Consultative Project launched to audit the first Gifted Education Centre in Romania

IRSCA Gifted Education announced as client organization the launch of the consultative project to audit the development plan of the first Gifted Education Centre as a non-profit private and independent institution in Romania, in collaboration with the Central European University Business School and the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School.

The project is included in a „Global Consultative Project” to gather the efforts of a multi-cultural team of 5 members on 2 continents.

The project covers 12 weeks from January to April 2009, with online collaboration taking place during the first 11 weeks and the teams working at the organization venues during the final week of the project. The MBA students are supported by faculty members from both CEU and Johns Hopkins University who will monitor the learning platform and provide guidance, direction, and learning modules as needed during the project. During that final week (April 13-17, 2009) participants will engage in work with their teams and will visit their designated client organizations to gather additional information, test assumptions, and gain feedback on preliminary recommendations. This program is part of a larger learning platform in the MBA Fellows program at Johns Hopkins where the experience is focused on project-based learning designed to meet identified learning outcomes measured through authentic performance-based assessment.

„This consultative project is a major opportunity coming from two prestigious business schools to audit the project and to elaborate on the opportunity to initiate the centre. It also proves our involvement to set-up this important institution which has a high potential for gifted children and for Romania. Romania is today probably the only European state to largely export intelligence without having a non-profit independent private centre to support and nourish the intelligence and talent of children. The project has the international recommendations to start, and the support coming from the international gifted education network as well as the support of the education network of the EDUGATE consortium in Romania. The Audit represents our approach of professionalism on setting-up the centre and will constitute our reference to international institutions and the business community on its feasibility of investment and financing.” – claimed Monica Gheorghiu, Project Manager, IRSCA Gifted Education.

„Taking the fact that the level of education and professional development in Romania reached an all time low, being ranked among the last performing in Europe, the necessity to build such a centre, uninfluenced by political fluctuations, becomes paramount and pressing in order to support a national future and to solve national and global crises. The audit of the project must be performed on the dimensions of the centre, as well as on the types of programs, the financing needs, the internal and external partnerships with third parties, strategic directions of development necessary to the centre before its start; it must also analyze the potential of mental and cognitive abilities of high potential among the young, the network of stakeholders that can be activated, the initial and sustainable sources of financing from Romania and abroad to support an on-going development of a National gifted education program, the legislation in state on gifted and gifted education as well as the laws in process of adoption on this subject, the level of practical application of the current legislation on gifted education in Romania, and the obvious need to run a pilot project and get support from the civil society, the network of specialists to support the education reform programs in Romania. It will also take into consideration the feasibility of the project in conjunction with developing the external network of collaboration with Romanian communities abroad and international specialists. The project will constitute the basis of a strategic plan to re-professionalize Romania.”- declared President of IRSCA Gifted Education, and EDUGATE, Professor Florian Colceag, MA.

“We feel that the role of a University is not only to provide training to individuals, but to contribute knowledge to society as a whole. Through projects such as the Johns Hopkins University / CEU Business School Joint Consulting Project, we are able to accomplish both. We also believe it is important for our students to learn that the local community and those who are developing into tomorrow’s leaders are just as important a stakeholder in any firm as the shareholders and owners.” declared Oliver Olson, MBA, MBA Program Director, CEU Business School.

„To advance the national economic interests of Romania, it is of strategic importance to develop an institute of international stature to cultivate a critical mass of talent in the country. We are pleased to be involved in establishing the first dedicated gifted education centre in the nation. By partnering with the community and helping its outstanding children develop their talents, we are convinced such a centre will provide a model for revitalization education in Romania. The assistance being sought to support these children will, through their eventual contributions, be a positive and transforming force in society” declared the team of the Johns Hopkins University & CEU Business School Joint Consulting Project.

PRlog, a free press release distribution service, reported that IRSCA Gifted Education invites all media representatives and all interested stakeholders in the project to participate on 16^th April 2009, at 5.30 pm, to the press conference to cover the final presentation with the final conclusions and recommendations of the audit. The meeting has the purpose to make visible the centre and draw the attention to it from the institutional, private and business sector and to launch the necessary collaborations to set it up.

 

Sources:

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