On January 19, Jeff Hadley and six of his culinary arts students at Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh spent about 50 well-orchestrated hours working on a joint mission they called “Espoirs de France” – “Hopes of France.”

The five-course gourmet meal they prepared and served to 30 lucky guests at The State Club at NC State University raised $3,000 toward the costs for Hadley and his students to travel to Cary's Sister City on the northern coast of France in March to continue a 16-year exchange relationship with a culinary school there.

The students will study and live on campus at Lycee d'Etat Hotelier du Touquet and Le Touquet students will come to Wake County in April. Hadley, head of Wake Tech's Culinary Technology & Hotel/Restaurant Management Department, said that the exchange allows French and American culinary students to trade places and experience one another's food, kitchen management techniques, and culture.

Local restaurant chefs in each town also have the opportunity to mentor both local and visiting culinary students. The Wake Tech students will spend two weeks doing internships in various restaurants in Le Touquet, a small resort town on the English Channel that has been an official sister city for Cary since 1992. “We also plan to take day trips to the Champagne region and to cheese and chocolate factories,” Hadley said. The group will spend the last two days in Paris.  

“The exchange began when volunteers with the Sister Cities Association of Cary noticed that both communities have culinary and restaurant management schools,” Hadley said. “I participated as a host from the beginning, and have been coordinating the program since I began teaching at Wake Tech in 2001.”

During their stay in Le Touquet, Wake Tech students live on campus and receive two meals a day. Funding for the $3,000 per student cost of the trip comes primarily through fund-raisers and donations.

Like many colleges, Wake Tech, which has a branch campus in Cary, has no budget to cover the costs for such exchanges. Volunteers with the Sister Cities Association of Cary help with the fund-raising and promotion of the program and encourage Cary businesses to provide support through funding, accommodations, and chef mentoring. Volunteers also coordinate support of the Cary Town Council, including official delegation status and official gifts from the Mayor of Cary to Le Touquet government officials.

Sister Cities Association of Cary is one of 14 organizations across North Carolina affiliated with Sister Cities International. The goal of these organizations is to encourage citizens to learn about and experience other cultures.

Ginny Lou Laughlin, president of the Cary Sister Cities group, said that the culinary exchange is just one of several ways Sister Cities organizations across the state work to connect students and educators around the world.

“There are many possibilities for local Sister Cities Associations to collaborate with their community colleges,” she said. “One of our main goals is to encourage citizen diplomacy by assisting members of our community to interact in meaningful ways with the citizens of another culture as we seek to promote world peace.  Assisting our students with these opportunities is a primary focus for us."

“The partnership between the college and the Sister Cities group has been wonderful from my perspective,” Hadley said. ”They really help to make this a well-rounded experience for the students.”

Hadley said that other colleges with Sister Cities organizations in their communities might be able to benefit from these existing connections.

“I would encourage others to get to know their local or nearby Sister Cities organization,” he said. “Find out what they've got going and try to key in on it. They really help in fund raising and promotion of these exchanges.”

Sister Cities Across North Carolina

Many K-12 schools and colleges across North Carolina have used their local Sister Cities organizations to create long-standing educational programs with schools in their sister cities.

“Such joint initiatives help to form international bonds and long-lasting friendships that impact entire communities,” Laughlin said.  

To find other communities in North Carolina with active sister cities, see Current NC Sister Cities in the right hand column.

Consider a Sister City

If your community currently has no official sister city, you and your college can become leaders in the process of developing such a relationship for the community. The process involves building local awareness, desire, commitment, and energy to find, court and create a great match and worthwhile projects. Sister Cities International provides resources, coaching and support. Start by visiting the “Cities Seeking Cities” section of their website at http://www.sister-cities.org/seeking/index.cfm

Sister Cities International

Sister Cities International is a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network that creates and strengthens partnerships between U.S. and international communities. The organization's mission is “to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation – one individual, one community at a time.”

Currently about 2,500 communities in 134 countries are linked through Sister Cities International.

The organization is an outgrowth of the formation of 42 “People-to-People” committees after President Eisenhower's 1956 White House Conference on citizen diplomacy. Through joint efforts of volunteers and the National League of Cities during the 1950s and 1960s, the idea formed to combine individual diplomacy with officially-recognized city-to-city pairings, resulting in the Sister Cities movement.

“Citizens and communities have been a tool in the country's diplomatic efforts for over a half century and there is a renewal afoot in what we can do outside of the formal bureaucratic and diplomatic channels,” according to Sister Cities International President & CEO Patrick Madden.

“The success of the Sister Cities movement is based on one underlying theme – the value of ordinary citizens reaching out to each other globally,” Madden said. “Local sister city programs find ways to draw together community partners from academia, business and local government to advance program goals. In turn, the individuals who visit from abroad instantly experience a cross-section of the community's spirit, personality, and resources.”

Community colleges can leverage their international connections and exchanges by partnering with their local Sister Cities organizations.