International Affairs Forum

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Belko Peace Lecture features Karen Segal discussing immigration

On Oct. 11, Karen Puschel Segal will speak at Trinity Church in Northport for the 2025 Belko Peace Lecture. Her topic is “The Immigration Challenge in America Today.” Karen had a 20-year career in the Department of State, first as an intelligence analyst of Soviet Affairs and then as a diplomat in Russia. Upon moving to Traverse City, she became Co-Chair and Director of NMC’s International Affairs Forum. Now, Karen leads a local team resettling families from Afghanistan and Ukraine. She knows first-hand how our nation has been dealing with immigrants, including right here in northern Michigan.

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Kenya partnership spreads global solutions for girls

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Global changemaker Madhvi Dalal travels from her native Kenya to Northern Michigan this October for a series of events at which she’ll share solutions to some of the most surprising and challenging issues facing women and girls across the world. The visit expands a partnership between Dalal and the Uplift Travel Foundation—a Leelanau-based nonprofit where participants travel with a purpose, walking alongside local visionaries to help them solve their community’s most pressing issues while finding authentic connections and friendships that transcend borders. Uplift has worked with Dalal to provide reusable menstrual pads and empowerment training to women in villages across Kenya’s Maasai Mara. The project now also includes Northwestern Michigan College staff and students in a variety of exciting ways.

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D-Day veteran, longtime Leelanau resident, to receive French Legion of Honor

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The International Affairs Forum at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City has announced that longtime Leelanau County resident Dick Grout, who is 103 years old, will be presented with the French Legion of Honor by Yannick Tagand, the Consul General of France in Chicago, in a private ceremony on Tuesday, Jan. 30, at Kirkbride Hall in the Grand Traverse Commons. Grout took part in the Allies’ D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944—the seminal battle on the Western Front during the Second World War. He was earlier awarded both a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for his service.

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National Writers Series author Egan casts a world out of balance

New York Times best-selling author Dan Egan writes about the source of great bounty—and now great peril—all over the world in his new book The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance. He’ll visit the Traverse City Opera House on Friday, March 10, at 7 pm, for an event co-hosted by the National Writers Series and the International Affairs Forum at Northwestern Michigan College. Patrick Shea, environmental reporter at Interlochen Public Radio, will be the event’s guest host.

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