{"id":1022317,"date":"2026-05-31T14:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/?p=1022317"},"modified":"2026-05-27T15:22:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:22:45","slug":"the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html","title":{"rendered":"The road to Ivy League: how to make your own \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the fifth episode of <em>Young Achievers<\/em> on <em>Weekend Edition<\/em>, I sat down with Robert-Cristian Coceang\u0103, a brilliant student from \u201cDecebal\u201d High School in Constan\u021ba who has made history. Raised in the small village of Lumina, Cristian has been awarded a full scholarship worth over $1.3 million to study Political Science at Harvard University.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rather than relying on a polished r\u00e9sum\u00e9, Cristian won over the admissions committee with his genuine commitment to social change. He is the founder of Politic\u0103 pentru To\u021bi (<em>Politics for All<\/em>), a civic education platform designed to fight disinformation and make political literacy accessible to ordinary people and youth in small communities. Alongside his civic platform, Cristian is a debater, an investigative journalist tracking disinformation networks, and a dedicated mentor helping other rural students chart their own academic paths.<\/p>\n<p><audio id=\"audio-317711\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\" volume=\"1.0\"><source src=\"https:\/\/static.srr.ro\/files\/AUDIO\/2026\/2026-05\/2026-05-27\/we_31.05.2026_128.mp3\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\" \/><\/audio><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the fifth episode of Young Achievers on Weekend Edition, I sat down with Robert-Cristian Coceang\u0103, a brilliant student from \u201cDecebal\u201d High School in Constan\u021ba who has made history. Raised in the small village of Lumina, Cristian has been awarded a full scholarship worth over $1.3 million to study Political Science at Harvard University. &nbsp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":1012513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[154667],"tags":[191566,191567,191568],"coauthors":[114947],"class_list":["post-1022317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekend-edition","tag-ivy-league","tag-political-science","tag-youth-participation","post_format-post-format-audio"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The road to Ivy League: how to make your own \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d - Radio Romania International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The road to Ivy League: how to make your own \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d - Radio Romania International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the fifth episode of Young Achievers on Weekend Edition, I sat down with Robert-Cristian Coceang\u0103, a brilliant student from \u201cDecebal\u201d High School in Constan\u021ba who has made history. Raised in the small village of Lumina, Cristian has been awarded a full scholarship worth over $1.3 million to study Political Science at Harvard University. &nbsp; [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Radio Romania International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vlad.palcu.5\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-31T11:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Young-Achievers-generic.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1408\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Vlad Palcu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Vlad Palcu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\\\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\\\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Vlad Palcu\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/57e12498d0ad57cabe707aad1a4094d4\"},\"headline\":\"The road to Ivy League: how to make your own \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-31T11:00:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\\\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html\"},\"wordCount\":148,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\\\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Young-Achievers-generic.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Ivy League\",\"political science\",\"youth participation\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Weekend Edition\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\\\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\\\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html\",\"name\":\"The road to Ivy League: how to make your own \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d - Radio Romania International\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\\\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\\\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Young-Achievers-generic.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-31T11:00:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/57e12498d0ad57cabe707aad1a4094d4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\\\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\\\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\\\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Young-Achievers-generic.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Young-Achievers-generic.jpg\",\"width\":1408,\"height\":768},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\\\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Homepage\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Weekend Edition\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/weekend-edition\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The road to Ivy League: how to make your own \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/\",\"name\":\"Radio Romania International\",\"description\":\"Totul despre Rom\u00e2nia \u015fi rom\u00e2ni, \u00een 13 limbi\\\/dialecte!\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/57e12498d0ad57cabe707aad1a4094d4\",\"name\":\"Vlad Palcu\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/vlad.palcu.5\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/vlad-palcu-395161213\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/author\\\/vlad-palcu\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The road to Ivy League: how to make your own \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d - Radio Romania International","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The road to Ivy League: how to make your own \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d - Radio Romania International","og_description":"In the fifth episode of Young Achievers on Weekend Edition, I sat down with Robert-Cristian Coceang\u0103, a brilliant student from \u201cDecebal\u201d High School in Constan\u021ba who has made history. Raised in the small village of Lumina, Cristian has been awarded a full scholarship worth over $1.3 million to study Political Science at Harvard University. &nbsp; [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html","og_site_name":"Radio Romania International","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vlad.palcu.5","article_published_time":"2026-05-31T11:00:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1408,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Young-Achievers-generic.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Vlad Palcu","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Vlad Palcu","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html"},"author":{"name":"Vlad Palcu","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/#\/schema\/person\/57e12498d0ad57cabe707aad1a4094d4"},"headline":"The road to Ivy League: how to make your own \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d","datePublished":"2026-05-31T11:00:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html"},"wordCount":148,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Young-Achievers-generic.jpg","keywords":["Ivy League","political science","youth participation"],"articleSection":["Weekend Edition"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html","url":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html","name":"The road to Ivy League: how to make your own \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d - Radio Romania International","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Young-Achievers-generic.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-31T11:00:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/#\/schema\/person\/57e12498d0ad57cabe707aad1a4094d4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Young-Achievers-generic.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Young-Achievers-generic.jpg","width":1408,"height":768},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition\/the-road-to-ivy-league-how-to-make-your-own-american-dream-id1022317.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Homepage","item":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Weekend Edition","item":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/weekend-edition"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The road to Ivy League: how to make your own \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/","name":"Radio Romania International","description":"Totul despre Rom\u00e2nia \u015fi rom\u00e2ni, \u00een 13 limbi\/dialecte!","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/#\/schema\/person\/57e12498d0ad57cabe707aad1a4094d4","name":"Vlad Palcu","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vlad.palcu.5","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/vlad-palcu-395161213\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/author\/vlad-palcu"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1023841,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022317\/revisions\/1023841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1012513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022317"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1022317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}