St. Pete Standard

The City of St. Petersburg and its Sister City Takamatsu, Japan, are set to restart their Student Ambassador Program this July after a hiatus of more than four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The program will see three local high school students from St. Petersburg representing the city as goodwill ambassadors in Takamatsu.

Participants in the Student Ambassador Program engage in daily activities, visit landmarks, and share cultural experiences with Japanese host families. In return, high school students from Takamatsu will be hosted by families in St. Petersburg for similar cultural exchanges.

This year’s representatives from St. Petersburg include Ava Carvalis (St. Pete Catholic High School), Leland Kilborn (Lakewood High School Center for Advanced Technologies), and Madison Schmitz (Northeast High School).

"The Student Ambassador Program is a core element of our Sister City relationship with Takamatsu, Japan,” said Mayor Kenneth T. Welch. “When Mayor Onishi visited St. Petersburg last year to celebrate more than 60 years of friendship, we made a commitment to bring this program back and invest in the development of our young people. I'm impressed by the talented students who will be representing St. Pete in Takamatsu this summer."

In early July, American students will travel to Takamatsu for a 10-day stay with their counterpart ambassadors. Later that month, three Japanese student ambassadors and their chaperones will visit St. Petersburg for a similar 10-day trip.

St. Petersburg has maintained its Sister City relationship with Takamatsu since 1961, facilitating numerous exchanges among students, teachers, and mayors over the years. In October 2023, Mayor Hideto Onishi traveled to St. Petersburg to commemorate over six decades of formal relations between the two cities.

The St. Petersburg International Folk Fair Society, Inc., known as SPIFFS, supports the establishment of the Student Ambassador Program and manages the Sister Cities Program for St. Petersburg while also organizing the annual International Folk Fair.

Sister Cities International was founded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 as a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that serves as a national membership body for sister cities across the United States.

More information about the Sister Cities Program can be found at sistercities.org and stpetesistercities.org.

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