CIEE BridgeUSA Celebration Tour To Highlight How International Exchange Makes America Safer, Stronger, and More Prosperous
Authored By:
Summerlong American roadshow kicks off in June 2025 with stops at top BridgeUSA employers Cedar Point, Kings Island, and Kentucky Kingdom
The Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) will travel to Ohio and Kentucky next week to begin a summerlong celebration of U.S. Department of State’s BridgeUSA international exchange programs that make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.
The celebration kicks off June 8-11 with events honoring top employers who host BridgeUSA Summer Work Travel participants in the heartland of America. The BridgeUSA program brings international college students to live and work in the United States during their summer break, helping American businesses across America expand and extend the summer season.
Cedar Point and Kings Island, both based in Ohio; and Kentucky Kingdom, based in Kentucky, will be recognized for their success creating meaningful cultural exchange for both BridgeUSA Summer Work Travel participants and their American teammates.
These organizations are just three of the 4,000+ businesses, large and small, across the United States that each year host BridgeUSA participants who positively impact their American host employers and host communities in many ways, including increasing economic prosperity for local businesses and injecting more than $1.2 billion overall into the national U.S. economy.
“The BridgeUSA program brings in associates from around the world who create amazing experiences for our guests,” said Kaitlin Wattrick, recruiting manager at Cedar Point. “Beyond the park, it enriches our community by fostering cultural exchange and building lasting connections that extend far beyond the summer season.”
BridgeUSA Makes America Safer and Stronger
BridgeUSA programs bolster America’s national security and strengthen America’s public diplomacy by fostering mutual respect between Americans and people of other nations. BridgeUSA participants return home and spread word of their positive experience in the United States which improves the American image abroad and makes our country safer.
BridgeUSA Makes America More Prosperous
Most importantly, BridgeUSA participants enable local economies to prosper by extending the tourism season, allowing businesses to employ more Americans for a longer seasonal period, and allowing hundreds of local businesses—from laundromats to general stores, from local diners to grocery stores—to extend the duration of their peak-season sales surge, compounding the positive economic impact in each community.
“BridgeUSA provides a significant economic benefit to thousands of American businesses and communities around the United States,” said Martine Mangion, Senior Vice President, Inbound Exchange Programs at CIEE. “Many seasonal businesses are able to continue to support domestic jobs in their slow season thanks to the support from the BridgeUSA Summer Work Travel participants who businesses host during their busy season. Some of our hosts are able to stay open an additional 30-45 days longer than they would have without BridgeUSA participants. In addition, BridgeUSA participants spend their wages in the local community and across the country when they travel.”
“The BridgeUSA exchange programs are the perfect definition of a government program that makes America safer, stronger, and more prosperous,” said James P. Pellow, Ed.D., President and CEO of CIEE. “International students pay their way to come to America, they make American businesses more profitable while they are here, and then they return to their home countries with a deeper knowledge and respect for American culture and American values, including the power of democracy and free speech. If BridgeUSA did not exist, we would need to invent it, as it truly enriches all Americans.”
Additional CIEE BridgeUSA Celebration events are scheduled for Wyoming, Montana, Texas, and South Carolina. If you are interested in participating in a future CIEE BridgeUSA Celebration event, please reach out to Carye Duffin, CIEE Senior Vice President of External Affairs, at CDuffin@ciee.org.
About CIEE:
CIEE builds bridges between different people, different countries, and different cultures. For 75 years, we have helped young people participate in high-quality international exchange and study abroad programs that bring the world together. Since 1947, CIEE has supported more than one million student exchanges for participants from more than 140 countries. We change lives, our alumni change the world. Learn more at ciee.org.
Media Contact: Leslie Taylor, ltaylor@ciee.org, (207) 553-4274