U.S. Cultural Ambassadors in Dnipropetrovsk

On January, 31, 2013 the WOA Centre in Dnipropetrovsk was visited by the US Cultural Ambassadors – Becky Bonner, Tamika Raymond and Nykesha Sales.

All of them are former professional women’s basketball players who came to Ukraine as part of a sports diplomacy exchange program. 

As cultural ambassadors they were happy to talk about any subject with WOA center audience.  This afternoon   the audience comprised people of all ages: school children and teachers from the nearby high school # 23, graduates of the National Metallurgical Academy technical translation faculty, activists of the WOA’s English speaking Club “Gabfest”.

The guests have introduced themselves, showed on the USA map their home states and towns.  They have asked who in the audience had been to the USA. It turned out that 2 persons in the audience visited the USA: the WOA Head Svitlana has been to Chicago in an Open World exchange project; the high school student Nikita has been to New-York with his parents.

After that the Q&A session started.

The guests were asked about their impressions about Ukraine and Dnipropetrovsk city. It turned out that the athletes find the Ukrainian cuisine delicious and particularly enjoyed our traditional beetroot soup “borsch”. The guests didn’t have time for sightseeing. But they have noticed beautiful historic buildings in the downtown and our tree-lined boulevards that impressed them even in winter.

The guests were asked about their way into basketball and told their respective stories. The range of questions about sport ranged from the healthy diet to obligatory doping control in professional basketball. To round up the session the guests told about their impressions of the Ukrainian kids who participated in their “Basketball labs” – professional basketball “master classes” in local schools.

The highlight of the Cultural Ambassadors’ visit was the autograph session and a group photo in the WOA Center.

The meeting with the US athletes impressed all the participants and hopefully inspired the younger generation to lead healthy life style and go in for sports.

Participants – 30 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please