The FINANCIAL — According to The FINANCIAL summer schools are just beginning to deliver various interesting programmes for university as well as school students from late June-July despite the hot summer season which is generally considered an inactive period for scholarly studies as most of the universities and schools are on holiday.
Free University is well-known for its strong academics that keep its students busy during the semesters, however the University is also very active in other events called Summer and Winter Schools.
The themes of the schools and the topics discussed are selected carefully and mainly cover the world’s most pressing issues (Financial Crisis; Economic Development, etc.). The application process is based on an open competition and the selection process is merit based, thus we have a range of participants from different countries: students and professors, from different universities, public officials, business people, employees of non-governmental organizations, journalists and researchers.
“This year we will host the guests at a specially designed training centre at Bazaleti Lake. Taking into account the number of events organized by Free University and constantly increasing demand this was a logical step from our side. As for the summer schools, this year Free University is holding 10 summer schools. The target groups of each event differ, some are open for the general public and others are for Free University students, there is one for 12th graders as well,” said Ana Toklikishvili, PR Manager at Freeuni.
“In July (18-24 July) we will organize the International Summer School on Law and Economics – the faculty of the school will be Dr. Christopher Lingle – Visiting Professor of Economics in ESEADE at Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala and Adjunct Scholar at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney. He also operates a private, independent consultancy that advises clients on economic and political risk in emerging market economies (eConoLytics.com); Prof. Boudewijn Bouckaert – Belgian law professor. He teaches at the Law School of the University of Ghent, the University of Paris and the University of Aix – Marseille. In addition Prof. Bouckaert is Director of the Department of Legal Theory and History at Ghent University and Chairperson of the European Master in Law and Economics Erasmus Mundus programme; Andrei Illarionov – a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Centre for Global Liberty and Prosperity School. The school will be open for students of different universities and young professionals. 50 participants will be chosen as a result of a competition. The working language of the school will be English,” Toklikishvili said to The FINANCIAL.
“In August (10-19 August) Free University and Harvard University Professors will organize an International Summer School on Leadership. Harvard University Professors will be delivering lectures for school participants. The school will be open for first and second year students from all Georgian universities. For ten days Georgian students and Harvard University professors will live together and discuss various topics of leadership. The working language of the school will be English,” said Toklikishvili.
In addition Free University will organize Summer Schools in Turkish, Arabic and English languages for its bachelor students and trainings in Sales and Crisis Management for our MBA students,” said Toklikishvili.
Free University is also organizing interesting expeditions for its students – an expedition in Tao-Klarjeti and archaeological workshops in Dmanisi and Javakheti are also planned.
“It is worthwhile mentioning that Free University and our partner organization Knowledge Fund are offering 75% scholarships to all participants, thus the participation fee decreases drastically. 100% need based scholarships are also available,” Toklikishvili told The FINANCIAL.
Another very important summer school will be run by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia.
The project aims at strengthening English language teaching and learning within the secondary schools of Georgia. Since 2009 the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia has implemented student-oriented programmes which will respectively increase the interest of secondary school students of Georgia towards learning the English language and at the same time will enhance continuing professional development of those English teachers involved in English-language summer schools in Georgia.
Within the framework of the English Language Learning Strengthening Project three different sub-projects are being accomplished:
• English-Language Summer Schools in Georgia;
• English-Language Summer Schools in the United Kingdom;
• Georgian High School Exchange Students’ Programme/GHSEP.
All three of them are financially supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia.
“The English-language summer schools in Georgia are comprised of arranging three-week English-language summer schools for 1,200 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th grade secondary school students by May 2010 (they will be selected on the basis of the results they get at different school subject olympiads and various school-related competitions along with the certain knowledge of the English Language) in Georgia. Three English native-speaking experts will be invited to the English-language summer schools in Georgia to be in charge of the academic and non-academic programmes taught at the summer schools” Nino Ugulava, the main specialist at MES, told The FINANCIAL.
“The English-language summer schools in the United Kingdom will be comprised of selecting the best 108 students out of those 1,200 participating in the English-language summer schools in Georgia and sending them to the United kingdom to take part in two-week intensive English language summer schools there,” said Ugulava.
The selection of those Georgian high-school students who will pursue their studies in the USA in 2010-2011 has already been finished on the basis of the three-stage competition in the way FLEX usually does it.
Junior Achievement Georgia will offer leadership summer school for 11-16-year olds. The programme will start on 28 June running to 9 July 2010, 12:00 to 16:40. Registration is from 9 June to 25 June 2010.
“The programme will be comprised of interactive theoretical and practical exercises such as debates, games, modelling, and video watching together aimed at raising awareness of leadership and project management. Lessons include psychological and relaxation elements and computer simulations as well. Each group will be comprised of 16 schoolchildren. The group will have a coordinator and 7 teachers,” said Eka Gegeshidze an executive director of JAG.
“We have been holding summer schools from the summer of 2004. At that time only 300 children were involved in summer schools/clubs.”
“Children register by phone or e-mail, then we interview them and the children who pass the interview stage will participate in the summer school. We are going to involve only 32 students because co-financing is available for only two groups. The fee is 200 GEL, but JA is financing 60% of the summer schools, the other 300 is provided by the JA Board,” Gegeshidze said to The FINANCIAL.
JA Worldwide is a partnership between the business community, educators and volunteers – all working together to inspire young people to dream big and reach their potential. JA’s hands-on, experiential programmes teach the key concepts of work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy to young people all over the world. 330,377 Junior Achievement volunteers teach 379,968 classes to 9,795,485 students a year.
“After finishing the classes children will be more active in society and more study oriented innovative thinkers, equipped with sufficient skills to become independent thinkers,” said Gegeshidze.
