The Virtual Foundation - your donation makes it happen

Scholarships for Chinese Participants in Sessions of the Salzburg Seminar

Region: China
Author: Salzburg Seminar, Austria / Vermont
Consortium Member: Virtual Foundation Director (ECOLOGIA)
Status: Needs Funding Budget: $5500 Collected: $3050 Needs: $2450
Goal: To support the participation of emerging Chinese leaders in global dialogues sponsored by the Salzburg Seminar (in Austria)
Comment: Salzburg Seminars provide a forum for rigorous intellectual exchange among emerging leaders from diverse geographic, cultural, and professional sectors on topics of global concern. The Seminar's goals are to "expand viewpoints, facilitate the establishment of worldwide professional networks, and effect enlightened change in the future." Increased Chinese participation will enhance the quality of the Salzburg experience for all participants.
Donors: The C. E. and S. Foundation, Kentucky [December 2002]; Katherine Gould-Martin, New York State [December 2003]

About the Salzburg Seminar

The Salzburg Seminar is a leading forum for promoting global dialogue on issues of pressing international concern. Situated in Schloss Leopoldskron, an 18th century rococo palace on the outskirts of Salzburg Austria, the Seminar regularly brings together future leaders from government, business, academia, and the independent sector for week-long sessions of intense discussion and debate.

The Salzburg Seminar was established in 1947 by three young men from Harvard - two Americans and an Austria - as an experiment, a means of getting young intellectuals from nations recently at war to come together to discuss topics of mutual interest with the hope of furthering international cooperation and understanding through discussion in a neutral and open atmosphere. As the world has changed over the last fifty-five years, the Seminar has kept pace and what started as an experiment has become an important meeting ground and a seminal influence in the areas of education, communication, and culture; science and public policy; and economics, politics, and the law.

The Salzburg Seminar is one of the world's foremost international educational centers committed to broadening the perspectives of tomorrow's leaders. With the principles of reconciliation and intellectual inquiry central to its activities, the Seminar is dedicated to promoting the free exchange of ideas, experience, and understanding in a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural environment. During the course of each year, some 1,000 professionals of exceptional promise from more than 100 countries gather for discussion of political, social, and cultural issues of universal concern. The goal of all Salzburg Seminar progarms is to emphasize the responsibility of individuals to effect positive change in their societies and institutions. For more information on the history and offerings of the Salzburg Seminar, see their website: www.salzburgseminar.org

Proposal

The Salzburg Seminar seeks contributions through the Virtual Foundation, to enable qualified Chinese participants to attend intensive week-long seminars on topics such as the following:

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have become an essential part of the social and economic fabric of societies around the world, serving as a voice for the people and a catalyst for change. NGOs are often able to mobilize resources and form partnerships among themselves, governments and businesses to improve the quality of life in their communities, while working for a broader and more participatory decision-making process.
The session will focus on creative NGO-led partnerships that promote various characteristics of “healthy” communities. These organizations strive to meet the basic needs of all community members by, for instance, ensuring access to health services, creating a clean and safe physical environment, and promoting public participation and the celebration of historical and cultural heritage. Through the examination of a wide range of partnerships that are dedicated to improving the health of communities, participants will share and identify successful strategies used by NGOs to overcome barriers and challenges in creating truly “healthy” communities.

Higher education institutions throughout the world are under intense pressure to respond to an increasingly diverse array of constituents and corresponding agendas. This session will explore various expectations of higher education—from the formation of moral and civic values, to leadership development, to serving as engines for economic growth, to name but a few—and the effect such expectations have on governmental policy, patterns of funding, institutional strategic planning, and related higher education issues.

Focusing on the human dimensions of the social and economic consequences of the information technology gap that exists both within and between developed and less developed economies, this session will explore the incidence and impact of digital divisions and analyze the importance of developing and implementing responsive policies and strategies to foster technological inclusion.

Youth are a potent force for creating positive social change, particularly at the community level. This session will explore ways to promote and increase youth engagement by sharing and exploring a number of successful examples from a variety of regions and contexts. While seeking to distinguish key obstacles and challenges to youth involvement and leadership within their communities, participants will focus on identifying practical approaches to overcoming these barriers.

Public interest groups and the media have exercised increasing influence on corporate and government policies toward the environment. This session will examine how the public debate surrounding such themes as global warming, biotechnology and biodiversity affect the formulation and implementation of environmental policies both in the public and private sectors.

Security issues and alliances in Asia, always complex and in flux, have become even more so in light of the events of September 11 and Washington's ongoing war on terrorism. Conflicts which have long eluded resolution -- the Korean peninsula, cross-straits relations between China and Taiwan, the India-Pakistan conflict -- continue to be of concern, while new security issues -- the rebuilding of Afghanistan; heightened awareness of and measures to combat terrorism, religious extremism, and separatism; new alliances in Central and South Asia; and relations between the Muslim world and the west, to name a few -- have come to the fore in Asia. This session will focus on the evolving security relationships in the Asian region and explore how cooperative and competing interests among Asian countries, as well as their alignments with outside powers pose significant future challenges to the Asian region and the world community as a whole. Particular attention will be given to four major subthemes: the China-India-Pakistan triangle, particularly in the context of renewed US support of Pakistan and its effect on regional alignments; the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (the so-called "Shanghai Six" group); the Northeast Asian triangle (China, North Korea/Republic of Korea, Japan, and the US); and cross-straits relations (China-Taiwan and the role of the US in the dispute).

Budget
Full Scholarship for one participant to one conference: Covering all costs of participation once in Salzburg, including room and meals$5,000
VF Administrative Fee$500
Total Requested from Virtual Foundation $5,500
Match to be provided by participant:
Costs of Visa to Austria$90 [estimate]
Plane fare (round trip to Vienna from China)$1500 [estimate]
Ground Transportation from Vienna to Salzburg$50 [estimate]
Total match provided by participant$1640 [estimate]