Week 2 in Galati went by very quickly! I was very busy with work having started developing my policy recommendation for the EU Commission. I had to do a lot of research on current EU policies and evaluating what needs to be the focus of my project for developing youth entrepreneurship. Thank you to those who went to/ tried going to the policy website to offer some suggestions for me to consider for my recommendation. I know multiple people in the U.S. had trouble accessing the website. Sorry, I don't know how to fix that! I wish I did. Basically the problem I am working with is how to develop a program that will effect the whole EU on advancing youth entrepreneurship. The EU has multiple programs in place now that focus on entrepreneurship, and even have a whole section in Europe 2020 that outlines the goals for Europe. Entrepreneurship is very important to the EU because about 99% of the economy is represented by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) that employ about 90 million people. Also, the EU has identified entrepreneurship as one of the key focuses to advancing the economy and Europe as a whole. Some of the policies now, like the Small Business Act, improve some of the issues entrepreneurs face, but there has been little to no improvement, in the 6 or so years since this act was passed, in developing the proper skills and education a person needs to be a successful entrepreneur. This is where I hope to make an impact. My goal is to submit a recommendation that will focus on creating an entrepreneurial environment in the education system. I have already met with a panel of people here in Galati to set a foundation of what I will be recommending, and have almost completed a rough draft of my policy recommendation, but I still have a lot of work to do. Once I'm finished, I will submit it to be reviewed by other SMART employees, as well as some of Radu's friends who are very active in the entrepreneur community and who may have some connections on a bigger EU level to make sure my recommendation is the best it can be.
Also, this week SMART found out that our Black Sea Project has been approved and awarded a grant from the EU. We, here, are all very excited to start this project. This means I will be very busy with the start up of this project in the next coming weeks, and I will describe the details of this project in a future post.
After the long work week, Radu, Jordan, a few other of our friends here, and I went up to Radu's family cabin in Soveja. We spent the weekend there, and I got to see more beautiful views of Romania. We went hiking, had bonfires, and even played some volleyball. Soveja is about 2 1/2 hours from Galati, making it the perfect get away from the city. I felt like we were more "camping" than staying in a cabin because the only electricity came from a generator about 30 yards from the house and we cooked most of our meat on the fire pit. I had a great time at Soveja and hope to visit more beautiful places like that. Below are some pictures from that trip.
On our way back to Galati, we stopped at a German WWI cemetery and the Romanian WWI memorial. The fields there marked a significant battle line that the Germans could not pass. Driving through almost 100 years later, it's hard to picture the beautiful green landscape being a war zone.
This week looks to be just as busy as last week, particularly because we have a two hour talk show tomorrow night and an interview with the local news paper on Wednesday. Then on Friday we might be headed to Bucharest for the weekend to see more of the city and to check on paperwork for our Black Sea Project.
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