Our consultants have worked on many learning projects and projects focused on the education sector. Previous experience includes capacity building for professionals, youth development design and facilitation, and cross-sector training conferences facilitated in multiple languages. A list of project highlights is included below.
Education and Learning Projects
Camp Olympus Summer program (2016 – 2018)
The Camp Olympus program was designed from the ground up, with the goal of engaging children and teenagers from rural communities and small cities. The program focused on learning and youth engagement, both for the student participants and the adult chaperones and teachers from each participating community. The camp was designed to be facilitated entirely in the local language, with the goal of engaging marginalized students and students who were not proficient in English but were interested in learning from American instructors. Staff were selected based on a tier-system of local language proficiency, allowing for instructors with varied language abilities to engage effectively with students and adult participants. Topics of camp sessions included physical fitness, mental health, nutrition, strategies for learning new skills, and planning new activities in local communities. This camp program repeated for 3 iterations, with multiple local activities planned and implemented by youth based on the camp training.
Activities Performed:
- Wrote full grant for camp funding, including structuring the grant narrative, designing goals and objectives according to S.M.A.R.T. principles, and structuring the full camp budget.
- Designed camp structure, activity schedule, and staff schedule.
- Oversaw curriculum design for all camp sessions, including active sessions, classroom sessions, and extracurricular activities.
- Trained camp staff on camp protocols and instructional methods.
- Managed day-to-day administration of camp activities, including liaising with facility staff and administration, responding to disciplinary or health issues with participants, and assisting individual instructors as needed.
- Facilitated and taught specific sessions using Ukrainian and Russian languages
- Managed all expenses, equipment purchases and rentals, and logistics of transportation for participants.
- Wrote final report for submission to grant funders, oversaw budget tracking and reporting.
- Wrote full program manual for iteration of camp program and implementation by other youth development or community development organizations.
Camp Olympus Mini Camp program (2018)
After the success of the Camp Olympus Summer Camp program, a mini-camp program was designed for implementation in individual communities. The full-day camp structure of the main camp was adjusted for half-day schedules, and lesson plans were created that fit a smaller camp plan and could be adjusted based on community interests. The first mini camp was successfully implemented in Dubno, Ukraine, in the summer of 2018.
Activities Performed:
- Augmented full camp design and created mini-camp schedule, session structure, and operating procedures.
- Designed new camp activities for implementation with shortened half-day camp structure.
- Trained camp staff on procedures for new mini-camp structure.
- Assisted camp director with camp adjustments during implementation.
Ukrainian School physical education facility remodel and program management training project (2017-2018)
This school facility remodel project was based on project design and management training for high school students and school staff. Participants learned theory and structure of project design and management, using the school remodel as practical application of the skills learned in the classroom. After the remodel, participants designed and facilitated activities in each of the new facilities.
Adult Learning Events, Capacity Building, and Training Conferences
Project Design and Management Training (2019)
The Project Design and Management (PDM) training conferences were 1-week training events held for American Peace Corps Volunteers and their Ukrainian partners. These trainings were cross-sector and included topics such as cross-cultural cooperation, monitoring and evaluation, goal and objective structuring, budgeting, reporting, and community engagement for project planning and implementation. In 2019, the session integrated feedback from 2018 PDM trainings and included session for previous participants to share their experiences and lessons learned from project they had implemented.
Activities Performed:
- Cooperated with Peace Corps staff to design training sessions.
- Assisted with facilitation of sessions led by other trainers.
- Served as live interpreter for group sessions, provided Ukrainian-to-English consecutive interpretation.
- Facilitated bi-lingual (Ukrainian and English) training session as a demonstration of cross-sector projects based on PDM training principles.
- Facilitated training sessions on Goals and Objectives using S.M.A.R.T model, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Budgeting.
- Coached training participants in the design of new project initiatives using lessons learned during the training.
- Provided post-conference consultations with participants to provide feedback on projects under development.
Training of Trainers, Peace Corps Ukraine Technical and Language Cultural Facilitators (2018)
This Training of Trainers was facilitated for Ukrainian language and technical instructors in preparation for a new cohort of American Peace Corps Volunteers. Training included cultural and technical learning for youth development, community development, and Teaching English as a Foreign Language cohorts.
Activities Performed:
- Cooperated with Peace Corps staff to design group training sessions.
- Assisted in group session facilitation.
- Facilitated targeted sessions to share case studies of previous Peace Corps training experiences.
- Carried out follow-up and check-ins with trainers for the Youth Development cohorts, co-facilitated sessions with Youth Development Trainers for their cohorts.
Project Design and Management Trainings 2018 (3 trainings)
The Project Design and Management (PDM) training conferences were 1-week training events held for American Peace Corps Volunteers and their Ukrainian partners. These trainings were cross-sector and included topics such as cross-cultural cooperation, monitoring and evaluation, goal and objective structuring, budgeting, reporting, and community engagement for project planning and implementation.
Activities Performed:
- Cooperated with Peace Corps staff to design training sessions.
- Assisted with facilitation of sessions led by other trainers.
- Served as live interpreter for group sessions, provided Ukrainian-to-English consecutive interpretation.
- Facilitated training sessions on Goals and Objectives using S.M.A.R.T model, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Budgeting.
- Coached training participants in the design of new project initiatives using lessons learned during the training.
- Provided post-conference consultations with participants to provide feedback on projects under development.
Language Skills Improvement for Ukrainian and Russian as Second Languages (2017-2018, multiple trainings)
These language refresher training events were designed to assist Americans who were learning Ukrainian and Russian while living in Ukraine. Sessions were a mix of academic theory and communicative/practical application instructional methods and practice activities. Trainings lasted for several days with sessions ranging from 5 to 30 participants per group.
Activities Performed:
- Designed custom training sessions focused on grammar, linguistic history, and structural patterns of the language
- Facilitated sessions on effective language learning techniques and methods for improved transition between Ukrainian and Russian using linguistic patterns and similarities.
- Facilitated sessions for improving fluency and adjusting language use to be closer to that of a native speaker.
- Coached individual participants to problem solve specific challenges and answer questions based on the specific linguistic traits of their work site.