For all the appeal of glossy travel books and 3-D documentaries, nothing comes close to experiencing another country first hand, to blazing and losing your own way through cities and country-sides, to smelling the air (for better, or worse), to tasting authentic foods (ditto), to mastering or mangling a foreign language, and to learning how locals tick and what may tick them off.

Individual stories may vary, but overall the success of the American Swiss Foundation’s Young Leaders Program is a wonderful case in point. I doubt that many of its alumni wake up on any given morning with Switzerland on their minds. Yet, speaking from my own first US experience as a camp counselor in Vermont at the age of 21, I would guess that memories of people they met and places they saw as “Young Leaders” will surface every time Switzerland is mentioned in their presence.

Exchange programs are invaluable for forging lasting impressions and establishing long-term relationships. Copying this particularly instructive page from the American Swiss Foundation’s program, our diplomatic representations around the US have, since the late 1990s, organized many and a diverse array of study trips of their own.

This February, a delegation of American building specialists and decision makers involved in policy, design, architecture, venture capital, and certification aspects of sustainable building visited Switzerland to define areas of cooperation between the two countries.

Later in the year, we are inviting a delegation of 8 to 12 top-level university administrators from US universities to strengthen institutional ties with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology system and to promote the exchange of young talents. Switzerland and the US both place high value on science, technology, and innovation for their competitiveness in the global knowledge market.

Furthermore, two separate groups of congressional staffers will get a week-long overview of various facets of political, economic and social life in Switzerland and its links to the world. The scenic highlight of the trip is a helicopter ride over mountains, lakes, and towns.

Finally, a delegation from the US Joint Staff will meet with their Swiss counterparts in Berne for their bi-annual Joint Staff Talk with a focus on concrete areas of cooperation, such as Kosovo.

In public diplomacy it is never feast, and often famine. In good times we don’t need it, and in bad times we can’t afford it, or so the thinking sometimes goes. Therefore, I am all the more pleased that, over the years, we have been able to expand our exchange programs thanks to wide recognition from our participants and generous support from our sponsors. I am particularly pleased to work closely with the American Swiss Foundation and look forward to meeting many of the 850 Young Leaders Conference alumni in the coming years.