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FLEX Alumni Facilitate Exchange Between Orphans and Elderly
01/23/12
In December 2011, four alumni of the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program, administered by American Councils for International Education, brought young orphans and elderly people together in an act of American-style volunteerism. For three days, the alumni met with developmentally disabled orphans from Moscow's Boarding School No. 8 to make small gifts and practice songs, which they then presented to residents of an elderly care home. By organizing more than 500 volunteer events in 2011 alone, FLEX program alumni are changing the perception that community-based volunteerism is rare in Russia. The Moscow Times highlighted this volunteer project as a part of a news series on the FLEX program.
Pilot Program Establishes a New Model for U.S.-Russian University Cooperation: "EURECA" Conference Convenes at UCLA
01/18/12
From January 9 to 14, 2012, senior university leaders from the U.S. and Russia convened at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), for the Enhancing University Research and Entrepreneurial Capacity (EURECA) program's annual conference, which focused on building university-industry relations. Following welcome remarks by UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and project sponsors and organizers, U.S. and Russian university partners discussed the results of the first year of the EURECA pilot program and their plans for project development in 2012.
Concrete Collaboration in an Ancient Albanian City
01/09/12
Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Ottoman-era city of Gjirokastra hides a secret below its towering stone houses and cobbled streets. Jonathon Eaton, a Title VIII Southeast European Language Training (SEEL) Fellow, is assisting an Albanian NGO to preserve secret tunnels central to the city's history. Eaton -a graduate student in anthropology from the University of Toronto- spent two weeks in mid-October in Gjirokastra working on this heritage preservation project.
