Romanian Alumni Community Newsletter - Volume I, Issue 11
1. Welcome to
Romanian Alumni
Community
Romanian Alumni Community
Monthly Newsletter
Bucharest, November 30, 2011
Volume I, Issue 11
Alumni News
From Alumni
Table of Contents
Alumni News
Romanian Alumni Community Celebrating Thanks-
giving ► U.S. Alumni and Grantees
News from Yudit Kornberg Greenberg,
From Alumni
U.S. Fulbright Scholar
► Romanian Alumni and Grantees
News from Dr. Mohsen Razzaghi, U.S. Ful-
Interwoven American and Romanian Schools in bright Scholar
Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program
(TEA) Conference Organized by Cornel Marian,
U.S. Fulbright Alumnus
Fulbright Alumni at the 12th National RATE Con-
ference (Timişoara 2011)
Romanian Fulbright Alumnus Virgil-Florin Duma at
World Science Forum Alumni Information
Testimonial from Diana Melian, Romanian TEA
Alumna Alumni Links
Fulbright Alumnus to be Named the First KPMG
Fellow in Romania
New Book Translated by Romanian Fulbright
Alumna Cristina Chevereșan
http://www.facebook.com/
Romanian.US.Fulbright.Commission
https://alumni.state.gov/romania www.fulbright.ro 1
2. Bucharest, November 30, 2011
Volume I, Issue 11
Alumni News
Romanian Alumni Community Celebrating Thanksgiving
On November 23, the Romanian Alumni Community met to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. The event
brought together over 100 Romanian alumni of U.S. Government-sponsored exchange programs to
the United States such as Fulbright, IVLP, Hubert H. Humphrey, Ron Brown, New Century Scholars,
Benjamin Franklin Summer Institute, Young Leaders Dialogue with America and Study of the U.S. In-
stitutes, but also U.S. Fulbright grantees and alumni who are currently in Romania.
The event started with welcome speeches from Dr. Remus Pricopie, President of the Romanian Ful-
bright Board of Directors, Ms. Patricia Guy, Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy and Ms.
Edwina Sagitto, Cultural Officer at the U.S. Embassy. After welcoming the guests, U.S. Fulbright grant-
ees Katelyn Arlene Browher and Nicole Kay Wells introduced us to the Thanksgiving history, customs &
traditions.
Besides the essential aspect of networking between alumni, becoming reacquainted, meeting new
alumni, sharing experiences and increasing the visibility of the U.S. Government sponsored exchange
programs brand overall, the event was an occasion to meet for a celebration of Thanksgiving, an
American tradition which tried to recreate the atmosphere lived by the Romanian alumni during their
grants in U.S. and made the U.S. grantees in Romania feel more like home, in an open and relaxed
atmosphere.
We are grateful to all the Romanian and U.S. alumni and grantees who have joined us for the event
and we take this opportunity to thank our guest speakers. More pictures are available here.
https://alumni.state.gov/romania www.fulbright.ro
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3. Bucharest, November 30, 2011
Volume I, Issue 11
From Alumni
► Romanian Alumni and Grantees
Interwoven American and Romanian Schools in Teaching Excellence and Achievement Pro-
gram (TEA)
For three weeks, the Romanian TEA participant Mihaela Fodor, from “Petru Rares” National College,
Suceava, had the chance to co-work with American teachers, in Mount Logan Middle School, Utah and to
visit classes in St. John’s school, Houston, Texas. “A fruitful and challenging exchange of teaching meth-
ods, cultural elements and the use of technology in class made this experience rich and worthy. Stu-
dents in American schools are respectful, disciplined and relaxed, all these due to a variety of teaching
approaches used by their teachers, i.e., TPR, pair/group work, games and simulations, case study/
projects, story-based teaching, debates, experiments, and extensive use of technology, such as video
projector, ppt. presentations, smart board, computer- based lessons, authentic video and audio materi-
als. Either it is about state school (Logan Middle) or private school (St. John’s) a pleasant working at-
mosphere floats in the air.” Mihaela Fodor
Jennie Brasfield, Mount Middle School, Logan, Michael Seckman, St. John’s School,
Utah (partner teacher in TEA program) Houston, Texas (former teacher exchange grantee)
Fulbright Alumni at the 12th National RATE Conference (Timişoara 2011)
“ELT – Skill, Art and Motivation”, the 12th National RATE (Romanian
Association of Teachers of English) Conference, took place in Timi-
şoara at the end of last month. For three full days (October 28-30),
Romanian and foreign teachers, mentors, textbook authors and edi-
tors shared their professional knowledge and experience with their
peers, in an impressive array of plenary lectures, workshops, talks
and group activities. Among the participants, two Fulbright alumni
took the opportunity to introduce the program and its indisputable
benefits to all those interested. Robert Manning (Quincy University,
USA) and Cristina Chevereşan (University of Timişoara, Romania)
used their own examples to encourage future applications, empha-
sizing both the academic and the personal gains of living, traveling,
teaching and doing research in different, yet fascinating, environments. In an interactive presentation
entitled Transatlantic Exchanges: The Fulbright Experience from Both Sides, the two speakers captured
the essence of the Fulbright spirit, giving the audience insight into a unique way of establishing lasting
connections between people(s) and cultures.
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Romanian.US.Fulbright.Commission
https://alumni.state.gov/romania www.fulbright.ro 3
4. Bucharest, November 30, 2011
Volume I, Issue 11
From Alumni
Romanian Fulbright Alumnus Virgil-Florin Duma at World Science Forum
FAST (Fulbright Academy of Science and Technology) has formed a
group of over 30 Fulbright Alumni from around the world to partici-
pate in a dedicated Fulbright Alumni delegation at the World Sci-
ence Forum (http://www.sciforum.hu/) that has been held on Nov.
17-19, 2011 in Budapest. The Fulbright delegation has been in-
vited by the Hungarian Academy of Science which is fully support-
ing its participation to this prestigious international event, focused
on latest scientific development, but also on policy issues in Re-
search and Higher Education. Global issues are addressed at the
WSF by UNESCO, AAAS, Royal Society and other international or-
ganizations, while the Forum has benefited from the participation
of several Nobel laureates and prestigious academia. Dr. Virgil-
Florin Duma, Fulbright Alumnus at The Institute of Optics of the University of Rochester, NY (2009-
2010) has been selected by FAST to represent Romania at the WSF as part of the Fulbright delegation.
Testimonial from Diana Melian, Romanian TEA Alumna
“Everybody wonders about the American dream. I had the chance to live the
dream, due to the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program. Interna-
tional teachers had the opportunity to develop their expertise, to learn and
teach. (….) Words are not enough to express my gratitude to the Fulbright
Commission, United States Department of State, IREX and Claremont Graduate
University for ones in a life time chance. The story will not end here. This is
only the turning point for my professional life.” Diana Ioana Melian—History
teacher, Technical High School of Comunication “N.V.Karpen”, Bacau, Romania.
To read the entire testimonial please click here.
Fulbright Alumnus to be Named the First KPMG Fellow in Romania
Dr. Catalin Albu, currently Associate Professor of Accounting at the Bucha-
rest Academy of Economic Studies (ASE), Romania, has been named the
first KPMG Fellow in Romania. Catalin is Fulbright Senior Fellow 2011 at the
University of Dayton, where he taught and conducted research with Ameri-
can colleagues. The KPMG Foundation has initiated professorships at the US
level since 1974 , to acknowledge the central role faculty play in the aca-
demic process. Wanting to be the first to contribute to the development of
local faculty in our country, KPMG Romania has initiated KPMG Professor-
ships for deserving local academics within the cooperation agreement with
ASE. Considering his Fulbright experience, KPMG awarded Catalin the first
title of KPMG Fellow, wanting to encourage excellence in teaching and re-
search by local faculty. KPMG Romania and Catalin are committed to engage
in a process of bringing ever closer the accounting academic and business environments, in the mutual
benefit, and especially, of ASE's students.
New Book Translated by Romanian Fulbright Alumna Cristina Chevereșan
Cristina Cheveresan, Romanian Fulbright Alumna in 2010-2011 translated into Romanian
a book by entitled “The Memory Chalet” by Tony Judt. Cristina was a Visiting Fulbright
Scholar at Harvard University.
More details about the book at: http://www.polirom.ro/catalog/carte/cabana-memoriei-
4306/
https://alumni.state.gov/romania www.fulbright.ro 4
5. Bucharest, November 30, 2011
Volume I, Issue 11
From Alumni
► U.S. Alumni and Grantees
News from Yudit Kornberg Greenberg, U.S. Fulbright Scholar
“After about a month of teaching at the University of Bucharest, I was pleased to re-
ceive an invitation to lecture at Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu. As much as I am enjoy-
ing the rich cultural and intellectual life in Bucharest, i also appreciated the opportunity
to travel to another city in Romania, especially one as beautiful as Sibiu. My lecture was
titled: “Love in the Bible: the Original Reality show.” It was attended by approximately
100 students, faculty and staff. In the course of the presentation, I
also referred to my recently published Encyclopedia of Love in World
Religions (cover photo attached) and explained its genealogy, scope,
and my on-going scholarship on love and religion. One of the profes-
sors in attendance invited me to his class in Comparative Literature
which met immediately after my lecture. There were approximately
twenty students in his class and we continued to discuss issues pertaining to love in
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. After both presentations, I enjoyed my conversation
with Dr. Alexandra Mitrea, Dean and Professor of American Studies, and two other
Fulbrighters who are teaching and conducting research in Sibiu. I am grateful for the
Fulbright Program for enabling and encouraging such deep and profound cross-
cultural dialogue.”
News from Dr. Mohsen Razzaghi, U.S. Fulbright Scholar
Dr. Mohsen Razzaghi, a Fulbright scholar at the Department of
Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Civil En-
gineering, Bucharest was invited by Professor Constantin Popovici,
head of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department of the
Technical University "Gheorghe Asachi" Iasi to visit the University
and present a seminar on his research at the University. Iasi is the
most important political, economic and cultural centre of the prov-
ince of Moldavia as well as one of the oldest cities in Romania. The
city prides itself with publishing the first Romanian newspaper and
establishing the first Romanian university. Today, Iasi is home to
five universities. On November 17, Dr. Razzaghi presented a re-
search talk entitled "Orthogonal and Hybrid Functions in Dynamical
Systems." During his visit he met with Professor Ion Giurma, the Rector of "Gheorghe Asachi" University
who gave Dr. Razzaghi a very nice book about Iasi and University Catalog. Dr. Razzaghi also met with
several faculty members in the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, and in particu-
lar he met with Professor Corneliu Botan who signed and gave him his book on Optimal Control.
Also, an article about Dr. Razzaghi’s Fulbright experience was published in in Starkville Daily News
paper, a local newspaper in his hometown in USA: http://www.starkvilledailynews.com/node/7932.
Conference Organized by Cornel Marian, U.S. Fulbright Alumnus
On January 19, 2012 U.S. Fulbright alumnus Cornel Marian is organizing a conference entitle Freezing
Those Costs: A Swedish-Romanian Dialogue on Controlling Arbitration Costs. The event is created under
the auspices of Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and Stockholm Arbitration & Litigation Center and will
take place at Athenee Hilton Palace, Bucharest, Romania. More details and the program of the event are
available at http://www.chamber.se/?id=42012.
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Romanian.US.Fulbright.Commission
https://alumni.state.gov/romania www.fulbright.ro 5
6. Bucharest, November 30, 2011
Volume I, Issue 11
Alumni Information
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This Newsletter is produced by the Romanian Alumni Coordinator
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