By Nino Khurtsidze, CCI Greenheart Academic Year Alumna
CCI Greenheart and FLEX program alumna, Nino (Nini) Khurtsidze from the country of Georgia won the 2014 Greenheart Service Project for Academic Year Program participants. Nini was an exchange student who went to high school in Burley, ID. There she volunteered 550 hours of service to her community. Among other things, she did environmental projects to help make Burley a beautiful place and she helped special needs students at her school. She was an exemplary member of the Greenheart Club and we were more than happy to fund her English Summer Camp project in Georgia. Below are Nini’s reflections and photos of her Greenheart Club project. All of us at Greenheart want to congratulate her on her inspiring commitment to making the world a better place through service.
“ The USA can give you wings” – I read those words and it reminded me of my own experience in the United States. After winning the Eco-Weekend trip to Chicago (now called Greenheart Leader Trip to Chicago) my life changed a lot. I met very interesting people there, made new friends from different parts of the world, of course gained new experiences and I got the chance to do the grant project in my country, which was the best part. This was a very exciting opportunity for me. I decided to create a project which will help kids and adults to improve their English skills while receiving information about the United States and CCI Greenheart. With the help of the Greenheart Club, I planned many fun and educational activities for the students. I gave a presentation about my year in America. In my presentation I covered what I saw there, how people live and act there, and generally what is going on in the country of dreams. Also I invited other CCI Greenheart alumni which made our society very happy. Kids not only improved their leadership skills, but our project also gave them the opportunity to make a lot of new friends and have fun with them. The closing ceremony was also very memorable. Another alumni and I presented about our American experience and people loved it. They asked us very interesting questions and I had a feeling that we inspired them to fight for their dreams. After seeing the look in their eyes I knew that our project had reached its goal. A lot of foreigners were interested in our English Summer Camp program. They think that it is a very good opportunity for Georgian children to get more education for free, to have fun, and to learn how to be future leaders.
I want to take this opportunity to thank CCI Greenheart for this chance to make peoples’ days more beautiful, to help them learn something new, and to have so much fun. Now we have the one and only Greenheart Club corner in Georgia and I made it, which really makes me proud. Thank you everybody for everything and I wish to continue working with your beautiful staff in future. One wise man said that everything happens for a reason and I think our relationship was really for one reason – to make life better.
With much respect,
Nini Khurtsidze
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