CROS Learning Model

1

Coperta

Student guide

to our alternative learning model

The University of the Future

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I N T OR D TC IUWe invite you in a world where young people like you take the responsibility for their own development, they discover and create themselves, they rediscover games, intrinsic motivation and passion, they have the courage to dream and the reflex of giving before asking.

The purpose of this guide is to explain, in detail, the alternative learning model proposed by CROS. We hope it will help you understand why, how and what exactly we are doing.

The guide is primarily addressed to the members of the CROS communities of practice. We hope it will help you decide if it suits you and later on to create an extraordinary experience using this model and its resources.

I was reborn a couple of days ago. In my thoughts and in my

soul occurred changes that I could never have imagined. I

left CROS Camp with a special kind of energy, that can not be

found in any other place on Earth.

Raluca, youth volunteer “O N

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W T IF N D

H E R E

Then we detail each learning process, all of them being grouped in sections.

Who we areWhat we

believe in

4 5

Learning principles

6Steps

7

Learning processes

8 Communities of practice

9

Weeklyguest lecture

SharingDay

TrainingLearning

Day

2.0 Courses Workshops

14 15

16 17

18 19

Social Learning

NGO Internship

Rent a TeamBusiness

Incubator

20 21

22 23

PracticalExperiences

Self-directedLearning

Coaching

MentoringPersonalBranding

10 11

12 13

Individual Support

LearningHouse Wiki

The Game CAMP

24 25

26 27

Learning environment

Calendar Contribution

ResultsOur

promise

28 29

30 31About the learning model

We begin by presenting ourselves and sharing the reason behind cre-ating this learning model.

The following few pages describe the principles of the model and its basic elements, seen as a whole: steps, learning processes and communities of practice.

Towards the end we complete the image with a set of details that make the model more tangible.

AH C NA Y UO

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A B O U T C R O S

4 years ago we founded CROS (Resource Center for Student Organizations), as part of our dream to create the first alternative university in Romania. CROS has now a team of 16 members, 9 of them working full time.

We worked with over 1000 young volunteers and 106 student organizations.

In 2011, at the Education Awards Gala, CROS recieved a special honorary distinction for contributing to Romanian education through innovation in education and its vision of an Alternative University. The other 5 distinctions were offered to institutions like “Gazeta Matematica” and Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering.

In the following years we believe we have to put other values at the foundation of Romanian education. Autonomy and trust instead of control. Diversity and personalization instead of standardization. Critical thinking instead of indoctrination. On the long term, we strive for our university to contribute to a movement that will profoundly transform Romanian education.

Ana Secrieru Andrei Cojan Bogdan Ardeleanu Cristina Cristea Diana Irimia Elena Dobre Floriana Boldojar Gabriela Solomon

We are a team of young people, aged 22 to 30,

passionate about education.

Horațiu Țicău Ioana Cepoi Miruna Leonte Silvia Purel Traian Brumă Victoria Dinu Violeta Șerbu Vlad Atanasiu

We make incredibly poor use of our talents. We have built our educational system on the model of fast-food - everything is standardized. And it is depleting our mental abilities the same way that fast-food is depleting our bodies. Ken Robinson

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EW I NB LE I E V

• They need guidance, but in the same time they

should keep their autonomy to decide what, how

much and how they learn.

• Each individual builds his own path.

• The path is organic and non-linear.

• The motivation to learn comes from within.

We believe that people are happy and fulfilled when:

In our culture, young people cross paths with the

University in the moment they start searching for their

place in the world. In search of that place where they will

be happy and fulfilled, they transform themselves and

the world around them. We aim to create a university

that would support them in this process, according to

the following principles:

Their basic comfort is ensured (material, emotional, social)

They are as much as possible in the flow, that state in which time disappears and you become completely immersed in an activity that gives you joy and energy.

Life has a sense, a meaning, a purpose that is greater their own “wellbeing”

Comfort

Flow Purpose

• Development occurs best in interaction and

cooperation with others, and deep relationships and

community make the difference.

• Learning experiences must be authentic life

experiences, with all stakes and complexity of reality.

All these give birth to a set of principles that guide our interaction:

You learn, we create the contextWe don’t teach you anything. Learning belongs 100% to

you, our role being to bring the people you need together,

create the atmosphere, give you access to resources and

experiences that help and support you in your learning.

Freedom and responsibilityNothing is compulsory. Everything is flexible. You have

the freedom to make your own choices and change them

whenever you need to. In order for this freedom to work

for all of us, it needs to be accompanied by responsibility.

Each one of us should respect the time of others, keep our

promises, and take care of the learning resources and the

relationships we have with external stakeholders.

The University and the Community matter alsoFirstly, both you and us are here for your development.

But secondly, each of us also takes care of others

growth and that of our university. Besides the individual

development of each person, we shape together the

education of the future.

Honesty and transparencyWe have an open culture that encourages mutual

constructive feedback and we would like us all to be as

authentic as possible. We expect you to be honest and

open regarding what we will offer to you and you can

expect the same from us.

Adult to adult interactionsWe interact and relate to each other as equals, we have

trust and authentic respect for each other - we live and

show this every day. Everybody thinks for himself and is

responsible for his actions.

Self-improvement and supportBeyond your current limit there is a new limit that you

might be aware of or not. We are here to support you, to

challenge and to encourage you, but we will not push

you. We expect you to do that.

W TAH E

CROS6

A

Principles

The CROS model supports learning from 3 complementary perspectives: • personalized learning path, supported

through one-to-one learning processes; • social learning in communities of practice;• real life experiences, that offer authentic

growth opportunities;

Learning implies a relatively non-linear and hard to predict road, but we have identified 4 stages that are helpful in making sense of it. This is an alternative for organizing learning in “years”. The stages are personalized - each individual experiencing them at his or her own pace. Their purpose is to simplify the complexity of the learning process and to help you to be aware of the stage you are in, to allocate time for each stage and they help CROS support your development with relevant experiences for each stage. Before each stage you have a gateway.

It is a discovery stage in which you do not take big commitments. It’s a search, a way of mapping the field. It’s like scouting before choosing a spot to install the tent.What you will be doing: you will meet many people, volunteer in various teams without being a critical person in the team, you choose your student organization and understand how it works (first year of organization), you can read books, sites, blogs on various topics, attend conferences and student projects etc.

How does it work

Exploring

E

In our vision, effective and efficient learning is a balanced combination of the three above and together they lead to personal and professional development, transition to the active, productive and fulfilled life; finding ones element and place in the world. The following stages resulted from our 9 years of experience in the students NGOs environment. They are designed for volunteers in student and youth organizations.

You want to take your education into your own hands. You are open towards

Entering the communities

Exploring stage ends when you feel ready to assume a bigger responsibility

Gateway to Action

learning, have intrinsic motivation, ambition, perseverance, passion, energy, optimism and positive attitude. You are upright, responsible, authentic and oriented towards cooperation. You can allocate 500 hours/year for learning in the CROS communities. You are willing to take the untrodden path, and make things happen. We accept any degree of confusion - we don’t assume you decided what you want to do with your life.

or commitment (minimum 3 months - usually 1 year) and you’ve found it. You are doing this in an environment that allows you to make mistakes, where you have freedom and it is built so that it accelerates your journey. It can be part of an organization or a team based on volunteering. It might be a personal project or one belonging to the organization in which you have a role. This commitment isn’t just an “exercise” or a test; it truly represents you and you should care for it beyond “what comes out of this”; it is part of your real life and you want to do it for it’s own sake, intrinsically motivated; it is a way of engaging with the world around. It is important to choose something you really care for. The transition towards “action” is made through a public statement (inside the communities) in which you describe your new responsibility and its objectives for the coming period, you answer to the question “Why this?” and tell the community how it could help you.

You start from the point in which you’re not decided what attracts you and where you might belong. Even if you do have an idea about what you could do, you did not have the chance to meet people working in that field. This is a stage in which you get to know yourself, you map your interests and the corresponding reality.

CROS Model7

StagesAction

Transition

Mastery

T

M

Gateway to Transition

Gateway to Mastery

This is the stage in which you accumulate the initial experience and your portfolio, you consolidate or invalidate your choices. Usually this stage stretches on a period of 2-4 years in which you take on a series of more and more complex challenges. An example for a route you might take in this stage could be: you coordinate a project inside an organization for 4 months, then you coordinate a department for one year, you become the president in the following year and then start a new project in your organization, that you lead for 6 months.These experiences take place in youth or students organizations where you have more freedom to try and make mistakes and where the entire environment is oriented towards supporting this initiation experience. During this stage learning from practice has a really high effect because you are doing many things for the first time.

You have capitalized all that could be capitalized in the initiation environment

This is a stage in which you find your direction and the vehicle to take you there. You can aim at a job, or to become a freelancer that creates a place for him in the market or to build your own business.You define what you are looking for, you talk to as many people as possible and ask them to guide you, you meet companies and teams, attend interviews and maybe internships, you engage in a management trainee program or even in a job. If you aim towards becoming a freelancer, you work on different projects in order to consolidate your portfolio and to create a network of clients and references. If you aim towards entrepreneurship, then you create a business inside the business incubator.Each person that enters the transition period will be part of a catalogue and the partner organizations will have access to you and you will have access to them. We will publish your portfolio and your story in the network.

The fact that you have a job or you started a business is not a reliable

and you are now ready to go to the next level. You have a consistent portfolio that shows your interests and your competences.In order to cross to Transition, you create a portfolio that describes the experiences you’ve been through and their results. Then you present them in front of a group of people that helps you realize if you are ready to move on and guides you in the following steps. Besides, they offer you a recommendation and try to open doors towards the next stage. “The commission” is made up by persons that you have invited and persons recommended by CROS.

If you also want a formal recognition, you need to add the specific conditions required by that certification.

This is a stage in which you are a reflexive practi-tioner, you continuously improve, going further and further in your domain, you strengthen your-self in relation to the professional community you belong to, you make a difference in this commu-nity and the market, produce results, accumulate solid professional experience, you mature as a professional and you progress on the steps of your profession.This is a stage in which, in relation to the AU, you are firstly a resource person and your growth is supported exactly through this role: you learn by teaching others and by keeping a close contact with other professionals from the mastery stage.

persons that played a role in your initial development and helped you find your place. This is the ritual through which, in relation to the Alternative University, you transform from the one that needs help to the one that offers help. In relation with the world, this is a ritual through which you become a contributor and tell the others what your role will be. It consists of a public presentation in which you describe your journey up to that point, your professional (and personal) mission and your plans for the future.

indicator for crossing to the Mastery stage. In order to get there, you need to have the certainty that you embarked on a stable route for 2-3 years, that you are in your element and that it’s worth to accelerate on this road.Crossing over to this stage is done through a “Thank you” event, during which you can invite

CROS8

Learning

processe

s

In the image on the right you can see all the learning processes we organize. Other things you can see in the diagram:• The processes are grouped in 4 main

categories: individual support, social learning, practical activities and learning environment

• The stages that were previously described and the gateways

• The intensity of the colors represents the extent to which each process, from our own experience, is relevant for each stage.

More details about each of the learning processes are offered in the following pages. According to the stage you feel you are in, you can read more about those processes that are intensified on the ring for that stage. Of course, for your immeasurable curiosity, we invite you to read about all of them.Recommending processes according to the stage is not exclusive. We invite you to talk with somebody from the CROS team any time you think about accessing a process.

Organizing learning

Learning House

Gateway to Action

Gate

way

to Exploring

Expl

orin

g

Actio

n

Tran

sitio

n

Mas

tery

Social and collaborative learning

Indi

vidu

al s

uppo

rt Real-life experiences

Guest

of t

he week

Soft-Skills Training

Sharing Day

2.0 Courses

Hard-Skills Training

Learning Day

Pers

onal

Bra

ndin

g

Men

tori

ng

Coac

hing

Self-Dire

cted Learnin

g

NG

OInternship

Rent a Team

B3 Business Incubator

Gateway to Mastery

Gatew

ay to Transition

Learning environment and resources

CROS Model9

Communities

This is the Community of Practices that focuses on human resources management and development, from recruitment and selection to motivation and performance management. It is designed for those passionate of working with people in developing groups and organizations, like HR coordinators, trainers, facilitators, etc.

HRemotion

This is the CoP in which communication is the main topic, particularly in new media (social networking, online collaboration platforms, photography, video making and digital graphics, etc.). It is designed for enthusiasts to experience new ways of communication and to improve skills and techniques in these areas, from narrative journalism to multimedia.

New Media School

This year marks the start of the 3rd CoP of the model, inspired by the need of an increasing group of NGO leaders (presidents, project managers, coordinators of departments), of several entrepreneurs and NGO alumni passionate about organizational development. They want to develop in the fields of management and leadership in order to support the growth of their organizations.

Leadership Community

What are the communities of practiceThe communities of practice (CoP) are a form of organizing a group of people working in a certain domain. These people reunite around a certain topic and around the set of practices of that topic, in order to develop and learn from one another. CoP exist for a long time as a natural form of organizing and have been studied and modeled by Etienne Wenger. He defines 3 elements as being essential for CoP: the Domain (area of knowledge that creates common purpose and guides learning), the Community (social

relations between members who support the knowledge sharing) and the actual Practices (focus areas around which the community develops, shares and coagulates most of the knowledge).In the wide frame of the Alternative University, the communities of practice are alternative colleges. Below you can see an estimate of the member’s distribution in the communities, considering also the development stages we propose.

a-3-acomunitate

40membri

40membri

15membri

E

A

M

T

At the moment, there are 3 CoP in the CROS model. Being a member in one community does not exclude your participation in the others.

3 communities in 2012

the Third

members members

members

Community

Entering the communities

Gatewayto Action

Gateway to Transition

Gateway to Mastery

Individual10

“

““

Self-Dire

cted

Learning

Counseling for self-directed learning is a process of individual support, by which each member of the community gets to take responsibility for their own education, to control what, how, when, whom with and what they learn.

What it is

RelationsParticipants in the program - the students - and those who advise them - the counselors - have a peer-to-peer relationship. The

Time

Stages

counselors are members of the communities for at least one year and they completed a training in counseling for self-directed learning. Each student will choose the counselor which suits him best.

The program for self directed learning will be opened in October and it lasts as long the counseled students need. We estimate a period of 8-12 months, with weekly meetings of 1.5-2 hours each.

*a complete dial represents 8 active hours

We recommend counseling for self-directed-learning especially for members in the Exploring stage and sometimes for those in the Action stage.

Explorare Actiune Tranzitie Maiestrie

unu la unu

It was an exploration of self with many pleasant surprises. I learned to teach and I taught myself - the way I work, what makes me productive, why I do certain things and not others. I learned to make better choices.I was asked at one point how I see

Laura Stoia

myself in 10 years if I maintain this attitude towards learning. I think I could adapt to anything and thus develop very much. I see learning objectives as a tree growing in many directions.

The counseling for self-directed learning program helped me discover an opportunity of learning in any activity around me, to look at what I’ve learned from every experience and above that, it helped me realize that I can create my own opportunities to

Raluca Grigore

learn something that I want. What I learn and how I learn depends only on me!

What do the counseled students say

I started the program without a clear picture of what I’ll do later. I started by answering the question “Who am I actually?”. By doing this I learned about my values, what are my models and what are my motivations. With each meeting we had, my projection

Maximilian Dobrescu

in time was crystallizing.Another thing that enlightened me was the discovery of all the resources that I was surrounded by. I still do not use them all, but I am aware of their existence and I know that I can access them any time I need them. You get to become solely responsible for your learning and development, and that gives you a sense of freedom that is hard to describe.

Fostering autonomyThe way we relate to self-directed learning is based on a model of Malcolm Knowles - adapted according to our experience in the recent two years of piloting. A way for you to imagine this model is a flower that you have to grow, from the stem to each petal. The way to develop your autonomy includes fostering this plant, taking care of each item and the synergy between them.

We assume that in each of us lies the potential for autonomy in learning.

Exploring Action Transition Mastery

one to one

Support11

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“

“

“““

CoachingCoaching is an individual non-directive process that tries to support people in achieving personal and professional development objectives, in meeting challenges and achieving performance.

What it is

RelationsCoaches are professionals who have undergone a training program in this respect and are willing to work with young people.

Time

Stages

When you want to access a coach we will help you find one that fits you.

The coaching program is permanently open and it lasts for an estimate of 12 sessions (one per week). A coaching session lasts about an hour.


We recommend coaching especially in the Action and Mastery stages. It is also possible for a coach to help you during the Exploring and Transition stages.

unu la unu


Each year, the coaching program was a “life changing” experience. It supported me exactly during the periods when I needed support and it helped me to focus on myself. I asked myself questions and found solutions to problems related to

Georgiana Floroiu

both the professional area and the personal life. Through coaching I managed to take a break from hectic daily life and recalibrate my energy towards the things that make me happy.

Coaching helped me to know who I am as an individual, where I’m going and how to get there. It’s a complex process that starts from an analysis centered on the individual against himself and helps him understand his choices in different areas of life.

Raluca Bercea

This approach gave me a quiet moment in which I had the freedom to explore and understand me better. It is the most effective way to achieve concrete results and acquire balance in life.

What do the coachees say

Coaching with Gabi is different from what I experienced before. I felt a certain reluctance in the beginning because I knew the classical structure with questions. I did not like it and it was not for me. With Gabi everything is about

Cristi Neacșu

generative coaching. That is what attracted me to start the program with her. That means we are not making a plan to follow, with objectives, but we work on calibrating objectives with what you are and what you wish. If I should recommend somebody in terms of setting goals, I’d warmly recommend someone like Gabi. For me, setting goals is more than SMART, SMARTER, Deadline, Evaluation, Discipline. It is about you.

What do the coaches sayMy biggest passion is to work with young people. It was great fun and I used a lot of new, creative techniques. I realized that they worked when he said “the person I visualized at the beginning of the program is the person I became. “

Andreea Voroneanu

In your mission to build an alternative university, you need healthy developmental experiences. Personally I’m convinced that tools such as coaching are not just important, but essential to set people on the move. Alexandru Popa

The fact that you give young people such a space to ask fundamental questions for this stage of their evolution, regarding the path they choose for life, brings me even closer to you. I enjoy your energy and

Gabriela Bujor

openness. It was a great challenge that brought me back to my passion of working with young people.

Explorare Acțiune Tranziție MăiestrieExploring Action Transition Mastery

one to one

Individual12

Mentorin

g

Mentoring is an individual process in which an experienced professional in a particular field supports a member of the community to develop skills and professional values, offering insights and information, access to resources and relevant experience.

What it is

RelationsMentors are professionals with at least 5 years of professional experience in HR, communications, business,

Time

Stages

learning and development, education.During the year you will know potential mentors whom you can invite to help you in this way.

The mentoring program is always open. The moment you decide to start a mentorship relation it is up to you and the mentor. From past experience, meetings lasts about an hour and take place every one or two weeks.


We recommend mentoring especially during the Transition stage. It is also possible that a mentor can help you in the Action and Mastery stages.

unu la unu


“

“

“

In the spring of 2011, I was studying PR in my last year at the Faculty of Letters and I was curious how it would be to work in a communication agency. My big dream was to do PR for a cultural institution or a theater festival. The mentoring program offered me the

Raluca Vasile

opportunity to meet, talk and work with a professional working in the domain I was passionate about. I chose BTO as my mentor - a challenge on several fronts, from which I had only to learn. We’ve had discussions about briefing, brainstorming, creative sessions, meetings, teamwork. I gained knowledge, confidence, new perspectives and most importantly, I realized what I do not want to do - I do not want to work in PR.

2011 was the “Bogdana year”. If you browse websites, you will surely understand why. I chose her as a mentor because she seemed to be a powerful woman in an equally powerful industry. At that time I had a special interest in marketing/online communications. I saw the right

Aliana Răteanu

person in Bogdana to give me confidence, resources and support. During our meetings, which were not many but they were precious, I got exactly what I wanted. Results were seen: I had the confidence to take my personal projects as a freelancer and earn some money, I started reading niche publications and I began to understand the industry in a new light.

What do the mentees say

For me it was a pillar of support, especially since I had so much respect for the person in front of me in terms of professionalism and her views were true triggers for reflexive sessions. In fact, I think this is the way a mentor can help you: he/she is the living example of the way you want to go

Andreea Ciobotaru

through from that moment onwards. The mentor is the

person who can give you viable examples, to bring to your attention the pros and cons of the decisions you want to take - because he/she knows, because he/she has been there already and has the maturity and necessary experience to be an example for you.

Who are the mentors• Bulent Duagi, HR Business Partner Adobe România • Mihai Zânt, Training and Recruitment Manager • Tibi Borza, Recruitment Specialist, LOreal • Ioana Predescu, Manager Human Resources,

Mercedes Benz România • Alexandru Popa, Learning Consultant, Orange

România • Luminiţa Keleş, Employer Branding Manager JTI

România • Diana Rosetka, General Manager, United Business

Developement (AchieveGlobal, KT, ROI) • Mihaela Feodorof, Managing Partner, YOURWAY

COUNSELING

• Tudor Totolici, Online Marketing Consultant • Vili Păcureţu, advertising and programming

specialist• Bogdana Butnar, Business Development, Head of

Telco/E-Commerce Google România

• Viorel Panaite, Managing Partner, Human Invest • Marian Staş, Education Consultant and Win-Win

Consulting• Oana Ţoiu, Executive Director KCMC (K Consulting

Management and Coordination)

HRemotion

New Media School

Leadership Community

one to one


Support13

Personal

BrandingTo encourage networking and personal branding, we will permanently hold a workshop on this subject, where we invite speakers, trainers, provide feedback and share our experiences. Besides the workshop, we encourage you to have a personal blog, to attend conferences and to be active in your social networks.

What it is

RelationsThe workshop will be supported by Sergiu - ideas wizard and Zen - creative genie, from the Friends for Friends Foundation. It will be

Time

Stages

organized in small groups of 10-15 people, from all three communities, and the workshop is practical and customized to each member.

The workshop will start in spring and will be held weekly or twice a month, depending on the needs of members. A workshop will last approximately 2-2.5 hours and there are a total of 10 sessions.


We recommend personal branding workshops especially for Transition and Mastery stages. They can also be very useful if you decide to work on your personal brand from the Action stage.


grupuri mici

“The personal branding course was uncomfortable for me because it made me realize that I have much work to do in areas that I thought I already master.

This course made me more aware of my strong points and my weaknesses. I must have more confidence in my strengths and therefore, in myself. What I think we need to do now is to implement the good advice I received about communicating with new people I meet.

I also realized that I wish to continue being an HR person as a volunteer, because I love it and a time will come when I will get paid for what I like to do. Thank you and thanks to my colleagues from the course because they inspire me. I’m glad to see them grow and implement what they learned.

Otilia Boldeanu

Why is it important

“In a world in which the new business cards are Google searches and reputation and your network of professional contacts is often worth more than a college diploma, personal branding should be a basic

Paul Olteanu

concern of any professional.Personal Branding is thus not a luxury reserved only for multinational executives and entrepreneurs, but a specific need for any person who wants to be found, recognized and paid for what he/she can do best.

“Views and opinions about you are inevitably formed and this often happens without anyone noticing. When you become aware of your personal image beyond the clothes to dress up, the term personal branding emerges.

Sergiu Bica

What do the participants think

small groups


Social14

“Weekly

Guest Lectu

re

Focused 3 hours event in which the professionals we work with are invited to present or facilitate a discussion on a topic of professional or general interest for all members. It is an evening of inspiration and networking opportunity for those present.

What it is

RelationsEach week a professional from our network will be invited, whether it is a specialist in communication, new media, human resources,

Time

entrepreneurship, education, personal development, management, leadership or a mentor, trainer, coach, friend or friend of the communities.

We organize this event every week - 2 hours of facilitated discussion and one hour of networking space. We estimate that there will be about 30 events per year.


The Guest of the week event is recommended for all community members.

eveniment alcomunitatilor

StagesExplorare Actiune Tranzitie Maiestrie

Guests Format

Multimedia

Vasilie Nikolic

Why would the common person want to know the life of another common human? Perhaps to compare? To learn something from his mistakes? To learn something from his achievements? To know his attitudes towards the world? The spiritual dimension? Maybe a little bit from all of that.

Alis Anagnostakis Cristi Lupșa

There are many people that we’d like you to know and who would want to meet you and share their ideas and experiences. Below are just a few. We are also keen to receive proposals of people you would like to invite to these events.

• Radu Mărgărit• Ana Silivaş• Horea Murgu• Alis Anagnostakis• Alecsandra Liţu• Elisabeta Stănciulescu• Lucian Mihai

• Vasilie Nikolic• Cristi Nicolae• Cristi Lupşa• Sandra Ghiţescu• Chris Worman• Iulian Olariu• Răzvan Crişan

The guest of each week will be asked to prepare both a short presentation and an interactive form to help participants to enter more deeply into the subject at hand. At the end we leave room for spontaneous conversations and new connections.

Each presentation will be recorded and you can review it online anytime. We still recommend you to attend the event because it’s an opportunity to know the guests and to interact with them and with your fellows from the community.

Prezentare ~ 3 ore

Explorare Acțiune Tranziție Măiestrie

community event


Lecture

Practical exercise or discussion

Open space for

conversations

~ 3 hours

Learning15

SharingDayThematic meetings and sharing have as the central topic the community activities. During these meetings members of each community exchange good practices, find answers to questions, build together systems and tools in their interest area. Themes are chosen by participants and are scheduled as to be discussed before the activities take place in the organization.

What it is

RelationsMeetings are facilitated by someone with experience in facilitation and design of learning. We often invite professionals from

Time

Stages

the business environment to these meetings to present case studies or simply to participate to the discussions.

Each month, half of day (4-6 hours) will be dedicated to sharing. In total nine Sharing Days will be organized throughout the year.




Memories about Sharing

“What does sharing mean to me now? It is an experience in which we openly talk about things we did and we are still doing. Things that went ok or not, things that I want to know how they were made by other organizations, how

Ioana Cepoi

it went, what difficulties they encountered, things I have in my mind and I’d want to enforce in the organization, things I carried out and I came to a deadlock that I can not overcome and I need creative solutions and smart questions. In the category of things I can put: a communication campaign, branding the organization, research, Facebook, Facebook content, blog articles, website, a small logo, a tweet, anything.

Apart from events organized by us, at any time you can hold sharing meetings with colleagues from the community, calling for their support with confidence. Between meetings, the sharing of information takes place on the online platform of the community.

Human Resources

Communication & new media

Leadership & Management

Social Media CampaignsPR in organizationsCommunication strategyHow to build the brand of an organisation

Recruitment of new membersMotivationOrganizational cultureCommunication inside the organization

Examples of topics

Strategic meetings of the organizationPlanning the activity in the organizationLeadership in organizationsHow do we manage the resources of an organization

And something more...A flowing conversation

Sharing Day is recommended for members in the Action stage that want to both receive and offer from their experiences, but it is an open event to members from other stages, willing to learn new perspectives.


community event


Social16

“Traininguri Hard-skills

Traininguri Soft-skills

Training

Training is a form of group learning, directed by a trainer, which provides access to a set of contents and

aims to develop skills. In the CROS communities we split the trainings we offer to into hard-skills and

soft-skills trainings.

What it is

RelationsThis type of experience is facilitated by a trainer - a person who has experience in the field in which the event occurs and is

Time

responsible for designing and facilitating learning for the group of participants. A training group is ideally between 15-20 participants.

Trainings start in September, when there are 8 trainings, afterwords their frequency will drop to 3/month. The order of themes and their frequency is designed to bring maximum impact according to the challenges of each development stage of the participants. The duration of a training varies from one day to three days.


Stages

trainer & grup

Soft trainings are recommended especially for members in the Exploration and Action stages and hard trainings for members in the Action stage. They are open for members from other stages as well.


Soft-skills trainings Hard-skills trainings

Trainings are offered by our educational partners: training and consulting companies, organizations and freelance trainers.

Soft-skills trainings are focused on transversal competences related to efficiency, self-confidence and self-discipline of each member, teamwork or how to communicate and relate to others. There are 10 themes proposed by us and other topics will be the chosen and requested by you during the year. Below are some of them.

• Problem Solving and Decision Making• Self Situational Leadership• Challenging Conversations• The Skilled Presenter• Six Thinking Hats• Self Management• Self Discovery• Emotional Intelligence• Online Collaborative Tools

• Achieve Global• Human Invest• Interact• Decât o Revistă• FilmMaking.ro• Playmakers Industries• Friends for Friends Foundation

• Alis Anagnostakis• Alexandru Popa• Iulian Olariu• Tudor Totolici

Companies Freelance trainers

Partners

Hard-skills trainings approach professional topics and develop indispensable skills for any practitioner in areas like communication, human resources, organization and leadership development. 8 trainings will be organized for each community. You can participate in trainings offered for other communities as well, if they are of interest to you. Here are some of the topics:

Communication StrategiesStorytellingMarketing PlanningFilmmaking BasicsSocial Media & Online PR

New Media SchoolRecruitment Skills

Learning & DevelopmentCommunication in Team

DevelopmentNew Members Induction

Performance Management

HRemotion

Process ManagementOrganizational CultureLeader Profile in the 21st CenturyChange Management

Leadership & Management

Graphic FacilitationGamification

Creative Thinking

Interdisciplinary

These were two intense days when I could test how situational leadership works. I note that it is important to take time for diagnosis. This helps to save time in the long run and helps you to know how to approach different situations. Satisfaction is the one that affects a person’s performance and represents the engine that must be evaluated in order to establish productive relationships with people. Mihaela Dudescu


trainer și gruptrainer and group

Soft-skills trainings

Hard-skills trainings


Learning17

LearningDay

It is a day meant to inspire and reconnect the entire community. Every month we’ll spend one Saturday together, we’ll find inspiration in trainings or presentations, we’ll check the ranking of the Houses, we’ll launch new learning programs and relax through interesting conversations with mentors, trainers or coaches.

What it is

RelationsEverybody is invited to Learning Day: community members, coaches, mentors, 2.0 teachers, trainers, special guests and

Time

Stages

partners. That is why we expect surprising relationships to develop during this event.

Learning day will take place every month. On the whole there will be 9 such events per year. Learning Day will start at about 10 o’clock and will last at least 6 hours.


Learning Day is a day dedicated to the entire community so we encourage everyone to attend.



ThemesLearning Day will have a central theme and all the activities will be designed around it, including presentations and workshops. We have a list of themes but we are also looking forward to your ideas of themes:

• “Play, Freedom and Intrinsic Motivation”• ”People Who Changed My Life”• “Entrepreneurship”• ”My Element”• “Revolutionary Ideas”

Apart from the specific activities connected to the Learning Day theme, some things will happen on every such occasion:• We’ll evaluate the status of the Houses in The Game

and we’ll launch new challenges.• You’ll have the opportunity to meet new mentors.• We’ll talk about the three new books of the month.• You’ll have the opportunity to spend your learning

time as you want to, for example reading a book in the garden for half a day.

• All three communities will have time to meet and discuss how things are going and about their learning needs.

How could a learning day look like? Let’s assume that the theme is entrepreneurship:• We will invite successful entrepreneurs to present

their story in 15-20 minutes.• We will invite the community members who are part

of the Incubator to present us their business ideas.• We will present relevant books for the theme of the

day.• We could organize a film event on this theme.• We could organize small workshops on themes like

“What do I need in order to be a good entrepreneur?” or “Which could be the best entrepreneurship ideas of the 21st century?” etc.

• We could do an entrepreneurship experiment (for example: “How to build up a business with what we have in the kitchen?”).

How it takes place

At every event

community event


Social18

2.0 Course

2.0 courses represent an intensive learning program, with a structure we developed together with professionals from the communities of practice. They target those who want to thoroughly learn a theme in a short period of time and they have direct impact in actual projects.

What it is

RelationsThe teachers are experienced trainers or experienced practitioners in the specific field. Courses are offered by our educational partners: Achieve

Time

Global, Human Invest, Interact, Decât o Revistă, Friends for Friends Foundation and freelance trainers. A 2.0 course is designed for a small group of 5-6 people who are approximately at the same level of knowledge regarding the theme.

Sessions will take place weekly or twice a month, ac-cording to the theme and members’ needs. One ses-sion lasts 2-3 hours and we estimate 8-10 sessions per course, lasting 2-3 months.


The 2.0 courses are recommended to the members from Action and Transition stages.

StagesExplorare Actiune Tranzitie Maiestrie

What makes it workSome elements are critical for a 2.0 course to work:

• Participants should want to deepen a learning theme and, at the same time, they should have or find the opportunity to put it into practice.

• All those involved have to dedicate enough time both to the individual and to the group learning processes. This also involves to invest time for practice and reflection on the results in order to bring your new perspective to the learning group.

• All participants, including the teacher, have to negotiate their expectations and decide what they will focus their energy on.

What happensThere are several steps of a 2.0 course:

Forming the learning group

Negotiating expectations and objectives

The course itself and hands-on activities

Self evaluation and capitalizing results

Every 2.0 course is unique, designed according to the members’ needs and considering the teacher’s methods.The following are just examples of course titles which took place or were requested by community members for the next year:• Photography• Film Making• Online Strategies• Organizational Branding• Developing Healthy Organizations • Team Management• Performance Management• Internal Communication• Learning and Development Systems• Human Resources Management

Themes

“The 2.0 course of online strategies is one of the best learning experiences I’ve lived lately. It is not at all how one would expect because of the “course” word in front of it – we chose the discussion themes at the beginning together with the teacher, and, during the meetings, we, the 5 participants from group 1, usually speak 70% of the time. :)Mostly, we learn through the questions raised, questions which made us realize on our own what could have been “taught” using the classical method. And the fact that we realize on our own what it’s all about makes it so much easier for us to remember the information.As a whole, the 2.0 experience is awesome!

Mircea Grecescu - VIP

grup mic small group


Learning19

WorkshopWorkshops are a method of learning in which small groups organize themselves and create their own learning experiences, starting from very specific needs, but from a common area.

What it is

RelationsCommunity members are 100% responsible to initiate and develop workshops.Upon request, CROS members and

Time

other community members can help the groups to create the concept of the learning experience.

The learning time invested in a process like this depends entirely on you. We believe that you shouldn’t think too much about how to learn through experiments, but you should start the experiment already.

Recommended to all stages and members.

Stages

grup mic si mediu


Workshop example

How can we help

One day, on the community discussion group, a mes-sage from Cosmin arrives. It sounded like this:

““Hey… how are you?

In a nutshell, I want to improve the way I speak (tone, rhythm, what I say, etc.). It is one of my New Year’s Resolutions and I would like to create a working

Cosmin Rudeanu

group because I am sure there are other people also interested in this theme.

So, if you are interested, please send me an e-mail, sms, facebook message and we’ll try to set a kick-off meeting for this project.

As a plan, even though I have some ideas, I don’t want to express them yet - I want to decide together with everyone what we will do based on everyone’s needs. There’s a whole bunch of online materials on this subject but what I want is an environment for practice.

Good luck with your work,

Then came the answers from:

Alina Maxi Mădă Irina Vio Flori

Elena Diana Diana Raluca Dana

Cristina Cristi Cosmin Vlad Andrei Andreea

Alex Andrei Petro

Anca

Objectives:1. controlling emotions in different contexts2. harmony/congruence between what we say, how we

say it and personality:• Verbal message with body language (non-verbal

and paraverbal)• Exercises: send a message without words (to do:

contact the Passe Partout theatre group)• Becoming aware of our own presentation style

and developing it (using personal feedback and feedback from others)

3. how do we adapt to the audience4. improving improvisation style, spontaneity and

creativity It is PUBLIC SPEAKING, not PUBLIC SKIPPING, so:

Some of them met and organized the workshop:

How we work:• One day during the week and one weekend day• Monday at 6 pm and Saturday at 2 pm, with 2-3

hours/meeting• Facebook and Google docs for communicating and

sharing documents

For next week, starting point (with filming and feedback):- Voice exercises Jonathan Altfeld and Carol Flemming

February

Voice

Radio Show

March Voice and non-

verbal language

Theatre Play

April StructureMessage

TED Talks

MayEmotionsControl

Storytelling

June Review

and follow-up

Debate

And this is how the public speaking workshop was born.

First of all, we offer you all the resources that CROS has: Learning House, equipment, stationeries.

Moreover, if you have no idea where to start, we can help you to design the workshops.


small and medium group


Real Life20

NGO

We didn’t invent non-governmental organizations, but we’re glad they exist. We see them as an excellent environment for authentic learning and essential for a good part of our learning model. For us, it is very important to be connected to your practical experiences in the Students’ NGO and to the projects you work on.

What it is

RelationsFrom your point of view, the organization probably means many relationships and many people, from friends to colleagues and partners. For us it is important

Time

that your genuine development needs, related to the organization and projects, to be one of our permanent conversation threads.

Certainly the amount of time you invest in the organization is not within our reach. But we know from our experience so far that the best thing is to devote enough time to the organization for it to become a powerful experience.

Stages

Our experience regarding how members relate with the organization was a big part of our inspiration for these stages. Usually, the organization is a very good environment for Exploring and Action and the most dedicated NGO members are involved even in the stage of Transition.

Conectare


What does it mean to usStudent organizations (SNGOs) are among the most dynamic components of universities. In the 26 university towns in Romania, there are over 200 student organizations which comprise 1% of all students in higher education.

From June to September 2010 we held the first exploratory study on the students associations environment. The general objective is to record the evolution of SNGOs on the long-term.

Date valabile pentru anul universitar

2009- 2010

Find out more:http://cros.ro/2011/10/studiu-mediul-asociativ-studentesc-in-2010

http://cros.ro/categoria/blog/despre-ongs

Partner NGOs


connection


Data valid for 2009-2010 academic year

universitary centers universities SNGOs

members projects beneficiaries

in 2009

Experiences21

Internship

When you enter the Transition stage, you may want to find the organization or company that suits you best. For this we recommend an internship of several months in one of our partner organizations.

What it is

RelationsYou will have a career counseling session with a member of CROS, which will help you clarify what you need.

Time

Then, we’re looking together for an internship program that suits you.

An internship can last between one and three months, with approximately 20 hours per week.

Stages

Internships are recommended for members in the Transition stage. For members in Exploring and Action stages we do not recommend this program, in order to fully capitalize the volunteer experience in an organization.

unu la unu


“At “Decât o Revistă” (DoR) it was all about ‘apprenticeship’. It carried me in many directions: from editorial work to helping organize events. I explored Bucharest weekly and so I found places that I visit more often now.

Andra Rotaru

“How are they? What tasks do they give you?” - I always smiled and answered: “They let me do exactly what they do.” I interacted very openly from the beginning, the office itself was a room where discussions on almost any subject flowed easily and they continued in the kitchen when we gathered together to order something to eat.

I learned from each one of them and from friends of DoR what narrative journalism is, why is the story important and how you present it to the readers. Monday nights were dedicated to Story Club meetings, where we were discussing around texts published in the international press. I also experienced how to do an interview. Most learning was by doing.

Three months seemed a long time. But they passed quickly and I realized that there would have been more to do ... It is not easy to do something different and very good at the same time.

Internship example The programThe internship program will be open throughout the year and it aims at giving you opportunities to get in touch with organizations or companies where you would like to work. We will pursue this objective through three types of activities:

Colectarea

si postareade oferte din

partea companiilor

Consiliere

pentru cautarea sau alegerea

oportunitatilor care ti se potrivesc

Conectarea

ta cu organizatii

in care ai dori sa lucrezi

Partners


Collecting and posting offers

from companies

Counseling you in searching or choosing the opportunities that suit you

Connecting you with

organizations where you would

like to work

one to one

Real Life22

Rent

a Team

Rent a Team is a program through which mixed student teams offer project-based services in their skills area (from organizing events to consulting). In most Rent a Team projects, the teams are paid.

What it is

RelationsThe CROS team attracts contracts, intermediates the relationships with customers and forms the project team.

Time

Then the project teams self-organize creating the roles they need to achieve each project’s outcomes.

We estimate that a member from the Transition stage will participate in at least one project per year. A project can last between 3 weeks and 3 months.

Stages

Rent a Team targets members in the Transition stage, but it is open for members in the Action and Mastery stages as well.

Minimum 50 hours / project


Echipe

WhyYou will develop skills specific to your domain and you will test them in the business environment as well. You have the opportunity to interact with businesses from the perspective of service providers and you can develop client service skills.

Projects organized through Rent a Team will contribute to your portfolio and can be a good opportunity to know more organizations and their cultures.

They will increase your self-confidence, by achieving results in an environment with higher demands and expectations than those of the organization you were involved as a volunteer.

It may be an opportunity to earn money.

You interact with businesses, you know larger organizations and you have the chance to find an organization you would want to get involved in for the future.

If you are interested in entrepreneurship and freelancing, this can be a good opportunity to understand whether you like it or not.

You can enrich your network of friends and collaborators.

Examples of projects

Consulting and implementing the social media strategy of a company

Educational program for high school students

In 2011-2012 we tested the Rent a Team concept, responding to requests from various organizations. Next year we expect to have at least 10 projects of this type.

Organizing an event for 300 children

Shooting and editing 40 video interviews

Consultancy for changing the organizational cul-ture of a company

• Team: 5 people• Working time: 3 weeks• Payment: 300 euro/person

• Team: 5 people• Working time/person: 3 months (10 hours/month)• Payment: 200 euro/person

• Team: 4 people• Working time /person: 6 months (6 hours/month)• Payment: N/A

• Team: 3 people• Working time /person: 100 hours• Payment: between 200 and 600 euro, depending

on complexity and allocated time

• Team: 10 people• Working time /person: 1 day of training plus

1 working week• Payment: 250 euro/training session


teams

Experiences23

IncubatorBrilliant Business LaB or B3 is a business incubator. The first phase helps you decide if entrepreneurship is right for you and to crystallizeyour idea. In phase two, the incubator helps you develop the attitudes you need in order to start a business. The B3 learning program develops the basic skills you need to turn an idea into a viable project and it gives you the framework where you can grow your emerging business.

What it is

RelationsThe mentors in the program are entrepreneurs in a domain that is relevant to the business you develop. Workshop facilitators are

Time

experienced trainers.In addition to all the resource persons you have access to inside the incubator, we believe the most important type of relationship you will develop is the one with your colleagues.

We estimate that in one year you will have the outline of the project, you will have tested it on the market and you will have the critical resources needed to launch it publicly. It could take even less, but only if your involvement is very intense. However, entrepreneurship is an adventure that requires a lot of involvement, especially at the beginning.

Stages

We recommend you to work at your own business or organization during Transition and Mastery stages.

grupuri mici

Inside the business lab, we build an environment in which successful projects are created, based on some basic elements of the incubation ecology:

• individualized program, based on specific needs• challenging and flexible environment• focus on results, i.e. successful business• synergy between people, ideas and action• cultivating professional integrity• encouraging connections between people• an environment that stimulates creativity

The incubator experience has 4 stages:

The B3 approach


Resources

Resource people and mentors

Books and models

Others

Vlad Stan Cătălina Rusu Mihai Mafteianu

Access to Learning

House

Multimedia equipment and

stationery

Access to a strong network

of people

Warm-up

Experiment

Action

Development


small groups

Learning24

Learning

House

Learning House is the physical space of the Alternative University. It is an old house with a large garden, near Piaţa Romană, a square from the central area of Bucharest. Here, the three communities of practice can organize their various learning events.

What it is

RelationsLearning House is your space and we hope you will feel at home here.

Time

This means that at the same time you enjoy it and modify it at will, you will also take care of it and be responsible for it as the common space of all the communities of practice.

Learning House is open for you every day and you’re always expected by a friendly host, part of the CROS team. Yes, even during the weekends.

We recommend Learning House to everyone from the communities of practice. :)

Stages

toata comunitatea

Open all year round


What can you find here Search Learning House on

bean

entire community


The library, from where you can borrow books at any time

A café and social spaces to meet with othercommunity members

A multimedia studio with cameras, a graphics tablet and photography lighting

A quiet garden with roses

Training rooms and workspaces

An unconventional studio in the basement

Wireless internet and bean bags

Environment25

WikiThe Wiki is the virtual space of the Alternative University. It is only the central point which links all the online tools we use - like a common calendar, groups or collaborative documents.

What it is

RelationsThe Wiki is a collaborative space where all members have rights to edit and take shared responsibility for the content and for the way it

Time

is stored and organized.The basic principle governing the relations on the wiki is that we all are co-authors.

The Wiki is always available for all members, but each one chooses the amount of time he/she wants to invest in it.

Stages

The Wiki and the other online tools are accessible and recommended to all members, regardless of their stage.

toata comunitatea


This is the place where we gather and store online resources, where we organize ourselves, where you can find all the information in the communities, where we communicate online. In terms of resources, it is like a treasure chest filled with jewels. We will carefully choose those resources that made a difference for someone in the community. To organize better, you’ll find instructions on how to borrow a projector or a camera, how you can book a room in the Learning House, how you can enroll in learning programs and others.

What can you do on the wiki

Besides the actual wiki, the online platform covers more instruments, designed to help in different ways: a collaborative calendar to remind you about all the community events, a social bookmarking network (Delicious) that helps us retain and discover useful links, collaborative documents to write notes from trainings or to create content together, Facebook to easily access our social network an so on.

Tools Mashup

the wiki at the

moment

Why is it importantThe online platform is important from two main perspectives: to help us to converse beyond physical space, but also to create and retain the valuable resources for our learning. It is not necessarily important to use all the tools mentioned here. But we discovered that, while your communication and information management needs will grow, you will slowly need them. We are ready to help you whenever you want to start using a new tool.

Examples

Sa nu uiti de nici o intalnire a comunitatii, fara a-tibati capul sa te uiti prin agende sau calendare

Sa gasesti cu usurinta toti membri comunitatii si grupurilor de invatare de din care faci parte

If you use this tools you can:• contribute on public sites: hremotion.ro,

newmediaschool.ro and leadership.cros.ro• access and contribute to building the best

collections of links, organized by themes in each community of practice

• remember any appointments inside the community

• easily find all community members and learning groups that you belong to


entire community

Learning26

the G

ame

The Game is a team-based social game, whose purpose is to develop the community and the human relationships between community members.

What it is

RelationsAll community members, including the CROS team, are part of one of the 10 houses of the AU. Each house has the

Time

mission to create interaction between community members, to foster cooperation and mutual support and to grow authentic relationships. For this reason, each house will have mixed members in what regards their stage and the community they belong to.

There will be several challenges for each house during the year, mainly organizing social events.As a member in one of the houses, you will spend time in several activities such as: organizing a party, participating in an event, meeting the house, 4-5 hours per month for different challenges, a Design day in Learning House per year and so on.

The Game involves all members of the community, regardless of the stage they are in.

Stages

toata comunitatea



Houses

Currency

The houses are formed during the CROS Camp 2012 and will consist of 8-12 members from all 3 communities of practice and from all stages. Each house creates its own identity during the CROS Camp.

Beginning with CROS Camp, houses will receive various responsibilities and challenges each month - during the Learning Day. The Game will have a special currency - a symbol of cooperation, interaction and mutual support: the smile.

By the end of the month, they will have to offer the smiles recieved at the begining, only in exchange for support, interaction and collaboration. Each smile will have a place on its back for writing the reason for which it was offered.

At the end of the month each team will have a score composed of the smiles they received minus the smiles that they failed to offer. There will be various “levels” in which teams will receive privileges / awards or will open up new types of challenges

ChallengesEach house will have a set of challenges to choose during the year, for example:

• Transforming Learning House• Organizing a party• Movie Evening • Cooking Evening • Theatre Evening• Sports Event• Treasure hunt in Bucharest• Going out with your house• Table Tennis Competition• Board Games Tournament

Examples of possible levels:

Level 3: you earn the right to have a display board in the Learning House;Level 7: you earn a room in the LH which you garnish in the colors/spirit of your house and you also name it the way you want;Level 10: award - a 2 day trip (lodging and meals covered by CROS)

The challenges that will be offered / randomly chosen monthly will offer you the chance to gather more smiles.


entire community

Environment27

CAMPThis is a seven-days summer campthat opens the 2012-2013 study year, addressed to the members of the communities, together with 50 experiencedprofessionals.

What it is

RelationsA big part of the “magic” is the diversity of people meeting in the fairytale like atmosphere from Plaiul Foii. Future leaders from 23

Time

student organizations come together with leaders and young professionals that experienced volunteering first hand. Besides them, we eagerly await consultants in communication and organizational development, successful entrepreneurs, professional coaches, the CEO of a big corporate company, a British researcher specialized in “learner generated contexts” and the founder of a non-conventional school in Netherlands. There will be around 120 participants in the camp.

CROS CAMP will take place between 30 July and 5 August 2012 in Plaiul Foii-Zărneşti, in the Braşov county.

Stages

Members from all stages take part in the CAMP. This event is designed, among other things, precisely for bringing the whole community together.

toata comunitatea



What happens thereWithout ruining the surprise, we can tell you that during the 7 days of CROS Camp will take place:

15 Prezentari

30 Ateliere

40 decarti vii

50de jocuri

80 desesiuni

coaching

130 decalatoriiinitiatice

...conversatii

*

* prea multe ca sa le numaram

70 de participanți50 de mentori,

coachi, facilitatori, invitați

20 ONGS-uri20 organizaţiipartenere

5 attitudesEach day of CROS Camp is dedicated to experiment an attitude. The 5 attitudes, together with the diversity of experiences and people from the 7 days of the camp merge in the quintessence of the alternative learning model that will be revealed during the year.

Network

ing

Playi

ng

Lear

ning

Dream

ing

Shar

ing

PlecareSosire

Feedback

“It was and it still is Amazing. I have not lived the experience of a real camp in the past 8 years. I thought my time for camps has passed. But CROS Camp 2011 proved that the time for such experiences never goes away.

Tedy Necula

“Back from CROS CAMP. It was a life changing experience. I feel a different person, a happier one, more optimistic, a person that is ready to face each day with a huge smile on her face. :)Thank you, CROS!

Adriana Anchidin

15 presentations

* too many to count them


... conversations

*

20 workshops

40 living books

50games

100 initiation journeys

50 coaching sessions

Relatin

g

Arrival Departure

20 partnerorganizations

20 Students’NGOs

70 participants50 mentors, coaches, facilitators, guests

entire community

CROS28

In order for the alternative model experience to be truly valuable for you, it will require you to dedicate approximately 8-9 hours per week and to be present in CROS CAMP – which is 60+ more hours. The whole experience means 500 hours per year and it represents about 10% of your active time.

Time

x9x4

Coaching

Mentoring

Guest

of the Week

Self-Directed

Learning

Personal

Branding

Hard-Skills

Training

Soft-Skills

Training

Sharing Day

2.0 Courses

Learning

Day

Internship

Rent a

Team

Incubator

The Game

Learning

House

Wiki

Event lasting 2-3 hours



Related events

Continuous access

With predefined number of meetings

With flexible number of meetings

Legend

2012 - 2013 Calendar Your time investment

Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul 8-9 hours/week

500 hours/year

About half of these hours will be placed in your schedule in a flexible manner. You will be responsible to set them together with mentors, SDL counselors (“autonomari”), coaches and colleagues.

The other half is already set in next year’s calendar of activities - you will receive access to it once you enter the community. Even scheduled activities have a certain degree of flexibility, if the participants enrolled in each of them propose changes beforehand and we can negotiate them with trainers and other educational partners. They are placed in the calendar so that there is a balanced distribution throughout the year. We took into account other major events, like important holidays or vacations.

10% of your time

CROS Model29

Contribution

Partners

The value and the costs of the program

2500 euro / an

The aggregate value of all learning experiences and of the learning environment offered in the CROS communities is estimated at 2500 Euro / participant / year. This value is 55% given in the form of volunteering and inkind donations, and 45% represent financial expenses covered by members’ contributions, sponsorships, 2% donations and funds gathered through CROS fundraising programs.

The way in which this value is accumulated depends on the motivation of all involved actors and participants and it is shown in the second drawing below.

Parteneri educationali

Companii &Sponsori

CROS

Contributia ta

900 euro

500 euro

500 euro

600 euro

Our partners are those with whom we create the CROS alternative model, each of them contributing to your experience as a member of the community, either through financial contribution, educational support or through the development of the model.

In 2012-2013 the contribution of each participant is € 500 / year, out of which 40% represent the value of the CROS CAMP experience.

The value of the program/ participant / year

The way all contributors get involved

Volunteering andinkind donations

Directexpenses

și

Educationalpartners

Your contribution

Companies and sponsors

CROS30

Results

“CROS Camp was in a very special place and also with a lot of very special people that I was very impressed by.

Neil CouplandGeneral Manager JTI România & Moldova

General Manager of the Year 2011

“To be part of CROS started from a clearly defined objective and turned into a desire to be part of and to be together with beautiful people aiming to reveal

Valentin SavaAIESEC Alumni

NewMediaSchool member since 2011

themselves every day. It turned into a dream I believe in and every day I am closer to its fulfillment. I’m looking forward to the new things we’ll do to get us where we want.

“If all young people would be like the members of your communities of prac-tice, then I am convinced that Romania would have a bright future, and fewer people would think to leave. Radu Mărgărit

Senior Trainer - Human Capital Solutions

“I started the program without a clear picture of what I’ll do later. I started by answering the question “Who am I actually?”. By doing this I learned about

Maximilian DobrescuVIP Romania member

HRemotion member since 2011

my values, what are my models and what are my motivations. With each meeting we had, my projection in time was crystallizing.You get to become solely responsible for your learning and development, and that gives you a sense of freedom that is hard to describe.

“[participants] ... walk away changed. Changed in terms of their mentality and their way to approach things after. And I think that in their circles this matters the

Tudor TotoliciOnline marketing consultant

ADVICE STUDENTS Alumni

most... the fact that they were changed by an experience and not by the theory they’ve received here.

“My dream is to see this project accessed by as many people as possible. For some it will be suitable as an alternative option, for some as a complementary one.

Elisabeta StănciulescuSociologist in education and coach

“In CROS and thanks to CROS I learned that learning is not about getting A on a line in a system that brings out robots on a treadmill. I am now convinced that

Corina AnghelHR consultant and improvisation trainer

HRemotion member

I must grow in HR, I met a lot of awesome people, with interesting ideas, enthusiasm and practical intelligence that actually do things to develop themselves, to develop others and the wider community. I learned to learn alone and with others, I lived great experiences.

CROS Model31

What we

offer you

The CROS communities are also a great place for networking and

access to opportunities. Perhaps one of the best you can access at this

stage of your life. We expect you to have in your agenda, at the end of

the year, at least 100 new contacts of people that you met in the CROS

communities, people with whom you talked and who know you as well.

Perhaps you’ll even get in a few places you would not have otherwise

reached (conferences, events, meetings, projects and so on).

Personalized learning experiences

A community

Networking and opportunities

Revolution in education

Inspiration and resourcesThe CROS communities will be an environment that will inspire you and

will give you energy to be better and stronger. You’ll have access to re-

sources and you’ll have the freedom to be creative and use them how

and when you need them.

You will take part in creating the first Alternative University in Romania

- a project through which, together, we can inspire Romanian society

to believe that we can transform education. We do not know if this is

useful to you... :-) But if you’re like us, you’ll enjoy to contribute.

You will have a learning program that fits you like a glove, because

you built it yourself. Mentoring, coaching, training, courses, CAMP and

other experiences are valuable in themselves, but they will be even

more valuable through the synergy between them, being linked into a

one-year program. You will experience what it means to lead your own

learning and, by systematically investing in yourself for a year, you’ll be

amazed how much you’ve grown and how many good things come

along with this.

You will be part of a community of people like you. You will be delight-

ed to discover them and you’ll get the chance to create strong relations

that will make you better, enrich your life and open even more doors.

P RO IM SHT EE

You can find us on

cros.ro/universitatefacebook.com/crosroyoutube.com/contulcros

Or get in touch withNew Media SchoolElena Dobre0722 679 [email protected]

Communities websitesHRemotionDiana Irimia0731 968 [email protected]

LeadershipCristina Cristea0742 045 [email protected]

hremotion.ronewmediaschool.ro

Documents

CROS Learning Model