Since 2014, the 11even Association
\nhas been annually staging the ‘Creators of Future’ camp as part of a
\nprogramme targeting students with educational performances who may also want to
\nget involved civically. Since its first edition, less significant in terms of
\nparticipants and, until recently, for the 2023 edition of the camp, ‘Creators
\nof Future’ has been gaining ground, yet several aspects have remained constant:
\n50 high-schoolers are selected annually from the winners in various national
\nand international Olympiads to spend a week, as part of a summer school where
\nthey are being challenged by experts in an attempt to make them bring something
\nnew to society. The camp is located near Cluj-Napoca, and the selection
\ncriteria takes into account the students’ interests and abilities in certain
\nfields of activity, as Tudor Vasiliu, the initiator of the aforementioned
\nprogramme has told us.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tudor Vasiliu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We have four application domains: one is educational,
\nfocusing on everything related to school events, such as Olympiads, national
\nand international school contests. Then there is a second one, which is the
\nsports domain, where we are focusing on sports performances. Then there is the
\ncultural domain, which comprises everything related to performance in art and
\nculture and I am talking here about high-school students who may have written a
\nbook, who are painting or have obtained good results in art contests. Last but
\nnot least is the field of school leadership, which is targeting the students
\ninvolved in various volunteering activities and are doing great things for
\nsociety.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The underlying idea for this
\ninitiative was that the young people with performances in education are also most
\ncapable of obtaining civic performances. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tudor
\nVasiliu: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We are trying to offer them as many
\nprospects as possible in a large number of domains through our invitees. We are
\ntrying to invite people who have studied or who achieved success abroad and
\nthen returned to Romania to bring their contribution and make a change here.
\nLooking back now, out of roughly 900 high-school students who have participated
\nin our programme along the years, I believe that 50%-60% are studying or have
\nstudied in prestigious universities abroad. And somehow, we are trying to bring
\nthese young people back to Romania on medium and long term. We are encouraging
\nthem to study abroad if they believe this will contribute to their professional
\ndevelopment. But we underline the need for them to come back to Romania and
\nmake a change here as well. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Adding
\nto that, here are a few examples of topics and guests that were seminal for the
\nSeptember 2023 edition of the Creators of Future camp. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tudor Vasiliu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We had a wide range of topics for
\ndebate. For instance, we invited Mihnea M\u0103ru\u021b\u0103, a journalist
\nand the author of a recently-released volume focusing on digital identity, on
\nhow this aspect takes its toll on our being, and on how we relate to the social
\nnetworks. We also invited Codru\u021ba Simina, a journalist focusing on the topic of
\ndisinformation and that of the fake news. We also invited R\u0103zvan Petri, and MA
\nstudent at King’s College in England who is working on a very interesting
\nproject in Romania, basically targeting teenagers and dealing with politics.
\nWith him too, we had a debate on the usefulness of politics and on how those
\nyoungsters relate to the political sphere. We also invited the physician Mihai
\nCop\u0103ceanu, who organized a debate on drugs, we also invited the rector of Babe\u0219-Bolyai
\nUniversity, Daniel David, who gave a talk on the new Romania. We staged a
\nseminar offered by R\u0103zvan Chereche\u0219, focusing on innovation since he is a
\nPublic Health professor with the University in Cluj-Napoca and we also had two
\nguests who are active on Tik-Tok, yet they try to generate a change for the
\nbetter, conveying a positive message on this platform. One of them is a legal
\neducator, the other one has developed his own business using this platform. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Although
\nyoungsters are sometimes perceived as being indifferent to political and civic
\ninvolvement, the high school students who convened as part of the Creators of Future program have invalidated such an opinion. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tudor Vasiliu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Their desire to get involved is a very strong one. Actually,
\nafter every edition we in turn seek to get them involved, throughout the
\nschoolyear, in various activities. As regards politics, they may not be that
\nkeen ion that, at their age. However, when it comes to civic involvement, they
\nreally are anxious to get involved there. We even had, as part of the previous
\neditions, contests on projects that were subsequently financed and implemented.
\nAs an outcome of this year’s edition as well, we want that, together with some
\nof them, we want to stage, in their communities of origin, several small-scale
\nevents so they can invite guests who dares them to change, at once bringing
\nthose people begore a younger audience. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Moreover,
\nTudor Vasiliu also noticed that, among other things, Romania’s high-school
\nstudents are interested in how they can study abroad, they are also interested
\nin the online ideas and contents and, last but not the least, they also have
\necological preoccupations. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ongoing civic projects tailored for deserving high-scool students<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":286851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[42042,43852,116798,116797,43337,35034],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-623850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-association","tag-civic","tag-contents","tag-ideas","tag-involvement","tag-online"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n