Summer with Ad Astra

June and July Newsletter

www.adastragroup.org| www.career-for.me 2013

Ad Astra Newsletter

A Message From the Dreamers

What is your Dream? Dreaming is a great way to look into the future, plan ahead and reflect on your actions. The Ad Astra team visited several universities in the city interviewing over 100 students about their hopes for the upcoming year! Heres some inspiration from local dreamers. May all your dreams come true!

Page 2

Ad Astra Newsletter

June and July with Ad Astra

June 2 Ad Astra Cultural Series
Finding your passion and eventually your dream job does not mean locking yourself up in a classroom, fran9cally wri9ng CVs and cover le=ers, nervously speaking with poten9al employers and scheduling a ton of interviews. Some9mes its good to stop and reect in order to get a fresh look at things from a dierent perspec9ve. We at Ad Astra believe that career planning and personal development happen all around us. In fact, its actually a great idea to get out of your regular rou9ne and to explore dierent events and to experiment in dierent seHngs! June 8, Veni, Vedi ,Spune June 28, An American Around the World, Poetry with Sam Oakland For some of us traveling is a dream, for others a choice, and yet for others, its a profession. Sam Oakland, a Fulbright Professor of Law & Literature at Moldovan IRIM University met with students, aspiring poets and travels to tell stories of his journey around the world from Sweden to China, Belarus, Moldova and many other stops along the way.

To illustrate some of his stories, Sam shared works wri=en in languages Where else can you hear poetry in Taki ranging from Armenian to Zulu from a Taki, a language spoken by only book he designed and helped edit at 300,000 people worldwide? At Veni, Portland State University in Oregon in Vedi, Spune, of course! 1980 as well as some of his original On June 8 at the Ion Creanga library in works from his book: Manha=an This summer we are focusing on this Woman and Smiles Across a Teacup. Chisinau, Moldova, members of the type of explora9on. We are leaving the interna9onal community conference rooms and heading out gathered to share poetry in into the city! We will spend the 14 dierent languages. summer months focusing on cultural ac9vi9es, puHng our languages to use, This event was the rst in a series of poetry evenings building rela9onships, making connec9ons, and mee9ng new friends. organized by volunteers from the US Peace Corps, the American Councils and Ad Astra Group. The evening brought together EU and US volunteers, Join us for next events! members of local and interna9onal organiza9ons, scholars, diplomats and students. Par9cipants were le^ with a greater apprecia9on for foreign languages, and a fresh look at how people of the world perceive beauty, passion, love, joy and many other concepts conveyed by famous literary works as well as original works. A^er the event par9cipants had a chance to make new connec9ons and discuss new ideas.
Page 3

For our rst event, Ad Astra is going to the Brancusi Art Gallery for an exhibit featuring ar9sts from across the globe from Uzbekistan, to Lithuania, Turkey, Greece, Belarus and over 18 other na9ons! Time to get inspired!

Ad Astra Newsletter

June and July with Ad Astra

July 3, 2013 Ad Astra Meets with Companies at Moldova State University Career Center July 2, 2013 Ad Astra Group meets members of Junior Chamber International Today Ad Astra met with Junior Chamber Interna9onal, a group of young entrepreneurs who understand youth issues both as employers and as recent university graduates. Ad Astra gave a short presenta9on about Career-for.me, an online plaform July 16, Pilot at the Hospital New Program Launched designed to help companies and students connect. The presenta9on was The perfect job out is out there, you just followed by a lively discussion. have to nd it! But how? Explore experiment and connect thats one way to nd the ideal t. In our new pilot program we will help students and young professionals do just that. By organizing site visits to local businesses and ins9tu9ons, we will help young professionals take a look inside, talk to the professionals and be=er understand the day-to-day ac9vity JCI members talked about the dicul9es which goes on in oces, hospitals, they faced as young professionals factories and other places of work. entering the job market as well as the challenges they are now facing when Its not always like the movies, and its hiring young professionals in their important to understand that before posi9ons as HR managers, Directors and diving into a career youre not really all business owners. that interested in! JCI members oered feedback as well as their support for the Career-for.me youth employment project. Members of JCI were invited and agreed to be the early adaptors! Our rst visit was to the Optometry unit of the Chisinau Hospital Number 3. We had a chance to talk to doctors and surgeons, see pa9ents, visit the opera9on rooms and learn about state- of-the art technology which can show the eye at the cellular level! We will con9nue to conduct similar visits!

No job, no experience, no experience, no job a cycle familiar to students and companies alike. Once broken, it could become a solu9on to youth unemployment. We say: No experience, No problem..Get Some! The Ad Astra team, in collabora9on with the State University of Moldova Career Center presented this vision to local and interna9onal companies. Ad Astra introduced its ini9a9ve, Career For Me, an online plaform were students and companies can connect as early as the rst year of university. Ad Astra advocated for early engagement, proposing that companies connect with students by oering them small tasks, research assignments, and other types of short-term projects. Companies shared their concerned of working with young people and brought up issues which they are currently facing on the job market. During the discussion the par9cipants discussed solu9ons proposed by Career For Me, and some agreed to par9cipate in the project oering task-based hiring.

Page 4

Ad Astra Newsletter

June and July with Ad Astra

July 19, Some Ice-Cream Please! Drancor Factory Visit Its not like in the movies! Con9nuing with our pilot program, the Ad Astra team visited the Drancor Ice-Cream Factory. We met with the technical and laboratory director who gave us a private tour of the factory. Every detail of the ice- cream-making process, the func9on of each machine, as well as the job descrip9on of each employee was explained. During the tour, students could learn about dierent type of skills involved in ice-cream making. Students saw the work of managers, laboratory workers, chemists, food technicians, operators, drivers, and penguins who work in the freezer! Stay tuned for future visits! Meeting New Students, University Admissions Begin Was it dicult to pick your major? 49% of students say Yes! Would you have liked to use career cervices if they were available to you? 74% of students say Yes! Many students who came to submit their admissions for the upcoming year had struggled with making their decisions. Students crowded around bulle9n boards to learn more about various majors. A^er all, who do I wanna be? is a dicult ques9on to answer. Even students who say that it was not dicult to pick their major defer this moment by submiHng documents to dierent facul9es and universi9es. Some apply for Law, Marke9ng, Medicine and Architecture all at once, then leave it up to fate. Few of the students we met made their study choices consciously through careful research, self-reec9on, planning or analysis. Students werent even sure which criteria to use in order to make their decisions! Sta9s9cs surely wasnt a criteria - knowing that out of 18,000 students enrolled in the State University of Moldova, 9,000 applied for the faculty of Law didnt scare students applying for this major! When asked about hopes and dreams, one answer which appeared most o^en was I want to go to the USA.

Page 5