On March 11, 2021, within the framework of international cooperation between the Northern Illinois University, from the United States of America and South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University named after K.D. Ushynsky, the online exchange program «Educate & Engage Global» was launched. At the beginning of the video conference, the Dean of the College of Education at Northern Illinois University Dr. Laurie Elish-Piper told the participants about the research activities of the university, various training programs for teacher candidates in different cities in their state, across the USA, in other countries, and more. The Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Ushynsky University, Dr. Oleksandra Popova, presented to American colleagues the history of the Ukrainian pedagogical institution, its main departments, the achievements of teachers and students, cooperation with foreign partners, and more.

During the meeting, speakers from both universities - Dr. John Evar-Strid (Associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, at  Northern Illinois University) and Dr. Anastasia Yumrukuz (Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Western and Oriental Languages and Methods of Their Teaching at Ushynsky University) - gave lectures on the peculiarities of English language teaching in the USA (as a second/added language in school for bilingual/multilingual students who learn a different language at home), and in Ukraine (as a foreign/international language in schools), respectively. The higher education students who were present at the event had the opportunity to talk to each other and discuss what they heard while working in online breakout rooms/small groups.

This first seminar is part of a series, for which Dr. David Walker (Associate Dean of the College of Education, Northern Illinois University) and Dr. Mariana Alvayero Ricklefs (Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, at Northern Illinois University) met several times to plan, along with Hanna Slobodianiuk (Instructor in the Department of Germanic Philology, at Ushynsky University). The seminars will continue as the virtual exchange  «Educate & Engage Global» during March-April 2021.