Entrepreneurs Visit U.S. to Learn and Grow via Cultural Exchange

A highly successful joint effort between the United States Department of State and nonprofit Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) is entering its fourth year, as 30 fresh entrepreneurs from around the world have arrived in the U.S. to embark on a three-week journey of business learning, leadership training and networking experiences.

“A New Beginning: Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation” creates a peer-to-peer learning environment for promising entrepreneurs from around the world.

In selecting high-growth, high-potential entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses and creating new employment opportunities in their communities, the program enhances the visitors’ ability to impact their home economies in meaningful and lasting ways.

The program identifies leaders and innovators from the entrepreneurial community each year, and brings them to the United States for a three-week program of educational experiences, business mentoring and long-term relationship-building. On September 15, delegates arrived in Washington, DC, to meet with local entrepreneurs, government officials and leading academics to begin their journey of learning and relationship building.

“The Entrepreneurs’ Organization is dedicated to helping leading entrepreneurs learn and grow by connecting them to their peers to share experiences and learn from one another,” said Adrienne Cornelsen, a member of EO’s Global Board of Directors. “The program has been truly transformational for the visiting entrepreneurs in years past, and there is another amazing group of people in 2013. At the end of these three weeks, they will go home as agents of change, enabled and motivated to make a lasting impact as leaders in their communities.”

To facilitate the visitors’ transformation into seeds of change, the program boasts several key features, among them a proven educational curriculum based on EO’s Accelerator program, and mentorship and peer-to-peer connections between the delegates and leading American entrepreneurs.

After visiting DC, the participants will continue their tour with visits to Portland, Oregon; Denver, Colorado; Dallas, Texas; and finally, New York City, New York. A New Beginning is a response to President Barack Obama’s June 2009 pledge in Cairo and at the 2010 Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship to expand exchange programs and opportunities in entrepreneurship.