FLEXIBLUE Library

FLEX alumni, Katarzyna Tes ‘18 and Barbara Brzezinska ’17 and their mentors Katarzyna Łaziuk (Jewish Foundation for The Righteous Seminar) and Piotr Zimoch (Appalachian State University’s Centre for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies) created a Little Library near a local playground and daycare center in Szerokie to encourage families with young children to take a book and return it after it has been read.

Alumni received permission from local authorities to place the little library near the playground and worked with a company to build the little library with materials that they purchased.  The alumni purchased and received donations of educational books that could be appropriate for children and teenagers to read at school and at home.  Donations were given by U.S. Embassy employees who were finishing their mission.  The team also cooperated with a local library and promoted opportunities at the library through the Little Library.

The FLEX Alumni Mentoring Program was a yearlong mentoring program aimed at connecting FLEX alumni with senior alumni of other U.S. Government sponsored exchange programs for a unique professional development opportunity. The FLEX Alumni Mentoring Program was funded by U.S. Embassy Warsaw.  Participation in the Program was free of charge.

Guided by their mentors, participating FLEX alumni developed leadership, industry-specific knowledge, and project management skills through this program.  Mentors and mentees met at least one time each month through the year-long program, where they worked on plans for career development and set educational and professional goals.  The program also included a component where mentees and mentors worked together to design and implement a community project, thus giving alumni the confidence to approach project management opportunities on their own in the future.