Education Bulgaria Project #48524

Empower Students through Leadership Training

by Bulgarian English Speech and Debate Tournaments Foundation

Empower Students through Leadership Training

Project Report | Apr 7, 2023
Community projects with valuable and noble causes

By Vanya Zlateva | Executive Director

After the start of the SL program in October, the student leaders started preparing for implementation of the projects they had set themselves as a goal. They participated in regular online meetings with their mentors - the Coordinators of the SL program Villi - Ann Doneva and Bilyana Bagryanova. They received guidance on issues that arose and brainstormed options for solving them.

At the same time and during all four tournaments (Fall - West and East and Spring - West and East) student leaders had a main role in their teams mentoring and supporting their fellows and providing them with valuable advice during the events. They have also invested a lot of effort in the organisation of their teams prior to the tournaments helping with many administrative tasks and communicating with the BEST Management Team. During the opening ceremonies student leaders performed creative and fun speeches which were highly enjoyed by all participants. Student leaders managed to create a sense of team spirit and enthusiasm in their schools and even recruited new students who joined the BEST community.

They created and displayed posters that featured the competitors from their schools. The posters were hung in the corridors of schools and were an attraction and entertainment for all participants.

Community Projects Progress

At the moment student leaders are finalising the work on their community projects and the results will be presented during the SL Wrap Up Seminar in Sofia on the 29th of April.

For the most curious of you, here are some of the projects which will be presented at the end of April and will be competing for the Awards which we have prepared:

1/ Student Union (Team Gotse Delchev)

The main purpose of this Student Union is to help children. They plan to do visitations at the local orphanage, helping the orphanage with donations and organizing, relative to personal interest, games at local high schools. This project seeks to bring encouragement and a feeling of meaning and hope for children that are in disadvantaged positions and who have lost, for whatever reason, it may be, the original drive they possessed to work towards their dreams.

2/ A free day in the mountains for kids (Team SELS Sofia)

The aim of the project is for kids to spend more time outside and learn that nature has so much to offer and gain some useful survival skills. The project was successfully executed in Vitosha Mountain with the help of The Central Youth Club of Bulgarian Scouts. It involved elementary school students who spent a day in the woods having fun and learning about nature.

3/ Talent Show with a cause (Team Montana)

The idea of the project was to organize a talent show which was a platform for talented young artists, actors, and musicians to showcase their talent. The main goal was to focus on getting the local community together, having a fun time, and doing something good. The cause of the project was to raise money for prematurely born babies.

and many more…

Wrap Up Seminar coming soon

The semester will end with the Wrap Up Seminar which will be held in hotel Shipka, Sofia, on the 29th of April 2023. This is the time when Student Leaders will present their Community Projects. The project results will be discussed and Management Team members will provide them with valuable feedback and assess the quality of the projects.

All of the teams were working very hard and showed a high level of commitment to their local community during the Spring semester. Through their projects student leaders created connections between students (BEST and non BEST) and the local community and built a culture of support and engagement. After being involved with the Community Projects the adults (members of the NGOs, local businesses, municipality administration representatives) were more engaged and had better understanding of the problems and interests of youth. The projects established a “Can do” attitude among youth.

Judging from the feedback that student leaders provided we can conclude that this has been an amazing year for them and they gained useful skills that they can apply later at work or university. On the personal level, they managed to create solid friendships and learned more about themselves, supported their team mates in school and even recruited new students who joined the BEST community.

We can not wait for the amazing Project presentations at the end of April!
Thank you for your continued support!

Permalink

Dec 9, 2022
Student Leaders create meaningful Community Projects

By Vanya Zlateva | Executive Director

In 2022 Student Leader (SL) Program accepted 26 nominated students from 15 cities across Bulgaria. As you know, BEST’s Student Leader Program trains Bulgarian high school students participating in BEST to be team leaders, mentors to younger students, and active servants in their home communities. Student Leaders are nominated by their BEST coach for their outstanding leadership, encouragement, and commitment to their team. The concept of the program can be seen in its two-way impact: SLs are helping not only their fellow students but the local community as well. The community projects that have been implemented by the participants throughout the years provide us with a great example of the added value of the program. Awards are given at the end of the year for the most outstanding performances.

Traditionally, at the beginning of the school year, a Student Leader training was held in Sofia for a weekend training held in Hotel Forum - 7-9 October. All the students participated and we had an unforgettable weekend. Several workshops were made and they covered titles such as: how to create and manage a BST team, attracting candidates for BEST tournaments, fundraising.

A couple of sessions were organized for generating a Community project ideas: student leaders were divided into groups and had to come up with their own mini-project under the guidance of a management team member. Then they presented it in front of everybody and were given valuable feedback - strengths and weaknesses were pointed and discussed.

We had a guest Alumni of the program who presentedtheir successful project from previous year and shared knowledge and tips for success.

There was a guest lecture, a Psychology Professor from the American University – Ron Harvey, who organized several unforgettable Team Building games. The main goal was to present ideas how to make their BEST teams more united and strong via game and fun.

All this activities help the student leaders create a strong community for the year to come. The program creates a sense of belonging among the SLs which is vital for the BEST community.

Currently, the students are close to the deadline to submit their proposals for the community projects they will implement in the Spring semester.

We look forward to the new ideas that we will see realized in May 2023.

Thank you for your continued support and we wish you very happy holidays!

Permalink

Aug 12, 2022
The BEST Zoo! Community Project of the Year

By Lina Jarad | Executive Director

Dear friends of BEST,

On April 30th, BEST Foundation hosted the Students Leaders’ wrap-up seminar in Hotel Shipka in Sofia, which was its final event for the 2021/2022 academic school year. This year’s cohort of 35 Student Leaders gathered together for a day of sharing, reflection, birthday celebrations, and laughter.

The students all presented the community projects they had been working on since November and described all the challenges, successes, and lessons learned along the way. Their projects tackled a wide range of topics including womens’ empowerment, community buildings, environmental conservation, and many more. A panel of judges, consisting of members of BEST’s Management team, was also present in order to give out the project of the year award, as well as the Student Leader of the year award.

Amongst the many promising projects Gabriella and Bogolyuba's idea stood out the most and they snatched the best project prize. The two students from Haskovo’s “Prof. Dr. Asen Zlatarov” FLHS were concerned with improving the living conditions of the animals in their hometown’s zoo, as well as educating the wider public on a broad range of issues concerning animal welfare and rights. The ambitious project had two main aims. Through a number of vents, it managed to inform the citizens of Haskovo on how to improve the relationship between humans and animals. On top of that, the two girls secured better living conditions for the inhabitants of “Kenana” Zoo. Thanks to their efforts one of the zoo’s lions will be moved to a nature reserve in a different European country.

Katerina and Desislava from HSM “Dr. Petar Beron” in Varna were chosen as the best student leaders for this academic year for their constant hard work and engagement with our community. They have showcased unrelenting support for their fellow students and very responsible attitude towards their role as Student Leaders.

This event concluded our Student Leader Program activities for the academic year. At the time of writing this report we are working on the new cohort of student leaders for the 2022-2023 which has been selected and accepted with training being planned for October 2022.

Thank you for your continuous support and have a great rest of your summer!

best regards,

Lina

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.