FLEX Alumni Coordinator of the Month for January 2009 – Valeria Svart

FLEX Alumni Coordinator (AC) Valeria Svart ’07, who works alongside with and coordinates the activities of FLEX alumni in Moldova, was named AC of the Month for January 2009! This award is given monthly to the Alumni Coordinator who has exhibited outstanding professionalism by accomplishing one or more of the following: conducting exceptional alumni activities, compiling FLEX alumni successes, obtaining media coverage of events, and finding opportunities to cut costs through cost-sharing.

Valeria is remarkable not only for the sincerity and thoughtful organization that is always present at her alumni events – such as her Halloween Celebration with orphans at the Chisinau school Internat #3, and her Thanksgiving alumni reunion that resulted in thank-you cards to former American host families – but also her genuine desire to fuse the goals of FLEX with larger goals designed to make Moldova a better place to live. To this end, her work in October to organize the conference, “Promoting Moldova Globally,” which included the current press consultant for the United Nations Development Program university students, and local and international NGOs, is exemplary of Valeria’s sense of striving for the bigger picture.

Moreover, Valeria has also served on the election committee for the Sixth Alumni Congress, which gathered 300 alumni from U.S. Government-sponsored programs in October, and as a summit assistant at the Central European Initiative Summit of Heads of Government in December. Yet, among her many commitments, Valeria has also found time to be a key proponent of the 2009 Business for Youth grant project, sponsored by a FLEX Alumni Grant.

Although this project was launched in 2008 by Elena Plesco ’06, Valeria’s work on it has brought in many new partners, and positively transformed many aspects of the original idea, designed to offer ambitious young Moldovans a real entry into the world of business. Valeria has attracted Fulbright scholars, Open World alumni, the Free International University of Moldova, an Austrian NGO known as the Balkan Case Challenge, the student organization AIESEC, and the website of an online business magazine, www.mybusiness.md. Through Valeria’s efforts, Business for Youth’s developments and successes will be displayed on the website for all to see and be inspired by.

Valeria’s understanding of the interconnected, and positively reinforcing nature of volunteerism and civic activism has also prompted her participation in such activities as the International Women’s Club Bazaar (designed to raise money for grants for children), and the Democracy Video Challenge. The latter is organized by U.S. Embassy in Moldova, and asks participants to create a three-minute video describing democracy. Valeria, who along with her teammates, compiled questionnaires and conducted interviews with Moldovans to prompt her fellow citizens to think about what changes they would like to see in their country. Although time constraints eventually prevented submission of the film, it, along with the majority of Valeria’s activities, are and continue to be powerful tools for furthering a deeper understanding of what citizenship is, what being a FLEX alumni means, and how the two can be productively combined.

Another exciting event on Valeria’s horizon was the installation ceremony for a set of bicycle racks at the Free International University of Moldova. Valeria and the organizers of the event hope this step will encourage more people to consider bicycles as a better, alternative form of transportation, in addition to supplying much-needed bicycle parking spaces.

This outstanding AC deserves the award for FLEX AC of the month for her excellence in uniting the alumni community, and inspiring them to develop projects of ever-greater impact.