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IREX is an international nonprofit organization providing leadership and innovative programs to improve the quality of education, strengthen independent media, and foster pluralistic civil society development.
Founded in 1968, IREX has an annual portfolio of $50 million and a staff of over 500 professionals worldwide. IREX and its partner IREX Europe deliver cross-cutting programs and consulting expertise in more than 50 countries.
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Nearly 100 Girls Advance Skills with Tech Age Girls Project Kick-off in Kyrgyzstan
Global Connections and Exchange (GCE) Kyrgyzstan and its partners officially launched the Tech Age Girls (TAG) project at fourteen schools in Kyrgyzstan in late March. The accompanying announcement of competition quarter-finalists provided 97 young women in Kyrgyzstan with an opportunity to improve their futures. The TAG quarter-finalists, chosen from 246 applicants, will benefit from directed training to develop girls’ leadership, technology skills, and local resources.
The new Tech Age Girls (TAGs) have already initiated their journey. On March 29, they began basic computer skills training, learning to use Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the internet. They will use these skills to organize and hold service events in their communities as part of the international Global Youth Service Day ( www.gysd.org). The projects, which will benefit their cities and towns, also help to determine selection of semi-finalists. Thanks to training conducted by GCE Masters of Information Technology in Education (MITEs), the girls are positioned to succeed. “I started to prepare the plan for the first training session carefully, because I know that half of success is a good beginning,” said MITE Viktoria Livada. To symbolize their journey, Viktoria’s TAGs placed paper representations of themselves at the start of a long road hung on the classroom wall. The road’s end is a conference in Bishkek this July which will enhance their IT knowledge, provide them with marketable skills and experience, and expand the role of women in IT and leadership positions in Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan Teachers “Meet” American Counterpart Thanks to Skype
 GCE Kyrgyzstan’s fourteen Masters of Information Technology in Education (MITEs) gathered in Bishkek for refresher training from March 24-26. While all enjoyed the chance to brush up on their technology skills and discuss the program’s progress, the highlight for many was the chance to “meet” and talk with one of their US counterparts during a video conference. Utilizing Skype videoconference technology, the MITEs were able to see and hear their colleague Robert Ponzio, an art teacher in Gainesville, Florida. Ponzio is a veteran of IREX-administered Global Connections and Exchange programs, having actively participated in online projects with students and teachers in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and was able to share these rich experiences with the teachers in Kyrgyzstan.
During the hour-long conversation, the MITEs were able to discuss with Ponzio best practices for integrating technology in the classroom, how to prompt interesting discussions among students, and overcoming challenges while implementing online projects. While his advice on conducting online projects was extremely helpful, the most valuable lesson offered by Ponzio was about creating close connections between individual people: “I liked his words, ‘Politics are politics, but people are people,’” commented MITE Nilufar Halmatova. “To me, those words were very important.”
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