1. Welcome to
Romanian Alumni
Community
Romanian Alumni Community
Monthly Newsletter
Bucharest, October 31, 2011
Volume I, Issue 10
Alumni News
From Alumni
Table of Contents
Alumni News ► Romanian Alumni and Grantees
 Romanian Alumna at World Bank Washington
 Romanian Alumni Community Celebrating Thanks-
DC HQs
giving
 New Book in Psychology by Romanian Fulbright
 Orientation for 2011-2012 U.S. Grantees to Romania Alumnus Bogdan Tulbure
 Romanian Event at Georgia Tech
From Alumni  Article in Local U.S. Newspaper about TEA
Grantees
► U.S. Alumni and Grantees  First Impressions by Mihaela Fodor, Teaching
Excellence and Achievement Program Grantee
 Article by Fulbright Alumnus Bruce O’Neill
 Romanian Fulbright Alumnus Chris Tanasescu in
 Collaboration between Fulbright Hays Alumni Poesis International
 New Publication by Romanian Fulbright Alumnus
 New Book by U.S. Fulbright Alumna Victoria Seitz
Virgil Florin Duma
 Blogs by U.S. Fulbright Grantees
Alumni Information
 Exchange Programs between U.S. and Romanian
Universities with the Help of a Fulbright Scholar Alumni Links
http://www.facebook.com/
Romanian.US.Fulbright.Commission
https://alumni.state.gov/romania www.fulbright.ro 1

2. Bucharest, October 31, 2011
Volume I, Issue 10
Alumni News
Romanian Alumni Community Celebrating Thanksgiving
Romanian Alumni Community Celebrating Thanksgiving is an event created for past and current Ro-
manian participants in U.S. Government-sponsored exchange programs to the United States, as well
as for Americans who have had similar exchanges to Romania.
Such gatherings create a time and place in the busy lives of alumni for them to become reacquainted
and to meet new alumni, to share information and strategies, and to inspire each other to transform
their ideas into reality.
Besides the essential aspect of networking between alumni and increasing the visibility of the U.S.
Government sponsored exchange programs brand overall, the event will also be an occasion to meet
for a celebration of Thanksgiving, an American tradition which will try to recreate the atmosphere lived
by the Romanian alumni during their grants in U.S. and will make the U.S. grantees in Romania feel
more like home, in an open and relaxed atmosphere.
In U.S., on Thanksgiving Day families and their friends gather to celebrate and have the traditional
dinner together. In Romania, we are trying to recreate this very powerful tradition and gather the
Alumni Community as a family and their friends.
The event will take place on November 23 and will include welcome speeches from Dr. Remus Pricopie -
President of the Board of Directors, Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission, Ms. Patricia Guy - Coun-
selor for Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy, Ms. Edwina Sagitto - Cultural Affairs Officer, Embassy of the
United States and a short Thanksgiving Day - History, Customs & Traditions presentation.
All alumni are invited to celebrate with us Thanksgiving Day.
For more details and confirmations, please contact us by email at loredana.bucuroaia@fulbright.ro
Orientation for 2011-2012 U.S. Grantees to Romania
On October 6-7, the Romanian - U.S. Fulbright Commission marked
the beginning of yet another year for American Juniors and Seniors in
Romania. The event offered the participants the opportunity to meet
face to face. They were briefed on their new environment by high offi-
cials of the U.S. Embassy and met members of the Romanian Fulbright
Board of Directors, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, American and Romanian
Fulbright alumni, professors and re-
searchers. The second day of the
event included a trip to Sinaia and
Azuga, where the grantees had the
opportunity to connect as a group in
an informal environment.
The Romanian and U.S. alumni conducted different sessions related
with the Romania’s Higher Education System, Political and Cultural En-
vironment, but also a dialogue on differences between teaching in the
U.S. and Romania. A special Thank you to all alumni for their help and
good luck to the new grantees! More photos here.
https://alumni.state.gov/romania www.fulbright.ro
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3. Bucharest, October 31, 2011
Volume I, Issue 10
From Alumni
► Romanian Alumni and Grantees
Romanian Alumna at World Bank Washington DC HQs
Ruxandra Costache has recently relocated to the World Bank’s Washington D.C
headquarters to work as a lawyer for the Legal Department on countries from
Europe, Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa.
After graduating the LL.M. studies at University of Connecticut School of Law as
a Fulbright (Ron Brown) scholar, Ruxandra has returned to Romania where she
taught International Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest, from
where she was awarded a magna cum laudae Ph.D. degree in July 2011. In
parallel, she dedicated her professional carrier to the World Bank, where she
has been working since 2005 in the Bank’s country office in Bucharest, promot-
ing rule of law and judicial reforms. Since the Faculty of Law remains one of
Ruxandra’s professional priorities she will go on providing her support in the
promotion of the Romanian education in the field of Law.
New Book in Psychology by Romanian Fulbright Alumnus Bogdan Tulbure
“Anxiety Information Processing and their Assessment” is the name of the book written
by Bogdan Tudor Tulbure, Fulbright Alumnus in the field of Psychology, University of
Virginia. The volume successfully tries to make connection between Psychopathology
and Social cognition and incorporates, in an interdisciplinary approach, new methods
and ideas from both fields. It is also an interesting comparative study due to the inter-
cultural connections the author succeeded to build. During his research, Bogdan Tul-
bure was supervised by renowned U.S. and Romanian specialists in the field, from Uni-
versity of Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj.
Also, two of the studies included in the volume were carried out during his Student Ful-
bright grant in 2007-2008. The book was issued by ASCR Publishing House in 2011.
More details at: http://www.ascred.ro/magazin/item.asp?
id=49&name=ANXIETATEA__PROCES_#258;RI_INFORMA_354;IONALE__536;I_EVALUAREA_LOR
Romanian Event at Georgia Tech
Ciprian Dumitrache, presently a Fulbright Student grantee in the field of
Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech University, has informed us on
his recent initiative dedicated to his friends and colleagues in the cam-
pus. Last Thursday, October 6, he organized the event “Let’s Learn
about Romania” - a special opportunity for him to speak about our coun-
try and to promote its culture, traditions and history. Last but not least:
Adina, Ciprian’s wife, cooked Romanian dishes for all the participants, a
challenging approach which, we are sure, provided the invitees with in-
teresting notions about Romania’s tastes, flavors and customs.
http://www.facebook.com/
Romanian.US.Fulbright.Commission
https://alumni.state.gov/romania www.fulbright.ro
3

4. Bucharest, October 31, 2011
Volume I, Issue 10
From Alumni
Article in Local U.S. Newspaper about TEA Grantees
Diana Melian and Radu Velica, two of the Romanian Teaching Ex-
cellence and Achievement Program (TEA) grantees are affiliated
with Claremont Graduate University. An article about their ex-
perience and activities was published in Claremont Courier, a lo-
cal U.S. newspaper.
To read the article, please follow the link below.
http://www.fulbright.ro/media/pdf/Courier_TEA.pdf
First Impressions by Mihaela Fodor, Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program Grantee
“A Myriad of Activities in TEA Program at Utah State University
The days are rolling on unnoticeably in the hectic American life here in
Logan, Utah. During the workshops we have had so far, we covered a diver-
sity of topics, from curriculum, lesson planning, class management, to lead-
ership and the use of technology in class. At week-ends, we had the chance
to explore breath-taking places, such as Antelope Island, Bear Lake, Salt
Lake, Timpanagos cave, which reminded us, the participants, that nature is
worth fighting for to be preserved and respected. Last but not least, we had
the chance to work with American teachers, in their schools, and find out more about their system of
education, to actually teach their students and make them familiar with the Romanian culture and our
school life. Overall, it’s an experience which any teacher should have, at least once in their lifetime!”
(Mihaela Fodor, ‘Petru Rares’’ National College, Suceava)
Romanian Fulbright Alumnus Chris Tanasescu in Poesis International
Romanian Fulbright Alumnus Chris Tanasescu was interviewed in Poesis International,
no 6, a quarterly basis magazine about and with poetry and poets.
The interview is available online at page 44, by following the link below.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/67332496/Poesis-International-nr-6
Also, Chris and his wife Raluca translated Gary Snyder’s poetry in Romanian. The
original poems, as well as the Romanian translations are available in the same maga-
zine at page 90.
New Publication by Romanian Fulbright Alumnus Virgil Florin Duma
Dr. Virgil Duma published an article entitled “Experimental investigations of the scan-
ning functions of galvanometer-based scanners with applications in OCT” in “Applied
Optics” journal, a highly regarded, premium quality must read for everyone in the op-
tics field that offers applications-centered research in optics. The article was written in
collaboration with his colleagues from the host institution of the Fulbright grant. To read
the article, please follow the link: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/ao/abstract.cfm?
URI=ao-50-29-5735. Dr. Virgil Florin Duma was a Fulbright Senior grantee in 2009-
2010 at University of Rochester.
https://alumni.state.gov/romania www.fulbright.ro
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5. Bucharest, October 31, 2011
Volume I, Issue 10
From Alumni
► U.S. Alumni and Grantees
Article by Fulbright Alumnus Bruce O’Neill
Bruce O’Neill is the recipient of a Fulbright Student Program grant in 2007, a Ful-
bright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad alumnus in 2010-2011 and a
PhD candidate at Stanford University.
His dissertation research focused on “Boredom as Practice: Boredom, Space and
Homelessness in Post-Socialist Romania” was featured in the "Legal & Political
Anthropology" column of this month's "Anthropology News" (the American An-
thropology Association's monthly newsletter). To read the article, please follow
the link below: http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2011/10/07/the-
politics-of-boredom/
Collaboration between Fulbright Hays Alumni
On November 16, U.S. Fulbright Hays alumni to Romania Jack R Friedman, Jonathan J Stillo and Bruce
O'Neill are on a panel together at the 2011 American Anthropological Association's annual meeting in
Montreal. The panel will be highlighting issues of poverty and social justice. More details at: http://
aaa.confex.com/aaa/2011/webprogrampreliminary/Session1457.html
New Book by U.S. Fulbright Alumna Victoria Seitz
Dr. Victoria Seitz, U.S. Fulbright Alumna to Romania in 2002-2003 published a new
book entitled “I Don’t Wear A Suit! A Guide to Style for ALL OF US”. Victoria Seitz is
an internationally recognized speaker, author, quoted expert and consultant with
over 30 years experience in fashion and marketing.
Dr. Victoria Seitz: “As a former fashion coordinator and retailer, and now a market-
ing educator, I can assure you that marketing yourself is just as important as hav-
ing another business do this for you. Your image matters. It’s no longer “Dress for
Success” with just suits; nevertheless, what you wear has to communicate the best
about you.“
Blogs by U.S. Fulbright Grantees
Recently arrived U.S. Fulbrighters Jennifer Sue Feenstra and Katelyn Arlene Browher are sharing their
Fulbright experience in Romania through their blogs. To read on their perspectives, experiences and ac-
tivities, please follow the links below:
http://romanianreflections.wordpress.com/ by Jennifer Sue Feenstra
http://letters-from-the-black-sea.blogspot.com/ by Katelyn Arlene Browher
Thank you for sharing, Jennifer and Katelyn!
Exchange Programs between U.S. and Romanian Universities with the help of a Fulbright
Scholar
Dr. Seyed Mahmoud Mehdian, U.S. Fulbright scholar in 2006-2007, has visited us recently, bringing
good news again. After the cooperation agreement concluded between University of Michigan-Flint and
Al.I.Cuza University of Iasi, the Romanian University was included in the University of Michigan-Flint
Study Abroad 2011-2012 program. Students from University of Michigan-Flint will have the opportunity
to study for a semester at Al.I.Cuza University of Iasi and to explore the Romanian culture.
https://alumni.state.gov/romania www.fulbright.ro 5

6. Bucharest, October 31, 2011
Volume I, Issue 10
Alumni Information
Join STATE ALUMNI Romanian Alumni Community
The State Alumni website is a dynamic, Help to build the Romanian Alumni Community
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1,000,000 alumni of exchange programs. and professional opportunities. Find out about
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This Newsletter is produced by the Romanian Alumni Coordinator
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