Elena Nikolova

Through the conduct of a wide variety of lectures, exercises, discussions and simulations, the Academy aims to invest into 20 youngsters, thus turning them into successful international politicians.

The Academy will introduce the participants to the challenges of policy-making and international diplomacy. All of them will have to act as leaders of different institutions, thus making difficult decisions, persuading their opponents, participating in TV debates and giving interviews. To be… Show more

Through the conduct of a wide variety of lectures, exercises, discussions and simulations, the Academy aims to invest into 20 youngsters, thus turning them into successful international politicians.

The Academy will introduce the participants to the challenges of policy-making and international diplomacy. All of them will have to act as leaders of different institutions, thus making difficult decisions, persuading their opponents, participating in TV debates and giving interviews. To be sure, the Academy will take place in an utmost realistic environment, which will require precise evaluation, and adequate and timely acting.

The participants are expected to develop their team-working, consensus-building and decision-making skills, their abilities to communicate effectively with media representatives and to speak publicly in a coherent and confident manner. In addition to this, they will learn how to formulate political messages, participate in debates, write speeches, analyse conflict situations and build coalitions.

I am glad to have worked on the Euro-Atlantic Academy for Global Affairs both as an organizer and a participant. Show less

The college application process causes great anxiety for high school students all over the world. On he one hand, they want to make their parents proud by being admitted to the most prestigious and expensive universities. On the other, they want to choose the “right” college – the one that gets them their dream career. These two factors compound to create a very difficult, yet important decision.

Locus is a computer run, three-dimensional simulation, which gives an interactive… Show more

The college application process causes great anxiety for high school students all over the world. On he one hand, they want to make their parents proud by being admitted to the most prestigious and expensive universities. On the other, they want to choose the “right” college – the one that gets them their dream career. These two factors compound to create a very difficult, yet important decision.

Locus is a computer run, three-dimensional simulation, which gives an interactive, realistic perception of particular professions. It will be separated into packages such as Business, Medical, Technical, Scientific, Exploration, etc. Each package will contain corresponding professions, which in turn
are organized into levels. As a student progresses through the levels, tasks will become from abstract and stylized to realistic. For example, a student using the Exploration package will be
able to look through the eyes of an astronaut. The first few levels will include a general introduction to being an astronaut. Middle levels will include putting on a space suit and zero gravity training in pools. Final levels will be shuttle blast off, space walking, and satellite station maintenance. Along the way, there will be videos and testimonials of real astronauts, describing all of the aspects of the profession, such as workload, lifestyle, profitability, and the types of people they interact with.

My team and I developed the Locus idea during the Summer Entrepreneurship Program 2013 at Babson College in the United States. For a full description of Locus, see the linked project at the Dell Social Innovation Challenge website. Show less