Williams is a skateboarding envoy with the U.S. State Department and is spreading his love for the sport, recently completing a cultural diplomacy mission in Cambodia, where he highlighted skateboarding's benefits to young people.“It’s a bridge between people all over the world,” Williams said. “For me, I’ve always been focused on what it was that made skateboarding special.”

Skateboarder and University of Waikato PhD student Neftalie Williams is in Cambodia this week at the invitation of the United States Embassy. As a US sports envoy, he will be leading a US Department of State Target of Opportunity Sports Diplomacy program, tasked with helping to increase mutual understanding between the people of Cambodia and the USA.

This week, espnW and U.S. Department of State launched the fifth year of the Global Sports Mentoring Program (GSMP) [...] During the program, the mentors will share valuable business leadership skills and assist the emerging leaders in developing strategic action plans aimed at creating sports opportunities for underserved women and girls in their home countries.

Each year over 400 American and international teachers travel abroad to learn from their peers, share their own knowledge, and experience other cultures through programs sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, and still more travel through other governmental and private programs. The State Department estimates that upon their return these 400 educators reach over 65,000 students in just one year.

Hip-hop DJs, MCs, beatmakers and dancers from around the world descended on a hotel conference room in Washington, D.C., this spring to learn how to turn their high-energy musical art into tools for empowerment, entrepreneurship and conflict resolution. The program is called Next Level, which teaches “hip-hop diplomacy” and is sponsored by the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the University of North Carolina’s music department. 

The TEA Programme in Pakistan, sponsored by the US Department of State, has sent more than 150 Pakistani teachers to the United States since 2012. The programme has been designed to build on teachers’ existing expertise and equip them with a better understanding of lesson planning, methodology, and the use of technology in teaching. Programme participants develop these proficiencies, while also learning about diversity and culture in the United States.

Huntertones, a Brooklyn-based musical band, is set to tour Zimbabwe next week as part of their 2016 international music tour [...] The cultural diplomacy programme is facilitated by an American non-profit organisation, American Music Abroad (AMA), through a grant from a US Department of State. AMA facilitates people-to-people cultural exchange programmes designed to communicate America's musical contributions and diverse culture to the global music scene

Architect Maya Lin and portraitist Kehinde Wiley are among the seven artists to be honored with the 2014 Department of State-Medal of Arts for their efforts to promote cultural understanding through art.