Future Leaders Exchange: Placement

Program News

• Youth Leaders Participate in English Teaching Workshop 05/02/13
  April 14-20, 2013, the Workshop for Youth Leaders in Teaching English (WYLTE), a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), hosted twenty-eight American Serbia and Montenegro Youth Leadership Exchange (A-SMYLE), Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX), and Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program students. Representing sixteen countries and hosted across the U.S., from Alaska to Florida, these students came together in Washington, D.C. for this intensive, weeklong training program. The workshop cultivated skills specific to teaching English, such as student-centered methodology, resource identification and adaptation, effective use of technology, classroom management, organization skills, and session design and delivery.
• FLEX Students Participate in a Civic Education Workshop 04/10/13
  On March 17th, 100 Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program students arrived in Washington, D.C. to participate in the Civic Education Workshop (CEW) program. These students are currently studying in high schools across the U.S. and were selected to participate in the CEW through a competitive application process.
• The Season of Giving: Russian FLEX Alumni Embrace Reciprocity 12/13/12
  On November 30, forty alumni from the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program gathered for a network fundraising event hosted by the Philips Corporation in Moscow, Russia. The alumni were from the first years of the exchange program, 1994-2000. The master of ceremony for the event was FLEX alumna Marina Malykhina, who spent 1994-95 as an exchange student studying in Amity, Oregon. Today, Marina is a leading businesswoman and successful entrepreneur in Moscow presiding over the Magram Market Research Corporation and the Respublika sports clubs. She also hosts the popular Russian TV show “Capitalists.”
• Volunteering to Make a Difference: An Interview with Mrs. Gerda Gray 11/28/12
  For 20 years, Mrs. Gerda Gray has volunteered with American Councils to help evaluate prospective participant applications. Mrs. Gray makes the special, dedicated commitment to meticulously review applications for a number of U.S. Department of State-funded programs, including the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program, the American Serbia and Montenegro Youth Leadership Exchange (A-SMYLE), and the Youth Leadership Program with Azerbaijan (YLP).
• The Practice of Civic Engagement: American Councils’ Almaty Staff and FLEX Alumni Work to Promote Reading 10/09/12
  News from Jessica Leonard, Regional Director, Central Asia During July and August, nearly 6,000 city residents in Almaty, Kazakhstan participated in a unique reading campaign supported by American Councils staff in Almaty, and alumni from the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program. This reading campaign, a first of its kind in the city, was promoted through the introduction of an innovative, outdoor, mobile library, known as the Uni, which was set up in public parks and other prominent city spaces in Almaty. American Councils staff and FLEX alumni worked in the library over the course of eight weeks, providing patrons with an opportunity to read a diverse selection of books, to be immersed in a breadth of literature, and to engage in dialogue with other city residents also visiting the library. Over 3,000 patrons actually read books and used mobile library resources during their visit.
• FLEX Alumni in Ukraine Hold Sustainability Summit 09/26/12
  From August 3-5, 2012, Solutions!, a Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program alumni association in Ukraine, hosted a Sustainability Summit to build awareness about sustainability initiatives in Ukraine. This three-day educational event, organized in conjunction with the Ukrainian non-governmental organization (NGO) Greencubator, was held along the beaches of the Azov Sea in the Crimean town of Shcholkine, Ukraine. The Summit brought together 109 participants to discuss the relationship between alternative energy patterns and grassroots community development in Ukraine.
• FLEX EFL 2012 Summer Camp in Moldova Helps Eurasian FLEX and A-SMYLE Finalists Improve Their English 08/27/12
  One of the most exciting and enriching summer projects run by American Councils’ Moldova office is the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) English as a Foreign Language (EFL) camp for finalists of the FLEX program, finalists from the American Serbia and Montenegro Youth Leadership Exchange (A-SMYLE) program, and participants who have visual, hearing, and mobility impairments. This year, 20 students from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine who became FLEX and A-SMYLE finalists, participated in the interactive summer camp located in the Moldovan capital city of Chisinau. Five participants from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Ukraine were finalists with impairment. The camp aimed to help participants improve their SLEP scores, hone their English, and deepen their American cultural competency. Students engaged with fellow colleagues and American Councils Moldova staff throughout the month-long camp as they worked to expand their global awareness, and prepare for a successful study abroad term in the U.S.
• Future Leaders Exchange Program Hosts Capitol Hill Reception to Celebrate Twenty Years! 06/25/12
  On June 13, 2012, nearly 200 Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) students gathered at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C. for a special reception to kick off celebrations of the twentieth anniversary of the FLEX program. The group of high school students from six Eurasian countries had just completed a 10-month cultural exchange in the U.S. In front of an audience of program administrators and coordinators, representatives from the U.S. Department of State, ambassadors, host families, and friends, participants shared experiences they had while living in the U.S., reminisced about the program’s history, and prepared to travel back to their home countries with new perspectives shaped by their year abroad.
• Ukrainian FLEX Alumni Improve Local Dog Shelter 05/21/12
  On February 11, 2012, Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program alumna, Yana Mizyakivska, and seven volunteers arrived at Planet dog shelter in Vinnytsya, Ukraine with monetary donations, gloves, brooms, buckets, and dog food. During their sixth visit to the shelter, the volunteers fed and tended to the dogs, and painted their enclosure.
• Exchanges to Internships: FLEX Begins Its Second Year of Government Internships In Kyrgyzstan 04/16/12
  On February 15, fifteen Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program alumni began their internships in a range of Kyrgyz government offices including the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Youth, the Ministry of Economics, the Ministry of Social Policy, and the Kyrgyz Parliament. Now in its second year, the U.S. State Department-funded "FLEX Exchanges to Internships" program provides university-age FLEX alumni the opportunity to intern with Kyrgyz government institutions for four months in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The internship program aims to provide FLEX alumni with a unique opportunity for professional development and allows the public sector to benefit from enthusiastic, skilled, U.S.-educated Kyrgyz university students.