WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Open World Leadership Center, an agency of the U.S. Congress, will welcome its 20,000th participant when Ms. Olga Shchetinina, age 24, arrives in Washington, D.C. as a member of a larger delegation of emerging Russian professionals on November 14. Ms. Shchetinina will be recognized November 15 during the groups’ orientation by Open World Trustee Secretary R. James Nicholson.

Ms. Shchetinina, of Chelyabinsk, Russia, is the director of the private AntOlchik Children’s Development Center, which she founded. The center is highly regarded in Chelyabinsk and the surrounding region for the quality of educational programs and for its involvement in fundraising and awareness events. Olga hopes that her participation in the Open World program will help her launch joint projects in language teaching for young learners. She hopes to share with her American counterparts best practices in running a successful educational start-up and some of the innovative techniques that she is using at AntOlchik.

Olga will be hosted in San Francisco by Open World’s Young Professional Advisory Committee member, Sam Stone and national grantee the Center for Safe Energy.

Open World supports Congressional outreach to Eurasia and other countries. It conducts exchanges that establish lasting professional relationships between the up-and-coming leaders of Open World countries and Americans dedicated to showcasing U.S. values and democratic institutions.  Open World has introduced more than 20,000 current and future decision makers from Russia, other countries of Eurasia, Egypt, and now Turkey to American political and civic life, and to their American counterparts. The U.S. Congress established Open World in 1999.

###