annual report 2010
contributing to the development of a value-based society through innovative education
The School of Values / Annual Report 2010
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Content The Annual Report presents the School of Values organization and its activities for year 2010. After the message from President, Stefan Palarie, and more detailed description of the School of Values’ Mission, Vision and Values you can find out some details about our key activities: GROW, the nation wide youth development program and Workshops for parents focused on adult education. In the annual report, you will also find testimonials from our friends and partners
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Message from the President
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Founding members
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Mission, Vision, Values
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General information about the educational projects in Romania
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Testimonials - Education in Romania
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GROW program
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GROW in numbers
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Workshops for parents
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What our friends say about us
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Our partners in 2010
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Contact details
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Message from the President It is a great pleasure and honour to address these thoughts as President of the School of Values and as one of the initiators of the idea that Romania as a society can transform itself through continuous innovative education. The idea of starting such an organization emerged in May 2009, in a Leadership Conference in Belgium. October 2009 was the first moment when the idea was communicated to active people who decided to join this ambitious effort. Since then, a team of passionate people built built the organization brick by brick throughout 2010.
Stefan Palarie President
Looking retrospectively at 2010, this was the very first year of activity, with a lot of successes and few failures. It was a year of intensive learning and a year of exploration and discovery. It was also a year of ambitious objectives. The results were somehow slightly below the objectives but still impressive for the FIRST year of activity. In terms, the first year of activity was one under the umbrella of “PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT”, a lot of design and creation, however, some of the numbers that I am personally proud of are: - 10,000 – is the value in Euros of the largest financial partnership signed in 2010
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- 1,000 – the number of high school students that participated in our largest GROW – nonformal educational program - 90 – the number of high schools that were approached for collaborating in organizing GROW all around Romania - 80 - the numbers of hours of educational content were designed by the organization in order to cover educational needs of all participants (grade IX, X, XI and XII) - 13 – is the number of cities and local committees of the AIESEC Romania network that partnered with us in organizing the GROW program - 8 national preparation conferences were organized in 2010 for international trainers and - 1 – long term partner AIESEC Romania that is continuously finding solutions for improving the quality of the GROW project and our cooperation - 1 - pilot project organized in December 2010 for adult –education for parents of secondary and high school children – called “Ateliere de Valori pentru Parinti” exploring the feasibility of the School of Values to manage different projects for different target groups But beside anything else, if there is one thing that I am really proud of achieving in 2010, it is BUILDING A TEAM OF STRONG PERFORMERS. The organization now has special individuals that are committed to make a difference for themselves, for the youth of Romania and for the entire society as a whole. The personal commitment of these individuals goes beyond any imagination, with people willing to work day and night for achieving the yearly targets in our pursuit of reaching our vision. Looking ahead, 2011 will be the year of consolidation and of moving the organization to another level of maturity. The TOP LINE priority is one of our organizational values – SUSTAINABILITY, being supported by two key departments – Marketing and Sales. We want to make School of Values more visible, better known and we want to have more partners that believe in supporting us by any means – including the financial one. Looking at the beginning of the year I can say one thing: So far – so good! We are walking the talk, and we are implementing the strategies in spite of difficulties and shortages. Thank you all for supporting us in our endeavor! Without your work, resources, word of mouth, participation we would not have existed, and Romania would have had fewer chances in becoming the society that it deserves to be: a meritocratic system where performance and passion goes hand-in-hand, a truly value-based society! Thank you for an amazing 2010! Stefan Palarie President of the School of Values
Founding members Stefan Palarie
Radu Serbu
Denisa Bernevig
Camelia Hrab
Andra Costache
Oana Toiu
Andra Asan
Alexandra Dinu
Adrian Fako
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Mission, Vision, Values The School of Values is a modern non-profit organization that envisions to develop a valuebased society through innovative education. As an organization, The School of Values pushes the traditional boundaries of education by efficiently providing individuals with valuable information, powerful shaping experiences, interaction with role models and international exposure in order to increase personal accountability and control over life choices.
The values of the organization are reflecting the path that The School of Values
chose to take on its own way to transforming its vision into reality. They represent the common consent and belief that the members are sharing:
Integrity - We are behaving, acting and living according to our values. Freedom - We give every individual the freedom to think. We don’t indoctrinate. We let people choose.
Perseverance - We are aware that our mission is difficult. Never giving up, we are driven by the statement: “Failure is not an option”.
Innovation - We don’t just persevere doing the same thing in the same way. We are
continuously seeking to innovate the ways of reaching our objectives while living according to our creed.
Sustainability - We think long-term. Our mission is a long term one, and it requires a
long term approach and an efficient management of our resources from us. We consider the impact of our actions and act accordingly.
Loyalty - We offer loyalty to our partners. We ask for loyalty in return. As any other long-
term building process, our goals require committed resources during all times. We stick to our commitments and promises.
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EDUCATION COUNTS -
Towards the Millennium Development Goal Within the space of a decade, the number of out-of-school children has dropped all over the world by more than 38 million, the quality of education has increased and the gender gap in formal education has narrowed. The current global economic downturn is threatening to halt or even reverse this progress. More than ever, it is critical that we invest in the development of quality systems for learning throughout life.
Because it helps ensure environmental sustainability Education helps people make decisions that meet the needs of the present without compromising those of future generations. Education for sustainable development is fundamental to changing values, attitudes and behaviours. The world faces critical challenges such as climate change, rapid depletion of natural resources, frequent natural disasters and the loss of biodiversity. Decisions and action taken today have an impact on the future. A large proportion of the world’s population lives without access to safe drinking water and sanitation. There are at least 100 million slum dwellers globally.
Because it is essential to a global partnership for development The Millennium Development Goals represent a global partnership for development. As part of this pact, poor countries agreed to work towards achieving these goals and to do their part to ensure greater accountability to citizens and efficient use of resources. But for poor countries to achieve the first 7 goals, rich countries need to keep their end of the bargain, with increased and more effective aid, debt relief, fairer trade rules and access to technologies. Just as the MDGs represent an integrated view of global development, the Education for All goals, adopted in 2000, set out a broad strategy for providing a quality education for all.In adopting these goals, the international community recognized the potential and the promise that education holds to unlock personal and human development, prosperity, democracy and social justice. Extract from EDUCATION COUNTS -Towards the Millennium Development Goals First published in 2010 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 7, place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 SP, France
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Testimonials - Education in Romania It appears that most of the countries consider that their educational system is in a crisis; the problem, especially in Romania, is one of flexibility - how do we transform the school in order to prepare people able to assume an active role in society? Many realise that what the system offers them is not enough - the projects of NGO’s, of teachers or even those of students, anticipate, I think, a general change in mentality, which is actually the final purpose. In my opinion, mediocrity and apathy are the results of an education which doesn’t emphasis on exploring the human potential. But don’t be intimidated by the media: not everywhere is like this! I am an adapt of the simple ideas and I suggest you two of them: to promote the true models and to know how to motivate (ourselves). Tudor Giurgica-Tiron / Colegiul National Iasi, clasa a 11-a
School is a safe investment in the future of a nation, it is the place where the child makes his first steps on the road to his future or, here he discovers his talents and the joy of learning. We believe in an education system based on values, centered on the child, which constantly follows the development of the individual. By integrating the non-formal education into the formal education of the high school student, he has the chance to form some life skills besides his academical abilities. Those new skills can be formed through new programs and activities: public speaking, thinking skills, debate, drama, reading clubs and personal development clubs. This new and modern part of the education will help the high school students form the necessary abilities to become the leaders of tomorrow. Our teachers have accepted the change through a new approach of the educational system. From simple teachers, who offered in a constant manner information, they became trainers, moderators, source of inspiration, tutors, who offer to the students today the chance to discover their personal motivation to achieve performance academically and personally. Simona Baciu President of Scoala Internationala Cluj
GROW, the nationwide youth development program, represents a long term non-formal educational engagement designed to improve the quality of education in Romania. Organized in partnership with AIESEC, the GROW program addresses the population of highschool students in Romania (age 14-18). Through the GROW program the high-school students of some of the largest 15 cities in Romania (University centers) (Brasov, Bucuresti, Cluj, Craiova, Constanta, Iasi, Galati, Oradea, Pitesti, Ploiesti, Ramnicu Valcea, Sibiu, Suceava, Targu Mures, Timisoara) can join a complementary four-year educational cycle. For each year of their non-formal “studies� (GROW experiences) the curriculum is designed to address key needs of the development of the teenager participants.
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A short glimpse at the education picture in Romania unveils a real, urgent need for improvement and additional effort that can push the current stagnating system and can provide Romanian people with the necessary tools to pursue their own vision in life. In response to this need, two organizations have joined forces in a common project addressing one of the most active and needy group of learners: high-school students.
The structure of the sessions Annually, GROW has four editions and for each edition there is a separate training program, designed primarily to take into account the age and the needs of the participants. Named according to the level of study (GROW 0.9 for the 9th graders, 1.0 - for 10th grade,1.1 - for 11th grade and 1.2 - for 12th grade), the training themes are presented in the table below: GROW 0.9 1. Introduction to GROW 0.9 2. Communication Skills 3. Communication Skills - Feedback 4. Cooperation - Team Work 5. Project Management - Resource Management 6. European Citizenship 7. We are all different- why discriminate? 8. Who am I? Personal Strengths and Weaknesses 9. Health - A possible personal values? 10. Closing GROW 0.9
GROW 1.0 1. Introduction to GROW 1.0 2. Presentation Skills – Skill Training 3. Public Speaking – Simulation 4. Who am I? – Personal Values 5. Personal Values 6. Romanian cultural values 7. Culture affecting the individual 8. Proactivity – Developing the attitude 9. Project Management – Advanced 10. Personal Effectiveness I 11. Personal Effectiveness II 12. Closing GROW 1.0
The School of Values / Annual Report 2010
GROW 1.1 1. Introduction to GROW 1.1 2. 3. 4.
Project Management Advanced III People Management Self Discovery – Personal Mission & Vision 5. Self Discovery – Personal Values 6. Proactivity – Developing the attitude 7. Leadership - Basics 8. Time Management 9. Early Career Orientation 10. Closing GROW 1.1
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GROW 1.2 1. Introduction to GROW 1.2 2. My vocational path 3. Personal Values - the root of Life Choices 4. Career Opportunities 5. Entrepreneurship - another path 6. The power of objective setting 7. Time management - Priority Matrix 8. Personal Branding 9. “Anything is possible!” 10. Closing GROW 1.2
Each trainings’ topic is designed for candidates whose features both current and future (after they graduate the program) are taken into account. The GROW 2010 project is part of the long term 2010- 2015 GROW program that aims to be number-one choice national educational program addressing high-school students. The program will offer high-school students professional designed educational curriculum complementary to the formal educational system. The curriculum will be updated yearly according to participants’ and trainers’ feedback - thus we keep up with the speed of change that is characteristic for this generation of students (age 14-18). The 4 -year curriculum has been developed by experienced trainers who are accustomed with this age group with advice from high school teachers. The program is based on an innovative curriculum, customized for the target group and with an evolving degree of complexity from the 9th grade to the 12th grade. The structure and the flow of the sessions are tailored to the students age, needs and interests. GROW long-term objective: to develop an educational curriculum complementary to the formal educational system through which the high-school students will develop self esteem, the required abilities for their professional future and a constructive attitude. On the long-term GROW will contribute to a sustainable change in the Romanian educational system. What is different? Our objectives in 2010: • reaching 2000 high-school students • starting with 11 cities • 5-year program • 4 high-school years
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To sum it all up, the unique elements of the project are: 1. Nationwide project 2. Specific approach (personalized curriculum for each grade) 3. Long term approach: a 5-year program 4. International program that involves international trainers, delivered in English 5. Professional course design, based on specialists consultancy
Participant profile - Fluent in English - Willing to learn more than what school is offering - Fast learner, opened to change, eager to discover - Medium to high personal effectiveness – busy schedule, extra activities
International Perspective A group of carefully selected and trained foreign university students and graduates are involved in the educational process. They (the trainers) are passionate about education and are coming to our country to challenge the Romanian high school students: their understanding of global issues, the way they think, feel and act. Moreover, the international framework and the English language are some of the top reasons for students to join the program. The previous participants mentioned the importance of English language and extracurricular activities for further international studies and career opportunities. The international trainers involved in the project came from countries like NewZealand, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Russia, Brazil, Sweden, The Czech, Republik, Turkey and Iceland. They came in Romania via the international volunteer program initiated, developed and facilitated by AIESEC. The organizing teams at a local level comprised AIESEC volunteers from every city noted above. They realized the promotion of GROW and they have offered their support to the internationals trainers. Train the Trainers represents the preparation conference for GROW trainers, where local project managers and international trainees, together with the School of Values and AIESEC members, discuss about the curriculum and the trainings, align perspective regarding the delivery standards of the project and discuss its implementation. TTT is also a motivational
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conference as the presence of numerous internationals, together with the idea of being part of a national team, can only lead to deepening of some common directions and values, shared by all the people involved in the GROW project.
Testimonials „Complementary to the school program, GROW, brings essential self awareness knowledge and self confidence to teenagers. Surely this experience is the first compulsory step for our students. It increases their aspirations and improves personal vision. Big thanks to the organizers and trainers, I believe it is a wonderful project.” Elena Yasen Parent GROW Constanta „I can say that I am not sorry I came here, I’m glad, very glad. Working with young people and hearing them say how you made a difference afterwards, made them think. How you made them more confident brings a tear to your eye and makes the whole experience worth it. I did not only change their view of the world, but my own as well. I didn’t only make my students think, I made myself think and see some things in a way I didn’t before.” Villu Us Trainer Estonia “GROW wasn’t just an amazing experience, but also a united family with whom I could speak my mind without feeling awkward. Maybe I’m not a superhero and I don’t want to be. Now I’m more than that: a better person. From GROW I’ve learned to be open minded, to be nice with the people around me and to have faith in myself. Also, I’m glad that I had the chance to meet such amazing people who appreciated me for what I am. I’ve never felt so self confident.:) “ Anca Petrariu Participant
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Events Team-buildings represented by activities such as watching movies with debriefing, educational games, learning and discussion circles designed to strengthen both links between participants and connections between trainers and participants and also to deepen the subjects approached by the curriculum, all of these being based on unconventional education. Global Village is an international cultural fair, where the high-school students had the opportunity to mix the internationalism, cultural sensitivity, creativity and team work with having fun and practicing some of the skills acquired during the project.
The opening events Occurred before every edition of the project in every city involved and their main purpose was to create a first connection between participants, trainers, partners and other stakeholders.
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The closing events The closing events took place between the 27th of August and the 1st of September and the main topics covered by the events’ agendas were: handing out the participation certificates, giving special prizes (ECDL vouchers, Diverta books and t-shirts), speeches and movies from high-school students and trainers, speeches from local partners, teachers, parents and the School of Values members. In the GROW spirit, the participants organized the closing festivities themselves. The success and the enthusiasm of the events proved the projects’ effectiveness.
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Communication www.growedu.ro
1st of January - 31st of December
13 093 visitors 23 981 visits In the communication to the target audiences the following channels and methods were used: Direct marketing for higschool students parents and teachers - class shouts, presentations, in places frequently visited by teenagers (cultural centers, parks, specific events etc.). Presentation booklets and meetings with teachers. Participation booklet and presentation booklet for parents used to inform the students and their parents about the content of the program and to obtain the agreement of the parents regarding their child’s participation in the project. ATL for high-school students - One FM and Kiss FM radio spot backed up by news on home page and news page; the audio spot could be listened to: Bucuresti, Cluj, Constanta, Sibiu, Suceava and Tirgu Mures on One Fm and in Pitesti on Kiss Fm. Moreover, some press ads were placed in Zile si Nopti magazine in most of the participating cities. BTL - We have sent an email to all previous participants trying to get them more involved in the projects’ activities and making them sort ambassadors of the GROW program. In some of the local committees of AIESEC we offered price reductions for the students who convinced their friends to join the program. Online - for teenagers and other stakeholders: online banners were placed: calificativ.ro, studentie.ro, pr-romania.ro, ecdl.org.ro and on the follwing blogs: oideebuna. blogspot.ro, delagavrilcitire.ro and other websites and blogs which were redirecting the visitors to www. growedu.ro website. PR Activities - 2 press releases for each edition were released and sent in all the involved cities. Also, a series of articles was published in Bravo and Bravo Girl. 3 press conferences were organized in Suceava, Iasi and Constanta. Between the 1st of January and the 31st of December the website had 23981 visits and 13093 unique visitors, with an average of 4.51 pages seen during the visit, with an average visit duration of 4:00 minutes and with a rate of over 50% of new visitors. Visitors originated from 59 cities, to which 658 visits from other 62 countries besides Romania were added.
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GROW in numbers 10 months >1700 applicants >1000 participants 12 cities 90 high-schools
60 international trainers >120 press appearances 25 national partners 1500 posters 12000 flyers
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Workshops for parents Long before anything else, one of the strategic decisions for the organization was that, in order to achieve its vision and to generate massive sustainable social change, The School of Values will focus on the youth of the country as a key target group, more precisely the high school students. However, this sensitive target group needs the support of two other critical groups:parents and high school teachers. This is why, the organization prioritizes understanding and adressing these two social groups. For adressing the parent group, the organization created a project in 2010 called „Ateliere de valori pentru Parinti”- ‚Values Workshops for Parents”, an intiative that was specially designed by the School of Values on one hand for the parents and on the other hand to offer support for their children (some of them were a part of the Grow Programme). Since parents are usually busy joggling with multiple priorities: raising a family and educating their children, relationship with life partner, financial plans, career, personal hobbies and sport, we decided to offer an educational workshop to the parents which is not longer than 6 hours, that should give them several benefits: - specially designed time and space to reflect upon their parenting relationship with their children; - a space to learn from other parents through intensive sharing and dialogue (that is why the workshop is designed to be very interactive and collaborative); - a chance to connect connect with professionals for advice and suggestions. All the above relate mostly to how the parents should build up a relationship that encourages responsibility and wisdom as daily choices but also correct decision with regards to further
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education and careers of the young generation. We have realized since the beginning that dealing with Adult Education is a different cup of tea, and that we will need professional expertise and support. This is how the idea of partnering with In2Constient organization was born. In the second part of 2010, we had a wonderful surprise. For the first time in our short history, an external organization sent us a customized proposal. That person / organization took our logo from the website and included it in a personalized letter. That person is Diana O. Moraru – a clinical psychologist that is passionate about supporting children, teenagers, adults, parents through workshops.
RESULTS The pilot project of “Ateliere de Valori pentru Parinti” took place on 18th of December 2010 and it lasted for 7 hours (including one hour lunch break). There were 6 parents who attended our first Workshop. Aurelia, Ileana and Nicolae, Andreea, Cristina and Andrei, parents of a group of 8 teenagers, got involved in the workshop, have answered difficult questions about themselves, about their teenage children, about the world outside and about the future. It was a day to remember from various viewpoints. The “ business part” as we call it was mixed with a more personal part where parents became children once again as they shared thoughts about moments, events and people that shaped their childhood. The last part of the workshop focused on the relationship between parent and children and about the transformation subtleties from a child to a teenager and to an adult. Several advices were formulated and the open invitation for continuing this type of adult / parent education was addressed to the participants. The parents were impressed when the picture of School of Values was presented towards the end. In the feedback forms used for evaluation of the event the parents expressed an open interest in participating in similar workshops for the participants and willingness to recommend such an event to other friends and acquaintances. It is difficult to talk about impact and results after one pilot. However we can talk about a first step taken towards a new target group – parents, and into a new market – adult education. The learning from the first pilot is already used to improve the content and approach of the series of workshops that will be organized in the first semester of 2011 and to become the base for future series of workshops organized for new target groups.
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What our friends say about us Education is “that thing” that you need each day. You get to interact with other’s education starting from the family, close friends, people from the street or traffic to the guests in shows, no matter the job they have. Education is the one which creates circles, classes and the social networks. If each of us does or does not pay importance to the education, if the parliament makes another change or introduces a new law for education each autumn, if the government applies it or not, if the teachers have good salaries or not, if the high school students are motivated or not, taken separately, each of these things are never a priority, but all of them together reflects our quality of life each day and the perception of the present and the future. Maybe my words seem vague for many people, but they have a meaning for those who are really doing something in the field of education, initiatives which are so important that they should be put in a frame and we should look at them each day as at an icon, maybe until we have the inspiration to do the same. The School of Values is one of those initiatives and shows the principles to the new generation that the educational system doesn’t have anymore capacity to transmit and link the students between them through aspirations for a new life with a higher quality of life then the one they have now. The School of Values offers human models and an example of a project which once followed it can’t bring anything else but benefits from any point of view.
Ema Pendiuc Film Producer and TV Anchor / Host / Producer at Televiziunea Romana TVR (Romanian National Television)
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The best way to help our children be better than us, is to open the world for them. By this, I do not mean only the access to “what” they can do, but also to “how” they can do it, because this will be the main difference in their success, no matter the domain of activity. But the basis of the way we look at our world (family, career, society) is given by the values we believe in and who define our aspirations and behavior. The Romanian educational system does not emphasise on the education of values. This way any exterior contribution is more than welcomed. If this contribution is also external, the discussion is moderated by foreign students, then the world of the high school students will open even wider. I can tell this based on my own experience. My meeting with foreign students, as an AIESEC member, in 1992, changed my life. It showed me a world I didn’t know anything about and which reconfigured the world around me, the values I chose to believe in and which defined afterwords my existence. The School of Values is an organisation that deserves as many supporters and partners as possible. And this is not its interest, but ours, the ones who hope for a Romania based on values and value creator. Cosmin Alexandru Presedinte Asociatia Erudio www.erudio.ro
“It is a pure pleasure to be a part of School of Values team. During my stay in here I had a pleasure to work with the most inspiring people I ever met. Each of them has incredible potential, knowledge, skills and attitude to provide a top-quality experience for all areas they work on: partners, participants of their programs and volunteers working for them. The time spent in School of Values for me was a complete lesson of “How to be professional?” in internal and external relations. I am deeply convinced that this NGO is “an ignition” of positive changes that are needed and that will happen with Romanian education and society. Personally – joining School of Values was the best decision of my life and if I had an opportunity to choose again – I would have made the same choice.” Michal Zabkowski Trainer from Poland and The School of Values member
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Our partners in 2010
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Contact details
Stefan Palarie
president 0726 444 503 stefan.palarie@scoaladevalori.ro
Dragos Belduganu
sales manager 0745 267 871 dragos.belduganu@scoaladevalori.ro
Andrei Stoica
marketing and communication manager 0757 081 189 andrei.stoica@scoaladevalori.ro
www.scoaladevalori.ro strada Sperantei, nr. 27, parter, sector 2, Bucuresti