Exchange alumni getting down to business

I interviewed a Program Officer at this NGO, UNITER, and she told me that HALF of their staff are American exchange program alumni - either IREX-UNDERGRAD or FLEX. She is an alumn of FLEX 2001, I think. When asked if she felt she took this job because of her exchange experience, she answered that her FLEX experience was the defining experience her life that brought her to a career in activism. Pretty impressive.

My "Youth Voters Forum"

On Tuesday, December 22, I am giving a talk to an audience of Ukraine young adults (ages 18-25) about youth voting election trends in the United States, and then leading a discussion about their views on Ukraine elections, and how, why, or why not they are involved. I am co-organizing this with the US Embassy Public Diplomacy section, and FLEX and the Alumni Resource Center. Also presenting will be three or four Ukrainian NGOs, and a US Political Officer discussing her youth experiences working on U.S. elections. I've been working on this event/concept for about a month now. Pretty excited. :)

I have two broad goals for this event: 1) To gather a group of young Ukrainians together so I can glean their views of the upcoming election, via open discussion and by presenting them with poll data (see the recent Pew Global Attitudes Project) that suggests that their demographic has become disillusioned with the democratic process, and 2) offering them opportunities to be involved with local and international NGOs.

Starting better late than never?

So I am going to start posting to this blog. I know, I know, it is quite shameful that I have not been recording my experiences here, but I am lazy and, I suppose, somewhat solitary like that. Of course, since I am starting this a full 6 weeks after I arrived, the subject of these posts will not be in chronological order as I experience them. I will be going backwards in time, mostly commenting on photos I took on past outings, or news stories, or even tidbits I remember. In a way, this makes sense. I am not traveling around all the time - I am stationary here in Kyiv, working 9 to 5 everyday. So a chronology would add little extra. OK enough. I will begin! Hopefully.