Diamond Challenge - The Best is Yet to Come
[Photo credit: Thomas Corr (PCV Moldova)]
Today was the Diamond Challenge Finals in Moldova and represents the culmination of months of works by amazing teams of Moldovan youth. For me, it also represents the high moment of a project I have been a part of since my first month as a sworn in Peace Corps Volunteer.
In case this is the first of my posts you have read about Diamond Challenge, it is a international youth entrepreneurship contest run from the University of Delaware. Teams from around the world compete to impress judges with the best business concept or social venture plan. In Moldova, for the last 4 years, local teams compete in a national program with the top teams in each category moving on to compete in the international finals. Our dear Moldovan teams have been extremely successful taking home many top prizes or at least placing in the top 3 each year they have competed.
Through this program I have been inspired by the optimism, creativity, and determination by the young Moldovans who compete. They will without a doubt be the future of Moldova and will have a big impact on this world.
This program also holds a special place in my heart because it has lead me to meet and grow friendships with many amazing people.
When I attended my first “Information Session” on August 8th, 2015, each Peace Corps Volunteer introduced themselves and where they were from. After the session, Galina Rusu from Ciorescu approached me with 4 of her students and told me, “your bus goes past our village so you will be our team’s mentor.” This lead me first the first 4 Moldovan teenagers I had met, Carolina, Diana, Filip, and Sabin, who formed our Diamond Challenge team. While we didn’t have success as a team, I enjoyed every minute I got to work with this kids. Galina, their English teacher, was also great to work with. I was immediately impressed by how hard she worked to find opportunities for her students. We began to talk and decided to add an English Speaking Club to my visits. This has lead to one of my most enjoyable and longest lasting activities I have had during my service. Galina is a wonderful person and I very much enjoy collaborating with her on the club or just talking. Our next club is approaching next week and I’m excited to see all the students and Galina again.
This info session also lead me to get to know some of the Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) who came before me. After some time, my mentor and all around amazing PCV, Katie Bennett approached me with her Diamond Challenge Partner, Steve Mantani, and asked me to join the Diamond Challenge team that helped organize the national competition. Steve and Katie did amazing things during their service. I learned much about what works and what doesn’t work and modeled much of what I have done in my service off what they have done. They did amazing things or Diamond Challenge with the biggest impact being the creation of a 14 week curriculum that Diamond Challenge Moldova will be using for years to come. I truly felt as if we were standing on the shoulders of giants when it came to lifting Diamond Challenge to the place it was this year.
Diamond Challenge gave me new opportunities to interact with my fellow PCVs. I am so proud of the people I serve with. This year we had 27 PCVs from all our programs that worked as mentors, trainers, judges, or advisors. Peace Corps Volunteers love this program because of the inspiring young people we get to meet and it shows in their participation. This year I worked closely with the 3 PCVs in the right of the picture below: Michael, Sam, and Kaya. Michael and Sam are only 5 months into their Peace Corps service and are already involved in many projects and will, without a doubt, have a huge impact on the people they work with and are around. I was extremely happy to finally work closely with a member of my cohort, Kaya, who is involved in as many programs as I am and can always be relied on to be impressive in everything she does. Not pictured but very important, I must mention that I worked with another volunteer from my year, Megan Stewart, who needed to leave Moldova in September to pursue other things but had a huge impact on the program last year and got us off to a great start last year (Thanks Meghan!)
Most importantly though, I must mention the unbelievable people from Invento that I had the pleasure to work with these two years. Last year, I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Olga Pilipiciuc, who had progressed through Diamond Challenge as a participant up through being a manager of the program. Unfortunately for us, Olga left the program to start a family but stayed connected and still came out to support us at events. Our misfortune at losing Olga lead me to meet Ana Indoitu (left in the above picture). Ana is one of the quieter members of our teams but her intellect and skill is clear when she speaks. Ana worked mostly behind the scenes to support Diamond Challenge and without her it would not have happened. I have really enjoyed every moment I have spent working with her this year and hope that we continue to work together throughout my service. Lastly, and most importantly, I had the great pleasure to work with Ana Mirza (right of me in the photo) for both of my two seasons of Diamond Challenge. Ana has a talent for connecting with people that I have not seen in anyone I have met. She promotes Diamond Challenge non-stop to media outlets and through Facebook and keeps it on everyone’s mind. She is always on top of every task that needs to be completed to make the program happen and is always there to give us a push when we need it. She is delightful to be around and lights up any space she enters. I always look forward to the times when we will be meeting and working together and have enjoyed becoming friends with Ana. I really hope we can maintain our friendship beyond my service in Peace Corps.
I spoke briefly on the spot during our awards ceremony today about Ana and Ana. They are two of the most capable and impressive people I have ever worked with. I said this then and wanted to write it out again: I wish that I could take them with me wherever I go and work with them on all the projects in which I’m involved. I thank them greatly for the opportunity to be a part of their team.
Tomorrow I will write more about the winning teams and the other really great ideas I heard today, but for tonight I wanted to reflect on my time with Diamond Challenge. It is most likely that this is my last competition in Diamond Challenge Moldova. I am very thankful that I had this opportunity and it will always be one of the highlights of my service. While I do take pride in the work that I personally did with the program, I know that the good things we did as a team happened because we worked together as a team. I know that the Moldovans running the program and the many Peace Corps Volunteers that will support it will continue to do great things and will grow the program to levels I cannot even foresee. As the image behind me in the opening photo says, “The Best is Yet to Come.”
