That’s Grace and Nicole. Two teenagers enjoying an outing together. Except that Grace is from Nicaragua, and Nicole is from Wisconsin. The two met through the Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners of the Americas Youth Ambassadors Program.

“The Youth Ambassadors program, begun in 2002, brings outstanding public high school students from across Latin America to the United States for a two-week exchange visit. During their stays, these youth experience US history and culture in Washington DC, live with U.S. families across the country, attend schools and cultural activities, and interact with U.S. youth. The experience expands knowledge and understanding among youth to promote increased mutual understanding among peoples of the Americas.”

The Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners Chapter is trying to continue the program by getting a permanent spot on the globalgiving website. They’ve almost reached theibut ...

I have not much more to say about the new Jewish American Girl Historical Doll, Rebecca Rubin, that hasn’t already been said (although it is interesting to think-I didn’t realize all the other dolls weren’t Jewish) but it is notable that programming was created to connect the new doll to the Lower Eastside Tenement Museum. I visited the museum a number of years ago, and definitely felt the connection and history. I imagined my great grandfather, who came over to the US hidden in the bowels of a ship, may have stayed there before pursuing his fortunes as a junk salesman, and eventually establishing a life and family in the US.

As part of our ongoing series of reports supported by DMS Research, the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University has released in March 2009 a new study of attitudes of consumers in the Multicultural marketplace. The full report can be obtained at: http://hmc.comm.fsu.edu.


The data in this report includes 39 attitudes and multiple demographics to provide a sense of how members of different cultural groups feel about select aspects of life and commerce. The list of specific attitude items is in the section dealing with overall trends below.


The data revealed a six factor structure that resulted in six factor score coefficient weighted indexes:
Network Oriented or an inclination to use social media and being sociable

Gay Favorable or a positive predisposition to GLT issues and people

Sports Oriented or a favorable disposition towards sports

As soon as this June, if you don’t like how ads are representing you, it may be time for a personality overhaul. NPR reports today about new technologies that will allow for smart advertising…TV ads that are targeted to you, your buying habits and individual tastes.

What would your ads look like? To which spectrum of your ‘cultural’ identity would the ads speak? Your race or ethnicity? Your economic or social status? Your orientation? Your role as a parent or caregiver?