Letter from the editor - April 2019

Spring is here! As we are well into 2019, we continue to be committed to high-quality cultural exchange experiences for your business and our participants. This past year, we saw a measurable jump in participant satisfaction rates – up eight percentage points from the previous year. I want to thank you for your role in this. We could not do any of this without you, and we truly believe we work with the very best host employers!

As we jump head first into 2019, we will continue to strive for this high level of excellence. CIEE is continuing to support participants who may not otherwise be able to participate on our program though Access Scholarships. Also, we remain active and involved in the health of the program through various advocacy efforts.

With it being a new year, we have some resolutions and exciting initiatives on the horizon as well:

• Share your story! You will read about how we are working harder than ever to stay connected with our alumni and collect stories about the program impact from all stakeholders. If you have a story, please share it! 
• Investment in technology! We are migrating our legacy technology systems to a new (and improved) system. CIEE Host Portal, our replacement for CIEE Navigator, has been launched and will first be used by host employers hiring with CIEE in the Winter 2019-2020 season. We are excited about how this system will vastly improve your experience with CIEE and I look forward to sharing more with you in the coming months. 
• Introducing you to the faces of CIEE! We want to share more of the faces behind CIEE with our employers and participants. Below you can read about the International Recruitment Coordinator team, a team who not only supports all host employers but is also involved in countless hours of interviewing and hiring. I also encourage you to follow us on Instagram for more faces of CIEE @ciee_workandtravel_usa 
• Celebrating 50 years of cultural exchange! We are very excited about our CIEE Exchange Ambassador grants opportunity for our exchanges alumni. We have received many applications and look forward to reviewing all submissions. 

As always, thank you for your continued commitment to cultural exchange. We could not do it without you!

Regards,
Cara