State Alumni Member of the Month
October 2008
Veronica Arpintin (Moldova)
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Since participating in the Community Connections program in March, 2004, Veronica Arpintin has been one of the most active members of the Alumni Community in
On the Community Connections program in the
Following her exchange, Arpintin subscribed to the American concept of constant knowledge upgrade. Springing from her professional interests, she initiated a number of activities to provide alumni and non-alumni alike with training and opportunities related to starting a business and business development. For example, from January through May 2008, she developed and conducted a business start-up course aimed at introducing participants to the most important aspects of starting their own business in
Arpintin’s activism, however, extends far beyond her business and professional interests. Immediately after returning from her exchange program, Arpintin became involved in the local alumni community. At the annual national Alumni Congress in 2005, her fellow alumni elected her to serve on the 2005-06 Alumni Board as a representative from the regional Central Alumni Board. In this capacity, she organized 10 alumni events and contributed to reaching out to and reintegrating inactive alumni into the alumni community and making them feel welcome.
Arpintin’s alumni involvement took on an international dimension when, in 2007, she recruited a marketing specialist, FLEX alumnus Oleg Gaidaenko from St. Petersburg, Russia, to come to Moldova to provide professional development training for alumni. Arpintin came across Gaidaenko's resume when browsing the State Alumni website and thought that the knowledge he could share from his professional background would be valuable to Moldovan alumni. A few months later, in spring 2007, Gaidaenko accepted Arpintin’s invitation and met with alumni at the U.S. Embassy Chisinau’s
Arpintin also collaborates with youth initiative groups from
Locally, Arpintin initiates even more community service and charity projects. After witnessing her host family in the
In April 2008, Arpintin initiated a community service project to renovate a local playground in the middle of four nine-story-apartment blocks in the Ciocana district of Chisinau. Arpintin involved local public administrators, public utilities officials, a group of four other alumni, and local community members to clean the playground, plant new trees and bushes, renovate park benches and buy a new sandbox for the children. Most recently, Arpintin helped organize relief for the more than 500 families affected by the devastating floods during the summer of 2008 in the northern and eastern portions of