Office of the Provost and
Vice President for Academic Affairs
Task force on Internationalization: Committees, Conference Call with Lucy Mincheva
Membership • Committees • Meeting Agendas and Minutes • Resources
Summary of Conference Call with Lucy Mincheva
Date: May 11, 2005
Participants:
- Lucy Mincheva, Founder and Director Index Foundation of Bulgaria
- Dr. Hartzell Cobbs, director Mountain States Group
- Karan Tucker, chief Financial Officer, Mountain States Group
- Karen Hoekstra grants writer, Mountain States Group
- Ellie McKinnon, Boise State University
Purpose of the call:
To explore opportunities that could connect Bulgarian students to Boise State and Boise State students to Bulgaria and to explore potential connections between Index Foundation, Mountain State Group and Boise State University. Call was arranged by Dr. Cobbs as a follow up on ideas generated in a meeting with Jim Girven and Ellie McKinnon during which the work of Boise State's Internationalization efforts were discussed.
Identifying Lucy Mincheva
Ms. Mincheva is actively involved in efforts to improve life in the social sector through out the Balkan Region. She is associated with a number of foundations in central and Eastern and Western Europe and is the founder and director of Index Foundation. She has partnered with Mountain States Group on previous projects in Bulgaria. Currently she is working in concert with several American Universities including George Town, and George Washington. As a result of these collaboration, 160 Bulgarian students are engaged in studies in the USA.
We discussed three areas: Balkan Students coming to Boise State, faculty opportunities and internship opportunities for Boise State Students in Bulgaria.
Balkan Students Coming Here:
Ms. Mincheva would be interested in seeing Boise State on the radar screen of promising Bulgarian students and recommended meetings through out the country between University officials, students and their parents. These meetings would provide an opportunity for a representative of Boise State University to discuss Boise State's colleges and amenities. She would be willing to schedule and arrange such meetings. She did not feel that other institutions now participating would see this as undue and unwelcome competition for students.
Faculty Opportunities:
Currently there are courses available in Bulgaria for businessmen and others that are taught by American Professors through the Social Ministry. One class mentioned was associated with the Stock Exchange.
Internships:
Dr. Cobbs expressed an interest in establishing a joint venture with Index, Mountain States and Boise State in which students would be placed in appropriate internships for a period of a semester or a year.
Ms. Mincheva said that areas of greatest interest would likely be associated with: anti- corruption efforts in more than one arena including Health Care and government, AIDS education, and substance abuse education in elementary grades.
She suggested that the mostly likely funding sources for such internships would include the Balkan Trust, Mott Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Counterpart International was also listed as a likely partner, but they deal in loans not grants.
Karen Hoekstra. asked what costs would need to be covered and the following were identified: Housing, per diem, tickets, administrative costs of development of programs at Index, Mt. States and Boise State.
Follow Up:
Ms. Mincheva will follow up on this call with an email in which she will reiterate and bullet specific areas of interest and potential opportunities.
After the conclusion of the phone call, Dr. Cobb reiterated that it would be especially effective to have Ms. Mincheva come to our campus to conduct several workshops on Bulgaria and the Balkan region. She could speak on many issues and such workshops would be invaluable to anyone interested in going there as well as those interested in learning more about the Balkan region of the world.