TEACH FOR ROMANIA
ALUMNI NETWORK

Our Teach for Romania alumni community is made up of 176 people from all walks of life, with different professional backgrounds and skills, whose joint effort contributes to changing the educational system, regardless of whether they have chosen to continue working in schools, to become teacher trainers for public school teachers, to improve policymaking, to develop community-based social initiatives, or to use the power of media to get people involved in education

MEET THE GRADUATES
OF OUR PROGRAM!

Răducanu (Andronescu) Alina

During the fellowship: Biology Teacher

Current role: Learning Specialist, Teach for Romania, Bucharest

Barbu Ada

During the fellowship: Primary School teacher

Current role: Primary school teacher for 6-12 age group at Butterfly Montessory, Zlin

Giurgiu (Pătrașcu) Silvia-Georgiana

During the fellowship: English teacher

Current role: CEO and founder of Empaticus

Vlad Alexandra (Ada)

During the fellowship: Primary school teacher and English teacher

Current role: Primary school teacher, Montessori, Brasov

Badea Sînziana

During the fellowship: Primary school teacher

Current role: Manager, Centrul Educational Nordic

Brașovanu Vasile

During the fellowship: Primary school teacher

Current role: Primary school teacher, Alatheea, Private school system, Program coordinator of Clubul Familiei

Constantin Cristina Elena

During the fellowship: School Counsellor

Current role: Support Manager, Teach for Romania

Dimișcă Angela

During the fellowship: Primary school teacher

Current role: Outdoor learning coordinator, Alumni Community Engager

Dinică Emilia

During the fellowship: Art Teacher (physics, music)

Current role: Community Coordinator Rubik School, Art Teacher – Questfield

Munteanu Ionela

During the fellowship: English teacher

Current role: Tutor Coordinator, Trainer, facilitator at Teach for Romania

Popa Anca

During the fellowship: English teacher

Current role: Learning specialist Teach for Romania

Șerban Cristina Anca

During the fellowship: Primary school teacher

Current role: Tutor Coordinator, Teach for Romania

Beca Adela-Maria

During the fellowship: Primary school teacher

Current role: Community Coordinator Indreptar Digital – Asociatia TechSoup, Bucuresti

Dima Gabriela

Grigore Gabriel Iulian Claudiu

Secoșan Gabriela

Simac Adriana Angela

Zaharia Simona

Flocea Mălina

Ghiga Ioana Camelia

Hurjui Bianca-Andreea

Ilie Diana Lagmee

Țîțoc Alin Sebastian

Agi-Murat Iasemin

Andronescu Miruna

Anghel Alina Ramona

Ioniță Simona

Mihai Cristina

Marinescu Roxana Silvia

Matei Alexandra Angela

Prisecaru Maria

Roman Cristina

Văduva Ioana Alexandra

Horneț Elena Mădălina

Bogdan, the student who learned to read at 18 and got a driving license

Bogdan is 18 years old and will start 8th grade in September. He has repeated a few years of school, but he has never given up easily. Half a year ago, Bogdan had difficulty recognising all the letters of the alphabet and couldn’t write or read fluently. Bogdan has no special learning needs, no dysgraphia or dyslexia, he simply missed the time when he should have learned to read and write. The rest is just inertia. And years of him sitting at a desk, but being invisible. Until last year. In the first semester, when schools went online, Bogdan didn’t attend any classes. He had problems with his internet connection, he didn’t have a tablet and it was difficult for him to log into class anyway.

In the second semester, when school reopened, he started coming to class again. His biology teacher, Andrei now a Teach for Romania alumnus, realised that Bogdan couldn’t read. He asked him if he wouldn’t mind staying after school to work together, and the answer was yes, even though sometimes staying after school wasn’t so easy, as Bogdan had already been working on a building site for a while.

Andrei had been coached and supported by his colleagues at Teach for Romania and our friends at the New Horizons Foundation on what to do in such situations: they assessed Bogdan, built an action plan together, they met regularly and practiced reading and writing. In July, Andrei also organised a summer school where Bogdan was the first to arrive on most days. When they started working together, Bogdan had the literacy level of a preschool student. Now he reads and has just taken his driving test. It was a dream come true.

Bogdan’s story is not unique. At the beginning of the last school year, Teach for Romania fellows teaching grades II-VIII had, on average, 4 students in the classroom who could not read and write and 6 students with difficulties in reading comprehension. The literacy problem in Romania is far from being solved. For children who are now in school, whatever grade they are in, there is a need for patient, well-trained teachers, who understand that there’s no use in blaming past teachers or the social status of the family and who want and know how to help children who need to learn to read and write better. Children who have been robbed of years of schooling for simply not being taught at the right time. We have what it takes to make this happen and we must do better. What we desperately need instead are trained teachers who are able and willing to be more involved in making learning relevant for students, by adapting lessons to their needs, regardless of what the curriculum requires of them. These children are real, they are waiting at a desk in a remote school for their teacher to show up for them, teachers who will see them, who will listen to them and who will do everything in their power to support their growth.

This is our big challenge and where we most invest in. We continue to work with future generations of Teach for Romania fellows, with teachers in the public school system who want to do more for their students, and with our friends in the NGO sector who want to invest in each child.