From April 11th-21st A.C.E. was pleased to host eleven university administrators and business professionals from Kazakhstan for an in-service training benchmarking seminar in Seattle on higher education management. As part of the seminar, delegates had the opportunity to visit and dialogue with representatives of the following institutions:
- University of Washington in Seattle
University of Washington in Tacoma
- Seattle Pacific University
The seminar sought to facilitate exchange between the Kazakh delegates and their counterparts, and the group presented Professor James Harrington, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs , and Mr. Harlan Patterson, Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services, of UW Tacoma with traditional Kazakh academic dress.
In addition to university visits, their ten day program also included networking opportunities with representatives of Seattle Chamber of Commerce and lunch with the Seattle Rotary Club, as well as visits to some of Seattle’s best small and large companies, including Dick’s Drive In, Boehm’s Chocolate Factory, Boeing, and Microsoft. The group also enjoyed learning more about Seattle’s philanthropic sector with a visit to the recently opened Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, getting a taste for American politics at the Capitol in Olympia, and enjoying the beauty of spring in the Pacific NW at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.