In a world that began the previous century with less than two billion inhabitants and that began the current century with over six billion inhabitants it is imperative that the education and experience of the emerging architect be global in its perspective and mission. There is no question that as Thomas Friedman has described in detail in his new book "The World is Flat" we are in an unprecedented age of population growth, resource consumption and information systems that are displacing and reinventing the basic foundations of our global societies. It is indeed an age of "post traditional geopolitical and military systems that now engage new structures of design, production, distribution and information systems" that are redefining our societies and our profession.

It is clear that the status of our professional education, internship experience, system of examination and our profession is held in high regard by most countries and their professional societies. Our professionals are engaged in virtually every country in the world through reciprocal agreements, limited partnerships or associations. It is imperative that if we could only change one thing about the current Internship Development Program it would be to expand our system to include participation by our emerging professionals in these international organizations and their recognized counterparts thought the world. The long established quality standards of our region and our counterparts is being matched throughout the world through "imbedded intelligence" and "global information systems" that deal directly with high quality interactive design, production and construction systems that impact the built environment.

Over the past few decades many of our professionals have explored many of these concepts regarding educational and professional experience standards and accreditation such as China by developing their National Board of Architectural Accreditation (NBAA) based on similar principles of our (NAAB) National Architectural Accreditation Board. Their system not only describes educational and professional responsibilities but also includes the "Design Institutes" directly into the educational and professional experience. The experience component of professional development is absolutely "seamless" in its conception and implementation. Even today NCARB is exploring certification for the (BEFA) Broadly Experienced Foreign Architect. Clearly there are many different models that need to be considered.

Although our respective countries constitute less than four percent of today's global population we must be able to provide responsible leadership and engage in this critical international process. The work of developing a "seamless" system to fully develop the "global engagement" and "competitive potential" of our emerging professionals and our profession is imperative if we are to fulfill our professional and ethical responsibilities.