Looking for Junior Team Panama

PANAMA. I arrived in Panama on August 21 alongside twenty other young Canadians. We were on a Trade and Development Mission with Junior Team Canada – the flagship program of Global Vision.

As Terry Clifford, the founder of Global Vision, states: “We are in the business of producing leaders.” This is evidenced by their experience delivering world-class leadership training since 1991. Over that time Global Vision has honed its method and is now ready to extend its expertise to the youth of Panama. It all started during our time with the Deputados from the Panamanian National Youth Assembly.

It was clear that the relationships we began to create with these young leaders were more buoyant than those of a one-time meeting. Moreover, as the free trade agreement gets closer to finalization our two countries will only get to know each other more and involving the youth is an important aspect to that process.

That is why we are working hard to establish a Junior Team Panama so that they can explore Canada and see what opportunities our country presents for them.

Now as exciting as that prospect was for us, our time in Panama did not end there. Junior Team Canada remained in Panama until August 26, meeting with the Chamber of Commerce and visiting the Panama Canal amongst other things. But for me and two other Junior Team Canada Ambassadors, we still craved more so we decided to extend our stay.

Over ten additional days we were able to visit Santiago, Santa Catalina, and of course Bocas del Toro before returning to Panama City for some additional meetings.

We met with lawyers, IT specialists, agricultural producers, and I even sat in on a law lecture at USMA.

We fell in love with Panama – the people, the beauty, the opportunities - and we wanted to experience everything we could.

Now that we have returned to Canada there isn’t a day that goes without thoughts of Panama.

It’s safe to say we had the time of our lives there and we are busy calculating ways to get back.

At the same time it excites us to think about the friends we made in Panama and how honored we would be to share our country with them.

So to Panamanians reading this, I say thank you for having us. We will definitely be back. And should you ever want to visit Canada, you are welcome.

For more information on Global Vision/ Junior Team Canada visit www.globalvision.ca or www.myglobalvision.com