|
Orenburg Alumni Mark Anniversary of U.S. Consulate General in Yekaterinburg
July 3, 2004
 |
| Ludmila Skovorodko's presentation |  |
| Open World's Orenburg regional alumni coordinator, Andrei Kulagin |  |
| Workshop opening |  |
| Workshop conclusion | Orenburg, Russia - On July 3, 2004, the workshop "The Psychology of Personal Success" was held for Open World alumni in Orenburg. The workshop was the fourth event of the Open World Alumni Outreach Program in the Ural Mountains region of Russia. It was dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Consulate General in Yekaterinburg.
The workshop was preceded by a meeting of U.S. government-sponsored exchange program alumni with Consulate Public Affairs Officer Brad Hurst. Twenty alumni were present at the meeting, including 15 Open World alumni.
Opening remarks were made by Hurst, Sergey Kuznetsov, representing the regional administration, Lyudmila Skovorodko, head of the Regional Universal Scientific Library named in honor of Krupskaya, which hosted the workshop, and Elena Boukovskaya, the manager of the Open World Alumni Outreach Program. Anna Polscha, Open World Alumni Outreach Program Coordinator, acquainted workshop participants with the Open World website.
The alumni shared information about their projects and proposed cooperation with the U.S. Consulate. Igor Khramov (Open World 1999) spoke about the Eurasia Fund established in 2000 in Orenburg through the initiative of former mayor Gennady Donkovtsev. The mission of the fund is the cultural revival of Orenburg Region. Nikolai Dyomin, who returned from his Open World trip this past spring, spoke about his continuing cooperation with Rotary International and the possibility of establishing a Rotary club in Orenburg. Larisa Gerasimenko (Open World 2002 - Women as Leaders) discussed a unique project aimed at preserving the traditional arts and crafts of the Orenburg region. As part of the project, an exhibition of Orenburg goat-down shawls toured throughout Russia and countries of the CIS. She proposed staging the exhibition in the U.S.
After the coffee break, during which the alumni had a chance to continue discussing their projects with Hurst, the workshop activities began in earnest. Olga Lyubivaya, senior psychologist at the Orenburg Center for Social and Practical Psychology, initiated a discussion on the definition of the terms "success" and "evaluation of success." After the discussion, the alumni started practical work on the topic, examining techniques for positive thinking, models for success, objective criteria for personal effectiveness, etc. After completing an exercise on using team building to reach successful results, the workshop participants presented a project for the creation of an American exchange program alumni club in Orenburg. The atmosphere of the workshop was friendly. Dyomin sang the famous Russian song "It’s So Great We Gathered Here Today" after the last session.
The participants noted practical benefits of the workshop. "Such workshops are necessary for creating an alumni community committed to social development," Open World alumna Oksana Sorokina said. "We set up professional and personal contacts that will have a positive impact on our work."
story archive
|
