FLEX Alumni City Representatives in Northwest Russia Plug into U.S. Education

Early on March 23, ten City Representatives and volunteer student advising mentors gathered on the fourth floor of St. Petersburg’s Mayakovsky Library for what would turn out to be a two-day informational tour-de-force. Geared towards the dual purpose of training City Representatives (CRs) to further improve events in northwestern Russia – and preparing fresh student advising mentors with the appropriate background for “promoting educational opportunities in the U.S., advising students on U.S. universities, and reporting on activities on a regular basis” – the conference included input from five alumni speakers, five members of American Councils’ staff, and ten guest lecturers. In traditional FLEX spirit, the participants themselves, who represented six different northwestern regions spanning Arkangelsk to Vologda, were hosted overnight in St. Petersburg by several alumni host families. While the first day of the conference was devoted to City Representatives and the second to student advisors, the overlap between these two groups made it practical to hold a joint training.

Activities got off to a running start on March 23, with Senior English Language Fellow John Scafidi’s presentation on the FLEX program to a group of thirty local secondary school teachers who had also assembled at the library. With major input by Valeria Dinershtein ’05, Sergey Kononenko ’07 (Magadan), Valeriya Nechayeva ’07, and Margarita Potekhina ’06, the presentation was also designed as a “live” training opportunity to teach CRs how to inform educators about the U.S. and the FLEX program. Ideally, CRs would then be able to replicate the training in their local regions. This was followed by two sessions conducted by Mariya Mozgovaya ’98, who spoke on how best to organize and set up alumni events, and the most efficient ways to ensure high turnout and impact in FLEX recruiting. Alumni Coordinator for northwest Russia Valeriya Nechayeva ’07 contributed by giving three mini-workshops on the basics of working with alumni, how to report on alumni events, and how to report on upcoming activities. The evening concluded with a reception at the residence of Public Affairs Officer Eric Johnson. Special guest Honorable Sheila S. Gwaltney, U.S. Consul General in St. Petersburg, was also present to speak with alumni.

The morning of March 24 began with a presentation by Education Advisor to the St. Petersburg Office, Ekaterina Shevchenko ’00, assisted by Roza Vasilyeva ’04. Critically important for the new student advising mentors, who had been selected via application process beginning in late January, Ekaterina and Roza discussed the U.S. educational system in general, and then the specifics of standardized testing and the application process. Bradley Gorski, Senior Education Advisor from the U.S. Education Center in Moscow, gave a seminar on the lives of Russian students who study in the U.S., and offered statistics on international students in America. Douglas O’Neill, vice consul to the St. Petersburg U.S. Consulate General, followed, providing necessary information on acquiring U.S. student visas.

At the conclusion of the training, each of the participants received a packet of information, and a disk filled with sample presentations relevant to the topics discussed. Many expressed their eagerness to get right to work, and their satisfaction with the conference. “The conference gave me a lot of confidence to develop events and report on them in my city,” said Petrozavodsk CR Natalia Kozulina. Thoughts about the new student advising mentors were equally positive. “I enjoyed it, received a lot of useful information, and it inspired me to develop a variety of events in my city, connected with the U.S,” said Mariya Bolshakova ’07 of Kaliningrad.

In the future, the alumni look forward to partnering with local institutions and American Corners to organize U.S.-focused educational events, and working more extensively with the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg and its partner organizations. The two-day workshop supplied an overall confidence boost to the group, and readied them to reinvogorate the alumni network in northwest Russia.