. Teachers leave the seminar equipped with the information, tools and resources to return to the classroom and provide culturally diverse, learner-centered education.

In-School Performances

Live concerts and workshops by internationally known artists from the Spotlight countries. Performances are scheduled beginning in the month of February for schools statewide. Over 20,000 students and over 2000 teachers/parents will participate. Artists of international caliber are chosen for their performance ability and dedication to teaching. They provide cultural saturation to students through interactive performances of folk and contemporary dance and music, drama, and interactive storytelling. School bookings are based on the number of students served and facilities for the performance. Alabama underserved schools, low-income and rural, are the primary recipients of In-School Performances. The number of performers and performances will be determined upon confirmation of funds.

In-School Mini-Festivals

Schools may submit proposals for mini-festivals to be presented on their campus anytime from February through April. Students will work collaboratively with teachers as facilitators to design, plan and produce the festival spotlighting the selected country or countries. Competitive grant awards of up to $350 are issued for the most outstanding proposals submitted. These should include learning experiences, speakers, events and community involvement, and be appropriate for understanding the nation or nations spotlighted. Student Art Exhibit and Reception Schools in Alabama compete to allow their most talented students to display their work at an art exhibit during the month of April. One of the most popular of our educational programs, it enables students to express creatively their understanding of the cultural heritage they are studying. From January through April, student art works, created either individually or in groups, will focus on Spotlight country-specific cultural themes. Teachers will select student art for the exhibit, which will include a reception where students will receive certificates recognizing their work.

Arts in Education Curriculum

Compiled and edited by a team of recognized Alabama educators, our award-winning curriculum materials include student and teacher guides conformed to the Alabama State Testing Goals guidelines and filled with motivating activities for learning. Various curriculum materials are available for purchase and for download from this website (see the “ Explore the World ” tab).

Global Business Development

International Business After-Hours

Throughout the year Birmingham International Center offers local and international businesses a chance to meet and network in a socially comfortable setting. Held at the BIC’s offices downtown, participants are able to enjoy drinks and hors d’oeuvres while meeting other members of the Birmingham business community and listening to presentations by some of the city’s most interesting business leaders.

How-to Business Training

We offer Alabama’s businesses training and materials on how to do business with international organizations, and we facilitate the economic dialogue that makes negotiations more relevant and efficient. In addition, BIC partners with multiple organizations to perform overseas assignment preparation, family coaching, expatriate return-home coaching and other customized services.

Global Business Resources

BIC supports Alabama’s international business interests by offering translation services, cultural training and diplomatic access. We host international business after-hours programs in social settings with presentations by some of the United States’ and the international community’s leading-edge global firms and trade partners.

Intercultural Competence

International Women’s Day

As part of the effort to promote mutual understanding among cultures, Birmingham International Center sponsors International Women’s Day, a global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women. As part of this annual event, BIC presents the prestigious “Woman of Consequence Award.” More than 500 women from throughout the state are normally in attendance for the presentation of this award, given to women who have made a difference in their countries.

Country Spotlights

BIC’s country spotlights bring renowned performers, exhibits, culinary demonstrations and educational materials to communities statewide and stimulate cooperation among people of different origins and lessen the obstacles to peace, commerce and social progress and competency.

World News Digest

Current Report: October 27, 2010

GRITS in Costa Rica.

Aaron Gallardo

agallard@samford.edu

I doubt the people of Costa Rica are familiar with the coarsely ground corn variety of grits, however they are familiar with Alabama's own Henrietta Longstreet Boggs. In 1940 Henrietta's vacation to Costa Rica turned stay-cation when she became the Central American country's first lady. Originally, Henrietta was born in South Carolina, but she grew up in Birmingham and attended Birmingham Southern College. One day in 1940, she received a post card from an aunt and uncle who had relocated in Costa Rica and decided to pay them a visit. When she arrived however, naturally, as most southern women do, she caught the attention of Jose Figueres Ferrer.

Jose Ferrer, who had also just returned from studying in the United States, was the head of the Social Democratic Party in Costa Rica. His party vehemently opposed the ruling National Republican Party (NRP). In fact, the ruling NRP was facing considerable internal anger after having enacted a social security system, as well as a national healthcare system. Soon after the couple married, Henrietta's life got a little more interesting. Jose Ferrer and supporters led a revolution with the intent to not only to overthrow the NRP, but also to overthrow several other Central American dictators. The young Alabamian was swept along with her husband having to endure exile in both Honduras and Mexico. Ultimately, after a fraudulent election in 1948, Costa Rica erupted into Civil War. After forty-four days, Jose Ferrer and his party emerged victoriously defeating the Costa Rican army its communist supporters. Thus, upon becoming the provisional president, Alabama's own Henrietta Longstreet Bogg's became the first lady.

Although the pair divorced in 1952, they both contributed to their respective countries in oddly similar ways. Ferrer is credited with having implemented reforms in Costa Rica such as abolishing the army, giving women and illiterates the right to vote and giving citizenship to African Americans. In comparison, Henrietta came back to Alabama to dedicate her life to civil rights, women's rights and the labor movement. Today, this girl raised in the south lives back in Montgomery, but still makes trips back to Costa Rica. She has also written a book about her story you can check out called, "Married to a Legend: Don Pepe."

Trash Collection Strike Leaves Buenos Aires Littered With 4-Day-Old Garbage

Sarah Kate Sullivan (A YPG BIC member currently working on her Masters' Thesis in Buenos Aires, Argentina)

sullivan.sarahkate@gmail.com

The pressing issue on the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is not related to the country's typically heavy topics. It has nothing to do with international human rights, makes no association with President Cristina Kirchner's gossip-worthy wardrobe, and is not related in any way to the International Monetary Fund or the nationalization of private pension funds. Quite literally, the word on the street right now is "basura:" garbage.

Even if you were not the type of person to normally have your ear to the ground on current events, the garbage on the ground would easily find your ear...or your eyes and nose. In fact, you would be hard pressed to evade the heated discussion of the increasingly high piles of garbage found heaped along the sidewalks that line the beautiful cobblestone streets of Palermo Viejo and the widest street in the world in downtown Microcentro.

That is because a recent worker's strike at the State Ecological Coordination of the Metropolitan Area (CEAMSE), the state-run waste collection and treatment arm, has halted all trash collection in the city of Buenos Aires and in neighboring cities for the past four days. The garbage of some 12 million plus inhabitants has sat idly along sidewalks throughout the city since the strike began on Sunday, as workers expressed discord over the continued stalling of the construction of two new waste treatment facilities in the province of Buenos Aires, a condition promised by the government to CEAMSE's labor union over two years ago. The sights of garbage heaps measuring several feet high and twice as wide dotting the edge of sidewalks, sometimes dispersed as densely as every 20-30 feet, quickly began to seem like an ever-present and natural part of the landscape after three days of negotiations between union and government officials failed to produce any positive result.

Late this evening, however, union and government officials finally reached an agreement sufficient for the union to reinitiate normal trash collection tonight. Though the new waste treatment facilities will certainly not be completed anytime this week or next month, union leaders found other initiatives promised by the government to be agreeable. For one, CEAMSE will distribute labeled bags throughout the province that will enable individuals to more easily sort their own garbage before depositing it on the street for nightly pickup.

This surely comes as a relief to the millions of inhabitants who have endured an increasingly rancid odor throughout the city despite the fact that most Portenos walked idly by the heaps of garbage without much ado. Despite the fact that every broadcast news outlet has aired nearly constant coverage of the developing negotiations between CEAMSE and the government, observations of the behavior of city-dwellers and conversations with people in the streets uncover a sense of widespread complacency about the mounting waste. Most responded with a shrug and a one-line response to the effect of, "It's just another strike." Labor strikes are common in Argentina, a country that very often sees strikes from farmers, bus drivers, professors and more, but rarely do strikes pose such a health risk and have such a visible and tangible effect on the community.

While this is not earth-shaping news to residents of other parts of the world, it sends a not insignificant message about Argentina's development on the whole. As a former resident and great lover of Buenos Aires, seeing the majestic birthplace of such cultural riches as the tango and Jorge Luis Borges covered in yesterday's bananas, coffee grinds, and dirty diapers struck a chord with me. Consistent trash collection is just one regular cog in the broader functional machine that makes a developed society work. It is probably an aspect of daily life any American would tend to take for granted. But even in a country that seems as equally sophisticated as many of the world's leading nation-states and one that serves as a diplomatic and economic anchor in many ways to the South American region, the malfunction of just one cog like this can cause the whole machine to burn up a few key parts or even fail to work at all. Suddenly the machine that at least appears to be made from first-world technology exposes that one of its key cogs may be of a third-world grade. Considering any machine is only as strong as its weakest parts, Argentina would be wise to consider going in for a tune-up sometime soon if it wishes to avoid burning up any key parts of its machine.

For more information:

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/48513

http://www.argentinaindependent.com/currentaffairs/newsroundups/roundupsargentina/rubbish-collection-strike-in-buenos-aires-/

http://www.clarin.com/ciudades/buenos_aires/Scioli-suspendio-Cristina-conflicto-basura_0_356364568.html

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Trash Collection Strike Leaves Buenos Aires Littered With 4-Day-Old Garbage

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