Tomorrow’s global leaders are spending time in North Texas as part of a program designed to build international friendships and leadership skills that will last long after the students return home. Fort Worth Sister Cities International is hosting high school students from Japan, China, Eswatin i and the United States for its annual Global Leaders in Action program. During the two-week experience, participants explore leadership through health care, civic engagement and technology while learning the value of citizen diplomacy. One stop on the students’ visit included the simulation labs at UNT Health Fort Worth, where they gained firsthand exposure to health care education and innovation. “We want our participants to be able to interact with people from other cultures, other countries who speak other languages,” Fort Worth Sister Cities International President and CEO Kippen de Alba Chu said. While the program focuses on leadership development, organizers say its greatest benefit comes from helping students connect across cultures. “We are in different countries, we have different cultures — how can we communicate with each other,” participant Hu Yawen said. De Alba Chu said those connections can have a lasting impact. “It’s essential because when they turn their gaze outward, they find there are more similarities than differences with people from other cultures,” de Alba Chu said. Participant Eswatini Mbabane said finding common ground is key to building lasting relationships. “It’s important to find common interests in people because when we’re all old it’s going to help us connect better to connect our companies or connect our dreams together because we all have very similar dreams,” participant Busa Motsa said. “But once you have something in common, you can kind of use that as a base for this friendship that you can have to create something better,”Daniel Barreto from Fort Worth said. Students stay with host families throughout the two-week program, which ends this week. This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication. ...read more read less