Olga Morozan is the heart and soul of Access Microscholarship Program and the Coordinator of iEARN-Moldova projects. She is a true innovator and an inspiring educator who managed to bring the civics component into the English as a foreign language classrooms in more than 20 districts around Moldova. Ever since she started coordinating the program, hundreds of young students from various regions of Moldova were actively engaged in community development projects benefiting children from orphanages, unemployed youth, and social vulnerable families. Her most successful projects were: "Making Changes through Social Theater", 'It is Write or Right? "," Give Your Toy a New Life", and "I Want to Go to School", "Dogtober". Recently, Olga has coordinated the "Innovation in English Language Teaching" training aiming to train 10 Access teachers and teacher assistants from 5 regions of the country (Ribnita, Grigoripol, Causeni, Hincesti, and Edinet) on the up-to-date EFLT methodological topics, referring to integrating technology, media and interactive activities into Access teaching-learning-evaluation process. This way, as a coordinator she always tries to strengthen the Access teachers' status of the 21st Century Educator; thus increasing the quality-based Access students' instruction. |
Corina Ceban started working with American Councils when an ACCESS group of students was opened in Balti, in the northern part of the country in 2010. Her professional growth at the international level started with iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) projects done with ACCESS students. A bunch of digital skills and a huge desire to work and integrate online tools in teaching English as a foreign language were the background of her research work entitled "The development of cultural competence during English classes" in 2013. Using blogs as a teaching tool motivated her to apply for an international project launched by the Ministry of Education and Korean Embassy in Moldova that aimed to deliver Smart Boards in national schools in order to increase students' digital competence. The lessons are now more interactive by using a smart board. When ACCESS Balti students graduated, she discovered new perspectives for her career. In 2014 she became an innovative teacher within the TEMPUS-SMHES - INOVEST: Eastern Partnership in Pedagogical Innovations in Inclusive Education, coordinated by University from Karlsruhe, Germany and the Ministries of Education from Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus. This is a way of implementing new educational software and training regional Moldovan teachers on how to use it. She continued working with American Councils Moldova office and represented Access at international events such as: International Summit in Kiev, International Seminars in Sevastopol and e-teacher courses at the University of Oregon. Her experience as an ACCESS regional teacher encouraged her to apply for a Master's Degree and in 2014 she received her MA in Educational Management. All these competencies she developed while working for American Councils Moldova office helped her elaborate successful local and national educational projects. For example, Corina was one of the trainers within the EFL Blogging School Project administered by American Councils Moldova and financed by US Embassy and US Department of State. Corina was invited to evaluate students' books as a member of a team or national experts selected by the Ministry of Education and Peace Corps Moldova in March- April 2015. Her experience with Access helped her win the SUSI scholarship (Study of United States Institutes for Secondary Educators). As a result of her participation in the SUSI Program will be the elaboration of a new curriculum that will help language teachers from Moldova to integrate new technologies and online tools while teaching the US culture and civilization.