Non-formal Education from the Center “Window on America”

13.3.2017

In 2014, LTSNU supported the project of the Press, Education and Culture Department of the US Embassy and provided a room for the development of the Information resource center “Window on America”.

“In 2017, after two years of hard work of project coordinators and public activists in Starobilsk, the existing base of the Center has been modernized, which now gives visitors the opportunity to work in two different thematic zones,”– the project manager, head of the Department of International Relations of LTSNU Iryna Migovych told.

The first zone under the name “The city that never sleeps” is equipped with modern technical equipment, such as Smartboard – a product of SMART (Canada), which is an interactive whiteboard based on the latest tangent DViT technology, which allows four users to work simultaneously on the entire surface of the board independently of each other. The second zone “MagnaLibrorum” is a light and cozy library with a collection of books, documentary and classic American feature films.

For two years of its existence, the Center has become a platform for dialogue between representatives of the communities of Lugansk region, and the coordinators of the Center are innovators in terms of introducing non-formal education in this territory. Various events took place here including seminars, photo exhibitions, trainings, workshops, cultural and educational events. Among them according to the initiative of Mustafa Nayem the largest was the organization in May 2016 of participation of the Starobilsk community in an attempt of Ukraine to overcome the Guinness record and conduct the most massive English lesson Language.

In cooperation with the public organization “Agency for Educational Initiatives”, the Center has implemented a component of non-formal education, which involves learning activities in the after-hours with family, friends, colleagues.

The specific feature of non-formal education consists in a greater choice of programs, time, terms of conducting classes, their individualization, greater focus on the specific needs and interests of everyone who is being trained. For the second year in a row, every Wednesday, the Center’s coordinators in conjunction with members of the public organization conduct Free-English classes in basic English, every Thursday – the English Club meeting, where they communicate in English in an easy and casual manner, watch English movies, discuss events, etc.

Since January 2017, the Center has started to work in the above-mentioned areas with staff of Starobilsk District State Administration, continuing the tradition of introducing non-formal education for civil servants, launched by Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University in 2011-2012.

By the way, 2017 is a special year for the US Embassy, ​​when the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Ukraine is celebrated. Therefore, in the near future the Center will host a series of programs entitled “Voices of America-Ukraine” – a special program created as the first product in Ukrainian for Window on America users.

According to the head of the Department of International Relations
I.V. Migovych