One of the Exchange Visitor program’s long-term goals is to facilitate connections between Americans and citizens of other countries who will become leaders in their industries and ultimately strengthen business relationships and promote good-will between nations. We are confident that Tomas Gandini, our Summer Work and Travel Exchange Visitor, will contribute to this goal. Tomas is an international relations student at Universidad Argentina de la Empresa in Buenos Argentina who is spending his summer in Orlando Florida, working n Food and Beverage at Loews Portofino Bay Hotel. This is Tomas’ second program with World Wide Cultural Exchange. Last year, we recognized him as our Most Valuable Participant because of his interest in engaging with the local government system. This year, Tomas expanded on his connections and agreed to be a WWCE Ambassador. Tomas shares his experience with Orlando’s City Hall and touring the University of Central Florida below!

My Second Work and Travel Program Participation with WWCE

by Tomas Gandini

Well, as you can imagine for the title, this is my second time participating in a W&T program under a J1 Visa with WWCE, and I couldn't be more satisfied with my achievements this season in the USA. Last year was an enlightening experience as well; in 2019 I managed to build some incredible relations with my coworkers and other people from Orlando. However, this time those relations became closer, and I am proud of them. Another thing to highlight from this new journey is that I brought my best friends on the program this time, making them feel what I experienced in 2019. Being able to be in one of my favorite places on earth with my family and friends is unbelievable and a much better trip. 

I kept my interest in the local government, and on the day of my arrival, I went to see my friends at Orlando's City Hall - Luis, Office of Multicultural Affairs and Frank, Office of Mayor Buddy Dyer - to give them some delicatessen from Argentina. Frank was planning a networking lunch for the Argentinian community in Orlando, and through my connection with Frank, I was invited to join. At that event, I had the opportunity to meet some incredible people and get to know about their projects here in Orlando. I am looking forward to keeping in touch with all the Argentinians living in Orlando to hopefully participate in a project all together. It is also important to mention that thanks to Frank, the biggest fan of Argentina, the international relations between Buenos Aires and Orlando has been improving over the years. To highlight, there is now a direct flight available from Buenos Aires to Orlando and back. This accomplishment was achieved by the intense working of Frank and a great lawyer from Argentina, Gonzalo Gandara, whom I’ve met before. Argentina is one of the five countries who most visit Orlando yearly, and our international relations are improving every year. It will be a great honor to help build those relations. 

During this journey to connect with the local Argentina community in Orlando, I meet another awesome guy from my country, Nestor Romera, who has lived in Florida for almost 30 years. He has some interesting projects related to my career, and I didn’t hesitate to start collaborating with him. 

Same as last year, along side with Luis, we arranged two incredible activities for the J1 students doing the program with me. The first was a special tour inside the City Hall for them to see and learn about how the local government performs its duty and also the history of this international city. We started the tour in the morning, and we had the opportunity to visit some pretty cool rooms such as the city council, the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, historical rooms, the new auditorium on the highest floor with an impressive view of downtown Orlando, and others. We ended in the art gallery, and then everyone back to work!!!

The City Hall tour was quite interesting, but nothing compared with the second tour that Luis arranged for us at UCF, the most important university of Florida and one of the biggest in the nation. Luis picked us at City Hall in a private shuttle and took us himself to the campus, 20 minutes away from downtown. Once we got there none of us could believe the magnitude of the campus, unbelievable. In Argentina we are not used to having a big university campus, so this was a whole brand new experience for all the Exchange Visitors. The first thing we saw was the fraternity houses, just like the movies for our surprise. We arrived at the parking lot, same size as the one at Universal Orlando Resort and went straight into the UCF global building. Here, we were given an orientation about the campus life, another awesome thing from this country. Following that presentation, our guide Sergio, who works at the UCF global office, and UCF students gave us a long walk through the campus to show us buildings like the library and the engineering building. It was a hot day, and after an hour we ended up at a restaurant eating a big lunch with a few UCF students. We finished quite tired but with the desire of leaving Argentina and getting into that university hahaha. I am even trying to connect my university in Argentina (UADE) with UCF so they can develop an exchange program between students. 

To summarize, my program is near to the end, and I am never completely satisfied because I didn’t have the time to do a lot of things, I will definitely come back next year with WWCE to better get to know this amazing city full of activities. I also need to mention that I visited the Universal Orlando theme parks more that 60 times this season!

I would like to thank WWCE and all the staff for making this program once again unforgettable.