Every year, the Eisenhower Fellowships select up to 25 young leaders from around the world to take part in an intensive program in the United States. The program, which consists of high level meetings, is personalized to the needs of each Fellow and aims to broaden the horizons of these young leaders by putting them in contact with one another and with leaders from the US.

Roxana Damaschin-Ţecu is the Enterprise Development Director for Central and Eastern Europe at NESsT and in this capacity she supports the development of social enterprises in Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Croatia. “My objectives for this program are tightly connected to NESsT’s strategic plan – solving critical social problems in a sustainable way, via social enterprises”, declared the recipient of the Eisenhower Fellowship, underlining that this exceptional opportunity will radically change both her professional and personal development. “I hope to learn from experts in the field of social enterprise information on the quantification and scaling of social impact, on the mix of financial tools to be used by social enterprises, as well as on the policies in the field – all this with the purpose of introducing solutions which are adapted to the specific needs of each social enterprise in our diverse portfolio”, Roxana added.

During the two month Fellowship program, Roxana Damaschin-Ţecu will meet with leaders in the field, with professors from top American universities, with donors and investors, and with public policy decision makers, in order to further understand the mechanisms that power social enterprises in the US, as well as the legal framework in which they function.
NESsT is convinced that social enterprises will play a crucial role in the reinvention of the economy, through their capacity to create jobs where they are needed the most and to solve critical social problems in a sustainable way. In this context, we wish to emphasize the importance of a specialist from the social enterprise field receiving this prestigious title. Upon returning to Romania, Roxana hopes to put into practice the expertise and new ideas acquired while in the US as an Eisenhower Fellow.

About Eisenhower Fellowships
Eisenhower Fellowships identifies, empowers and links outstanding leaders from around the world, helping them to achieve consequential outcomes across sectors and borders. For more information, please visit: www.eisenhowerfellowships.org.

The programme has the full support of NESsT’s partner in Slovakia, UNDP Regional Centre for Europe and CIS, and it is part of the national project “Social Economy: Innovative model of economic and social development in Slovakia”.

Those who are interested in entering the process can fill in the Application Form (please click HERE to download) and send it to NESsT via e-mail by March 26th, 2012 to ttahy@nesst.org. Please, note that there are 3 separate application forms for CSOs, private sector entities and municipalities. Should you have any questions, you can contact Tomáš Tahy at ttahy@nesst.org or by phone +421-948-610-617. Eligible applicants will be selected by the end of April.