Au pair agencies have joined summer camp operators, hotels and an array of other companies that rely on cultural-exchange programs to provide their businesses with overseas labor to lobby against provisions in the Senate immigration bill aimed at regulating recruitment practices.

Several more companies have received licenses to operate people-to-people cultural exchange programs to Cuba. San Diego-based Classic Journeys offers 10 departures from June 29 to April 5. A seven-night guided tour includes visits with artists in the Luyano area in Havana; an exploration of Habana Vieja, the Unesco World Heritage Site; countryside walks in the Vinales Valley west of Havana; and meetings with farmers and students.

I mention this because – as I take leave as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs – I want to make Americans more aware of what the State Department does, --specifically public diplomacy- how much real value it brings to jobs overseas, jobs here, education, entrepreneurship, travel, tourism, and a healthy and robust trade and investment climate in both directions.

Kerry said this "victory for the human spirit" shows what can happen when people overcome ideologies and politics. Signed into law by George W. Bush, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, is the world's largest and one of the most successful foreign assistance programs.

The Gulf of Guinea was one of the primary areas in Africa where "stability," the command spokesman assured me, had "improved significantly," and the US military had played a major role in bringing it about. But what did that say about so many other areas of the continent that, since AFRICOM was set up, had been wracked by coups, insurgencies, violence, and volatility?

For too long, the U.S. has relied on a rather imperial mechanism — just telling Latin America what it needs. Compare that to China’s approach: It offers Latin America what it wants (in the form of financing and trade from China).

The U.S. Department of State is celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program. The YES program was started in the in the wake of 9/11 to bring youth from Muslim communities around the world to the U.S. for a year-long secondary school exchange.

Japan and South Korea hold top 10 spots for the number of students they have studying in the United States. However, when it comes to the number of U.S. students studying in Japan and South Korea, they take 14th and 23rd place respectively. As the United States increasingly turns its focus toward East Asia, how does international exchange affect the developing relationships?