INTERNATIONAL VISITORS!

Wednesday, June 13th.

After an outstanding lunch in the Mikasa Dining Room, our visitors from the UKRAINE just departed!These visitors were invited to the US under the auspices of the Dept. of State’s International Visitor Leadship Program. Their program is arranged by Graduate School, USDA.

They spent 6 days in Washington DC before coming to South Craolina: one morning in Columbia talking to USC tourism faculty: yesterday talking with Steve Litvin of Cof C and touring downtown; today with us; tomorrow fly to Jackson Hole , WY; then to Louisville, KY, then to Chicago and back to Ukraine on June 23. They arrived at 11:30 am along with two interpreters and a staff member from SC Ports Authority.

The members of the group were: Mr. Andriy Filippskyy, Editor of Economic News Status, a weekly business magazine; Ms. Gulnara Ilyasova, Head of the Department of Politics, Economy, Information for Folos Kryma (newspaper);Ivano-Frankivsk Region, Director of the Halych Business Center;Mr. Mykola Khreptyk, Data Administrator of the Carpathian Tourism Board; Mr. Sergiy Maryenko, owner of a five-star luxury hotel on the Caspian Sea; and Mr. Nariman Salyedinov, owner of a bed and breakfast.

Hosts at the CIC were Dean Miller; Dining Room Instructor Blake Hallman, who has studied Ukraine and knows some of the language; Hospitality Department Head Patricia Agnew, who spend time in Slovakia with students; and Ken Mihalik, whose parents are natives of a town right across the border in Slovakia—practically neighbors with one of the visitors. Mihalik was also able to speak their language.

We “informally” have a partnership with Ukraine now---they are serious about exchange students!