This spring I had the opportunity to work as the Communications and Marketing Fellow at
Meridian International Center. Meridian is a nonprofit center for diplomacy and global
leadership that “strengthens U.S. engagement with the world and accelerates collaboration
through the exchange of leaders, ideas and culture”.
My Fellowship was housed in Meridian’s cultural diplomacy department. The Meridian Center
for Cultural Diplomacy works with the U.S. Department of State, American embassies around
the world and the D.C. diplomatic community through exhibitions, cultural exchanges and
programing.
One of my main responsibilities was working on the Next Level USA hip-hop exchange
program. An initiative of the U.S. Department of State, the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill and Meridian International Center, Next Level USA host exchanges of MCs, DJs,
hip hop dancers, beatmakers, beatboxers and graffiti artists who conduct workshops, lead jam
sessions and lecture demonstrations in host countries. The second focus of my fellowship was
the creation of a separate exhibition website to host digital exhibitions and act as a virtual archive
for the department’s past exhibitions.
As most of D.C. moved to telework this spring, I was able to continue my work at Meridian
remotely. With these changes came the opportunity to assist the department in transitioning many
of its programs to virtual experiences and develop communications strategies to support
Meridian’s ongoing cultural diplomacy efforts.
As a Public Diplomacy student, it was a rewarding experience to take theories out of the
classroom and implement them in tangible ways through the day-to-day activities of cultural
diplomacy.
Michaela Eagan is a recent graduate of the MAIR/MSPR joint degree program. She also interned during the summer of 2019 at More Europe as part of the The European and Global Internship Program in Brussels.