WSHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The U.S. Department of State has named Cristina Poleacovschi as State Alumni Member of the Month. Poleacovschi is a Moldovan alumna of the Department’s Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program and the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGRAD). Poleacovschi’s volunteering spirit blossomed during her exchanges in 2004 and 2008. After she returned to Moldova, Poleacovschi drew on her experiences in the United States to apply and win funding through the U.S. Embassy Alumni Resource Center to implement both the Business for Youth Program and the Bridges Between Us (BBU) project.
Under the Business for Youth Program, Poleacovschi and a group of active alumni in Chisinau taught high school and university students in five regions of Moldova the basics of business through a six-week course of presentations and trainings. Through the BBU project, Poleacovschi and fellow Global UGRAD alumna Olga Zolotco trained groups of recently returned alumni from eight cities throughout Moldova in project management and organization. Both projects enabled alumni of various U.S. government-sponsored exchange programs to promote mutual understanding and extend the ideals of their international experience to the greater community in towns and cities across Moldova.
Poleacovschi has organized and participated in community service activities, such as events at a local orphanage that taught children about U.S. culture. In addition, Poleacovschi and fellow alumni put on a charity rock concert, inviting six local bands. The money raised at that event helped fund a journalism summer camp for students with physical disabilities.
Looking forward, Poleacovschi is planning activities dedicated to developing a youth “green movement” in Chisinau. Together with former FLEX alumna Valeriya Svartz, Poleacovschi is working with local universities to organize an environmental week called “Ecoweek: Learn. Do. Connect.” which will take place in the spring of 2010.
Throughout April, her leadership and promotion of community service will be recognized on the State Alumni website, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ official website for the more than one million alumni who have participated in a Department-sponsored exchange program. Each month, the Bureau’s Office of Alumni Affairs, which supports alumni as they build on their exchange experiences, confers the award on an outstanding alumnus or alumna. For more information, visit the websites of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
