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If you're worried about rising tuition costs, if you're aware that speaking a foreign language and having international experience opens many doors, if you have given up hope that you can go on a study abroad program, don't dismay just yet.

In today's globalized world, what could be better than to have a global education? Just to get an idea, consider these facts about careers in the federal government:

• There is a growing demand for people with foreign language skills across the federal government.
• Since 9/11 the FBI has hired close to 1,000 linguists. It is projected that 274 new hires will occur in the next fiscal year.
• The National Security Agency (NSA) is aggressively recruiting and plans to hire 1,500 people a year, many of them language analysts, until 2010.
• Due to a the high demand of qualified linguists, the Pentagon is temporarily recruiting foreigners on work or student visas.

Also, according to jobmarketsuccess.com, speaking a foreign language has the following advantages:

• it shows mental agility and flexibility
• it shows dedication and tenacity
• it makes you a more culturally-aware and tolerant person
• it might be useful to you in your career

This website will open your --and your parent's-- eyes. You will find that going abroad as early as in junior high school is more affordable than you think.

We are not a study abroad program. Rather, we provide you with all the tools you need to put together your own program. We give you all the necessary information to apply to the universities that you like in the countries that you choose, as opposed to what's available in your university study abroad program.

By helping you in your research, we're already helping you immerse in a new culture, all by yourself. You will not be surrounded by a group of kids who speak your same language, eat peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches and go to McDonald's in Russia or Argentina. You will be surrounded by kids who speak the language you want to learn, immerse in their worlds, cultures and schools, and drink okroshka or eat dulce de leche. And by the time you come back, you will have learned more about the culture you immersed in than your peers who did the study abroad program, spending less than the equivalent of one year in a private college.

Don't be afraid of becoming an independent study abroad student.

We'll tell you how. You'll reap the benefits.

This multimedia project involves the following components:

Summary information and links to high schools and colleges abroad that accept international students, their requirements and costs (if any).

Information about scholarships, jobs, exchange programs, lodging and more.

Video testimonials of people who have studied abroad and how the experience has changed their lives.

A support network for both parents and students.

Tips on how to get credit for your international experience in USA colleges.

Referral to translation services needed to fill applications, understand and fulfill requirements, etc.

How much more multimedia can you get?

For the past few years, NPR has been making a conscious effort to reinvent itself as a multiplatform force, investing a lot of money in training its people and acquiring new equipments. Allegiances aside, since I've already confessed I'm an NPR fan, I think there's no doubt they've succeeded.

If you have some time to spare, you may want to read about The Transformation of NPR, published at the end of last year by American Journalism Review, and then check the many examples where NPR meets or exceeds its goal "to get our [NPR's] stories and our storytelling and our journalism out to people wherever they are and in whatever form they want to experience it," as NPR Vice President for News, Ellen Weiss, puts it.

But if you don't have enough time, just check out today's story on Obama's trip to the Middle East. In just the summary page, NPR gives you the whole package: The story itself, compelling, well-researched and well-written, as NPR has us accustomed to, the Two-Way Blog with a video of Obama's speech, which you can watch in its entirety or just highlights of it (On the "New Beginning", On Moving Forward, and On Stereotypes), the transcript and the audio of the speech, a photo gallery, and a timeline of US Presidents and the Muslim World, from the 1940's until today.

Inside the link, you can also find the analysis of the speech on "Morning Edition", in case you missed it on your way to work, and other related articles.

And this is just one story. If you look at the rest of the website, you can find pretty much the whole range of multimedia services (except for Twitter)--Radio, podcasts, NPR social network, newsfeeds, mobile, newsletters and a gadget for the Google Desktop Sidebar that plays streams of NPR's programs and let's you listen to the NPR Hourly Newscast.

Just a decade ago, who would have thought that public radio would be at the forefront of embracing multimedia?

*Picture taken from NPR's website (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

Little interest in our neighbor to the South

Today, the political blogosphere is all about Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia. But another milestone took place a few hours ago, also in a foreign land, that may have a huge impact on American foreign policy. The foreign ministers of 34 countries of the Americas (including US Hillary Clinton) met yesterday and today in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to discuss the status of Cuba in the Organization of American States (OAS). After hours of negotiations (that were preceded by months of negotiations by lower-ranking diplomats), all 34 countries decided unanimously to discontinue the measures imposed by Resolution VI of the Eighth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, held in Uruguay in 1962, which excluded the government of Cuba from participating in the inter-American system. Although the foreign ministers also noted that Cuba’s re-entry to the OAS will happen only at the request of the government of Cuba and through a process that involves upholding the principles of democracy and respect for human rights by Cuba, this resolution is already stirring up debate among Cuban-Americans based in Miami and even among some anti-Cuba senators.

Leaving aside what I think about Cuba's re-entry in the inter-American system, I must confess that I was a bit disappointed to find out that this topic was almost ignored by political blogs, except for a few exceptions.

If anyone is interested, here are two good videos posted in You Tube, although before the approval of the resolution, which give a summary of what was happening with Cuba.

Clinton outlines conditions for Cuba entry to OAS

OAS discusses Cuba's re-entry

My Do's and Don'ts of Political Sites

DO'S

* Do embed audio and video clips on every post, as the CNN Political Ticker does.

* Do make an effort to have clean-looking and well-written posts, like The Caucus, the political blog of the The New York Times

* If your articles are going to be long, do be thoughtful and do your research well, as Harvard's http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mesh/ does. This is the only reason not to update your blog every day.

* Do have a very sleek design, like Slate.



DON'TS

* Don't make it almost impossible to find out who wrote what. Although The Economist is one of my favorite publications, I'd like to know who is writing on their Democracy in America blog

* Don't allow your home page to look like a yellow newspaper. Huffington Post might want to hire a new designer.

* Don't have a blog if you can't update it on weekends, like NPR's Political Junkie. That's when most people have more time to read.