This time last year, the Bureau of Global Public Affairs was preparing for our first two-day virtual experience for the 12th Annual Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Foreign Policy Conference amid the COVID-19 pandemic. During this rapidly evolving time, our goal of continuing foreign policy conversations with HBCUs was upheld, aided by your support and efforts. We hope you enjoyed the various policy conversations led by senior ranking officials and were inspired by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary Antony Blinken’s meaningful remarks.
The next HBCU Foreign Policy Conference, to be held February 17-18, 2022, will continue the dialogue with sessions, workshops, and interactive conversations. The conference will feature four engaging tracks, foreign policy, equity, outreach and awareness, and recruitment. The first day of the conference will focus on policy and equity; Day Two, will focus on recruitment and outreach. Our unique and notable sessions will return, with our #HBCUsatState: Q&A with Alumni panel featuring State Department personnel sharing their career paths. Our Power Panel of African American Trailblazers in Foreign Policy will share their inspiring stories of overcoming obstacles, reaching career heights, and their perspective of the future for African American diplomats. Additionally, we are very excited to bring brand new and creative panels to this year’s programming.
Since 2015 the HBCU Foreign Policy Conference has brought thousands of HBCU students, alumni, and faculty in-person to the State Department. Due to the global pandemic the conference went virtual last year, however, this has meant also a much larger reach. The 2021 virtual conference reached a global audience of almost 2,000 virtual attendees 90,000 video clicks, and almost 2 million social media engagements. Virtual technology has expanded our HBCU outreach and has allowed for more connections than ever before to the conference.
Save the Date!
It is with great excitement that we announce the dates for the 13th Annual Virtual HBCU Foreign Policy Conference, February 17th and 18th, 2022.
As we begin our countdown for the HBCU Foreign Policy Conference – stay tuned for the 2022 session and speaker details, sign up to be kept up to date here. Follow us – Twitter , Instagram , and Facebook . Make sure to include your institution or organization. We look forward to hearing from you.
Contact Hbcuoutreach@state.gov to request a speaker or to visit your HBCU!
