CIEE's BridgeUSA Celebration Tour: Myrtle Beach Stop
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This month, the CIEE BridgeUSA Celebration Tour continued in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where businesses and local community members were recognized as champions and critical leaders for BridgeUSA programs that make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.
Rebecca Pasini, U.S. Department of State Deputy Assistant Secretary for Private Sector Exchanges, shared during the BridgeUSA Celebration Tour Roundtable, "BridgeUSA... is a powerful engine for pro-U.S. diplomacy that delivers measurable benefits at the local level."
To be effective, the BridgeUSA program needs champions at all levels – strong community and business leaders, strong BridgeUSA sponsors, and dedicated, hardworking participants, like the dedicated community leaders in Myrtle Beach who won CIEE 2025 BridgeUSA Champion Awards.
Background and Impact of BridgeUSA
BridgeUSA was established by Congress in 1961 to advance American interests at home and abroad, enhancing American businesses, enriching American communities, and enhancing America’s image abroad, making America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.
Each year, BridgeUSA participants help America’s hospitality industry at beaches and amusement parks extend the summer tourism season by up to 45 days, or close to 30% of the season, allowing local businesses to stay open later and longer, leading to enhanced local economic benefits while injecting more than $1.2 billion into the broader U.S. economy each year.
BridgeUSA 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, someone would need to invent it, as it truly enriches all Americans.
Three-year BridgeUSA Celebration Tour
CIEE has planned a nationwide, three-year BridgeUSA Celebration Tour to showcase the many ways in which BridgeUSA positively impacts local communities. At each Celebration Tour stop, business leaders, local community advocates, and individual exemplary staff are recognized with the CIEE BridgeUSA Champion Award for their contributions to strengthening their local communities while advancing American interests.
Join the 2025 CIEE BridgeUSA Celebration Tour at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, this September 2025 and get ready for 2026.
The 2026 BridgeUSA Celebration Tour dates will be announced during CIEE’s 2nd Annual International Exchange Conference (IEC), October 7-8, 2025, at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Join us at IEC to learn more about the power of BridgeUSA and network with leaders of Congress, the U.S. Department of State, and leading hosts from across America.
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.