IVC Gala Mailing

Longtime IVC Detroit supporters Sue & Paul Nine generously allowed IVC Detroit’s Gala Committee members to assemble the 2010 Gala mailing at their offices in Bloomfield Hills on May 13th. The group comprised of Miora Dragoi, Sheryl Kammer, Connie Hogan, Dianne Healy-Clauss, Judy Kebl, and staffers Julie Oldani, Regan Watson-Krdu, and Imke Baumann worked in record time putting the mailing together. IVC’s favorite caterer Chris Cook dropped off lunch for the crew so that all had energy as they worked.

Armenian Special Education program success story

Success Story – Community Connections (Armenia)

Community Connections would like to share with you a new success story featuring alumni  from the Armenian Special Education program that was hosted by IVC Detroit in 2009.

Success   

Zhanna Paylozyan, a methodologist, and Sona Harutyunyan, the Director of Social Services at the Medical and Psychological Assessment Center in Yerevan, opened a playground for special needs children at the center. Modeled on examples from the CC exchange to the U.S., the two alumni, with support from the center’s Director, created a space to contribute to cognitive development and social integration of special needs children.

Overview

In March and April 2008, Paylozyan and Harutyunyan traveled to Detroit, Michigan, to learn about innovations in special education. The trip provided an opportunity for the two women to volunteer at the Wing Lake Development Center, one of several centers in the region that serves severely handicapped youth. CC participants worked in the center’s art and play rooms, which inspired them to construct a similar space in Yerevan. Upon their return to Armenia, Paylozyan and Harutyunyan organized lectures to share with colleagues many of the insights they gained while in the U.S., including the need to develop a children’s play center in Yerevan. Much to the alumni’s surprise, the Director and staff of the center were enthusiastic about the idea and eager to start work on the project. Due to the CC alumni’s planning, and the teamwork of the center’s staff, the new playground was ready at the start of the 2009 academic year. The playground is invaluable for the 72 special needs children studying at the center. It has created an alternative to the traditional learning environment, improves social interaction, and helps educators gain a better understanding of their students’ capabilities and problems by observing them in a different setting.“The most important thing,” Paylozyan says of the center’s success, “is that we have everybody’s support. The results are always so rewarding.” Plans are already underway to expand the center.

 

IVC Detroit member’s recent visit to Morocco

IVC Detroit member & Host extraordinaire Sheryl Kammer recently visited Morocco. Sheryl is a world traveler having visited New Zealand, Africa and several countries in Europe and also traveled to Russia as part of the CC delegation. She visited more than 10 cities in Morocco  and exclaimed Morocco as the “most romantic” country and unique culture. A dinner hospitality host and homestay host for many IVC Detroit visitors, Sheryl enjoyed being hosted in a Moroccan home for dinner hospitality and riding on a camel in Merzouga. Her interest in travel was probably engendered by her mother Bobbie Chapman who traveled to the Sahara and rode a camel as a young child in 1933.

Open World: Rule of Law for Russia

“A delegation of five Russian attorneys received an “inside look” last week at America’s judicial system, “highlighting the practices and principles underpinning the rule of law in the United States.”

The group was participating in an exchange promoted by the Open World Leadership Center, a partnership program that builds U.S.-Eurasian cooperation and mutual understanding”

Below is the link to the full article featured in Legal News on April 23, 2010.

http://www.legalnews.com/detroit/1000721

The delegation was also featured in an article in the Michigan Lawyers  Weekly (May 10, 2010) as they stopped by the State Bar of Michigan as part of their visit to speak with bar leaders about what bar associations do in this country.