Dear friends and colleagues,
We are wishing you a Happy Christmas and hope that you have great time enjoying your holiday!!!
Let this coming year be better than all the others. Vow to do some of the things you've always wanted to do but couldn't find the time. Drop all old grudges and replace them with some pleasant memories.
Wishing you lots of joy, success and love!
Student Parliament
Charisma, Wits, and Long Hair: Or How the U.S. Government Conveys its Policies
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
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This Monday, on the last day of November, we here at the Pravets campus of City University had the pleasure of welcoming Vincent Campos as a guest lecturer at our auditorium. Mr. Campos is the press attaché, or spokesperson, for the U.S. Embassy in Sofia, and essentially, his work here in Bulgaria is to inform our media about the United States’ policies and positions on whatever issues are relevant at a given moment.
Aside from being a charismatic and knowledgeable orator, Mr. Campos gave the students a very memorable lesson in journalism, the rules and guidelines that accompany it, and the core difference between journalists and the press office. He explained that journalists of the free private media work first and foremost for the public, and to ensure that a truthful, factual, and unbiased message reaches the masses. On the contrary, representatives of the press office like Campos, report only on their government’s policies, and attempt to convey them in the clearest way to the media.
Whereas the press office’s work can be seen as government propaganda, it is crucial to informing the public of foreign intentions, and explaining that government’s actions. When asked what a press attaché does when he or she doesn’t agree with the policy they are conveying, Mr. Campos replied that hiding your personal bias is key as a spokesperson, and that ultimately if you feel strongly enough about an issue that it gets in the way of your job, there is always the option of resignation.
Campos’ lecture sparked a discussion among the students on whether the free press should have the same types of restrictions as he has at his work, and how much rules is too much? It was then established that a journalists are essentially free to say whatever they feel is necessary to convey their message, so long as they stay within the guidelines of their media, and follow the four simple rules of journalism: to always tell the truth, to act independently, to attempt to minimize harm (sometimes by not revealing the whole truth), and to ultimately be accountable for their actions.
We here at CityU are very honored by Mr. Campos’ first visit to our site, and are thankful for his enlightening lecture. Those who failed to attend, missed out on a great learning experience, and on behalf of our Student Parliament, I can only say that we hope for future appearances by him.
Krum Nikolov /Student Parliament Journalist/
We invite you all to come and rock on the End Of Fall Term Party! It will take place on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 @ Flamingo. The party will be free of entrance fee and for the first students to come there will be free drinks provided by us :) The DJ will make sure that we are enjoying a nice cocktail of House, Retro, Hip-Hop and Dance music throughout the whole evening so do not miss it!
Our Student Parliament photographer will try to capture all the great moments of the party so you can find and enjoy the photos @ our Facebook page's photo gallery!
We are looking forward to see you there!
Student Parliament
First, we would like to thank those of you who voted on our Elections '09, because your choice really matters!
Our team for the Academic 2009/2010 Year is glad to welcome: Ralitsa Kosturska F07 as our Photographer, Vesselina Doncheva F07 as an Event & Sport Associate, Venera Sokolova F08 as an IT Associate and Krum Nikolov F08 as our Journalist!
Please, if you have ideas for making either a party, sport or academic event or any kind of activity just contact us @ parliament@cityu.bg
Student Parliament
CityU Student Parliament is looking for new members. We need to get ready for more students, more parties and more fun. If you feel you can contribute to the development of the organization and the formation of a unique City U spirit you are the one we are looking for. In order to become a member you should:
- Be motivated & creative
- Be able to work in a team
- Have a clean student record without disciplinary sanctions
- Have at least 2.5 GPA or if you are first year student have at least 80% cumulative grade from your exams
All students in the BSBA program are eligible to apply if you fill the Application Form and put it in the Elections’ Box placed on the 1st floor in the university building.
You feel you are not quite sure what Student Parliament is all about? Well, from just fun to parties, from sports to arts, the Student Parliament of City University encourages students to be actively involved in academic events such as guest lectures and filed trips as well as advocating for and shaping a friendly community. We can't function without you- the students! When you actively participate in the Student Parliament's activities, you not only reap the benefits of student interaction and collaboration, but you help to create a change on our campus – change you want to see happen!
The elections will go in 3 stages:
- Application – Week 6 (Opening Date: 02.11.09/Deadline: 05.11.09 )
- Voting- Week 7 (Voting Dates: 09 Monday/10 Tuesday/11 Wednesday November, 2009)
- Winners Announcement- Week 8
Vacant Positions:
- Journalists (up to 2 seats)
- Photographer Seat
- Event and Sport Associate
- IT Support Seat
- Web Designer Seat
We are all looking forward to welcoming you to our team!
Good luck!
We are your voice which really counts!
Student Parliament
On October 19, Nadia Nedelcheva – the Portfolio Manager of Karoll Capital gave lecture to the students at City University. Karoll is one of the leading non-banking institutions in Bulgaria that provides a wide range of financial and investment products to individual clients, corporate and institutional investors. The topic of the presentation was “How and where to invest after the financial crisis?”. According to Karoll, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange is a good investment option. After our stock market hit the very bottom on March 2009, it is expected an overall rise of the indexes on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. Karoll claimed that an effective way to diversify your portfolio is to invest in foreign markets and Asia and Eastern Europe are with good potential. Investments in commodities are also sound alternative and Karoll’s experts bet on oil, sugar and gold. Another beneficial option is investment in companies that operate in the field of gold mining and processing, infrastructure and sustainable development.
Karoll also presented their new educational initiative. The company will launch a summer internship program, where 12 students will have the opportunity to learn real-life business practices and build a work experience. There will be job opportunities for those, who successfully finish the program.
Veneta Tuleva /Student Parliament Academic Chair/
This fall City University of Seattle had the privilege to participate in the three-day International Education Fair on October 16th, 17th and 18th that took place in the National Cultural Center (NDK) in Sofia. Organized for the first time by Meridian 22, the fair had the aim to present and inform Bulgarian students about opportunities to study either abroad or in foreign branches of universities in Bulgaria from USA, Canada, England, Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
Student Parliament
We are more than happy to announce that Colliers International kindly provide a funding of one 3rd year student with a full scholarship for their last year in City University Of Seattle, Bulgaria.
All applicants in the Scholarship Competition should be 3rd year students with overall GPA of 3.0 or above. For the Academic 2008/2009 Scholarship they had submitted Research Papers on topic "Green Building- Moving The Real Estate Sector In Bulgaria To The Next Level". The papers were written in APA Style with length from 10 to 13 pages and were checked for plagiarism according to CityU scholastic honesty policies. Then, a few students who had shown their innovative and creative business thinking were invited for the next round- Research Paper Presentations. After the best students had competed with each other- one was chosen and provided with scholarship for their last year in CityU.
As Colliers International had promised, CityU students will have opportunity to enjoy such competition also during the Academic 2009/2010 year.
For more information and details don't hesitate to ask us @ parliament@cityu.bg
Wishing you success!
Gergana Balabanova /Student Parliament President/
American Professor Applies Public Relations Practices during Obama’s Inauguration
Thursday, January 22, 2009
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Public Relations (PR) is the sector of business where it is the responsibility of the person to promote the positive image of a product, service
or organization. If successful, by using certain PR activities and tools, the result can affect your business’s reputation, influence potential customers as well as impact profitability. These principles and practices also apply to educational institutions. City University of Seattle (CU) here in Pravets is no exception.
This term (Winter '09) there is a visiting faculty member who is an American ex-pat who usually teaches in Trencin, Slovakia, but is here to specifically bring her expertise in the area of PR to the BSBA students at CU in Bulgaria. Ms. Norka Shedlock has successfully worked in the field of PR for over 25 years. She is a native of Pennsylvania in USA but has lived and worked in Boston, Massachusetts and Seattle, Washington, USA. She also voted for Barrack Obama in the 2009 US Presidential elections.
Realizing that she is one of a few American in Pravets and has the responsibility to teach PR, she combined these facts into an inauguration “PR story” for her CU students. Students participated in a photo shoot (see photo above) as well as wrote messages to the new world leader. Both the photo and the wishes were placed onto the CNN news segment “iReports” as part of this international news source’s Inauguration Day PR efforts to get feedback from the national and international communities. The student messages are included below:
“We wish you good luck in your career as an American President and one of the world leaders.” Nevena Vasileva
“I wish Obama would pay more attention to internal and development policies than warfare and external policies.” Anthony Karasavov
“Take the greatest from the past, mix it with creativity, and apply the mixture to the future.” Jwan Zada
“Unite America! Unite the World!” Victoria Dancheva
“I wish Obama a successful mandate, May Americans’ wishes for change come true.” Diyana Karayleva
“The best of luck to the 44th President of the USA on his path to building a better future for all of us.” Alexandros Kotzegien
“It’s time for a change! Let this period be remembered as the light after the dark, the good after the bad. Let us all hope for a brighter future. Good luck! Mr. President!” Georgi Radev
“Think globally, not only of the West.” Kristina Tomova
“Let’s hope that under your Democratic Presidency, Mr. Obama that the USA will take a new turn and will contribute to the stability on the international scene.” Veneta Tuleva
And Alexander Velinov composed this letter:
“Dear Mr. President:
We are witnessing something very unusual, and something very special. It is for the first time in a ling while that people from different countries, different races, different religions, different cultures and different sexual orientation are putting their differences aside and are standing unites, as one, in the name of something big, something important. Actually, this very important thing is you. But not you as a person, but you as the ideals and goals that you represent. The reason why so many people, who are so different, are thinking as one is because they need something. They need change! We need change. We need to change the way we think and they way we act. We need to change the way we treat each other. We need understanding, we need respect, we need tolerance, we need fairness, and we need love. But most of all we need hope—hope in the future, hope that everything will be better!
So many people have laid their hopes on you, it is your greatest responsibility to not fail them and let them down. My hope is you realize this, and you will truly represent what you stand for, even though it is not easy. And in the end, just one more thing—soft and smart power is ALWAYS, IN ALL CASES, better than hard power. We have seen for the last eight years what hard power is capable of. Let’s not continue it.”
Ms. Shedlock added her own conclusion: “As American ex-pat teaching university students abroad, I humbly represent you and our nation today in a sometimes forgotten part of the world, yet my students today gladly helped me send these wishes from afar.”
Norka Shedlock /PR Instructor/
Hello everyone!
We are bunch of students of City University of Seattle in Bulgaria, who are representing the Student Parliament of the university.
The Student Parliament was originally established as two separate organizations in 2002. The Student Senate was recognized as the student body involved in improving the academic environment in the University. The Student Association, on the other hand, was responsible for all the extracurricular activities in the Pravetz Campus. Today, students from City University of Seattle Bachelor Programs enjoy the opportunities and the privileges of having a strong student unity as Student Parliament by being part of events such as Guest Lectures by representatives of some of the most successful national and multinational companies on the Bulgarian Market, CityU Sport Olympics, Photo Exhibitions, Plant-A-Tree Campaigns, Movie Nights, Basketball, Football and Aerobics Clubs, as well as Thematically Based Parties such as Halloween, Christmas, Black & White Parties and many more. Besides all of its activities, the Student Parliament puts its greatest efforts to the sole purpose of developing and popularizing the University for the benefit of everybody who is involved in it, namely the students, faculty and staff.
Some of our future plans are to make Tutors' Club, Dj Nights, Language Club- Spanish, French or German, Work and Travel Advisory Club, CityU Olympics with another City University from around the world as well as starting a completely new initiative called CityU Philanthropy that would involved all students in charity projects and activities.
Don't forget that we are always open for your ideas, proposals and suggestions!
Hopefully, we'll succeed in entertaining you- all you have to do is enjoy it!
Student Parliament
