Join World Clean-up Day on September 17 | | World Cleanup Day is a movement that began in Estonia in 2018 and has since spread to 191 countries and more than 60 million volunteers! In 2021, 115 alumni from 21 countries joined this movement with 45 cleanup events in 51 cities, engaging 345 members of their communities as volunteers. Alumni also reached 7,716 social media users with campaigns that promoted sustainable, waste reduction, and taking action to keep one’s community clean. This September 17, we encourage you to gather members of your own community - your family, friends, colleagues, classmates - for a cleanup action where you live, or contact your local Alumni Coordinator to find out how to get involved in activities they are organizing! | | Register for the First International Alumni Mentoring Games | | |
The Alumni Mentoring Games is a unique, international, six-week virtual mentoring and networking opportunity for alumni of all generations. Every two weeks, participants will be matched with three new contacts, some “mentors” and some “mentees,” based on their interests, needs, and areas of specialization. This program was inspired by a program of the same name alumni organized in Kazakhstan in 2019. Read more about it here!
Register by September 15 to network with alumni from up to 30 countries, gain access to exclusive training opportunities, and of course have the chance to earn FLEX prizes!
| | How to Leverage Your Exchange Experience Professionally | | Join a webinar on Leveraging Your Exchange Experience Professionally hosted by iEARN-USA on September 6 at 10 AM ET. The speakers, Minerva University Regional Outreach Director Alena Savitskaya and YES alumnus Mar Smaili ’08 from Morocco, will advise attendees on how to utilize their exchange experience when applying to jobs or universities, writing cover letters, or answering interview questions. You can read more about the webinar below, or on the YES program website. | | FLEX Appreciation Day 2022 | | FLEX Appreciation Day has moved! Our largest annual celebration of the FLEX program will now take place on the first Friday in October. This year, that is October 7. It is never too early to start planning! Contact your Alumni Coordinator to find out what is being planned in your country or share your own ideas for how to mark this occasion. How will you celebrate FLEX this year? | | |
HAPPENING NOW
Global Village on the Move in Kyrgyzstan
The first of two Global Village on the Move programs took place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan from August 23-29, gathering 43 youth exchange alumni. During the workshop, participants attended sessions led by facilitators from Lehigh University’s Iacocca Institute on project design and pitching one’s ideas, but the core of the workshop was the group projects. In eight project groups, participants worked on a UN Sustainable Development Goal project design challenges.
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The Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program is a United States Department of State-sponsored program for secondary school students from Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine. The program provides merit-based scholarships for students to travel to the United States, live with a host family, and attend a U.S. high school for a full academic year. Learn more at www.discoverflex.org.
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