I have to admit it's very exiting to be featured in the The Huffington Post with the one and only Ruba Huleihel. 

I want to thank Seeds of Peace for being my second family and GATHER for giving me the opportunity to learn and teach at the best conference in the world! 

"Though our political leaders have yet to bring freedom, prosperity, and stability to our region, we are not waiting"

Application central - post #4

My spirit animal is Pushkin's storytelling cat. The cat described in the opening poem of the book Ruslan and Ludmila tells tails when going to the right and sings songs when going to the left near his post at the shore of Pushkin's magical land.

I believe that stories and storytelling can serve as key tools in convening deep and complex massages be it a brand new idea or an innovative vision. Stories help us verbalize our dreams, feeling and fears thus giving us the powerful and at times healing ability to share them with others.     

Application central - post #2

This, for me, is the most difficult question to answer: I'm passionate about a large variety of issues and am involved either through my work, my study or my volunteer positions in women empowerment, peace building on economic bases, social innovation, development of under privileged communities, children's rights, civic action among immigrant communities and so much more.

 If I had to choose 3 major fields of interests it would have to be: economic growth, social entrepreneurship and women's empowerment.

I've been a passionate feminist with great interest in women empowerment from a very young age and over the years I've been involved and a post – colonialist feminist study group, volunteered for Saleet (an NGO helping women trapped in prostitution) and founded the Women's parliament to further this agenda. 

My passion for social innovation comes to light both in my daily job and in my volunteer work at TedX Jerusalem. In both these organizations I get to help social innovators from all over the world – giving them consultation and tools through PresenTense and giving them a platform for exposure through TedX. 

Finally, I strongly believe that financial and economic tools can change social – economic status on the level of the individual, the community and the country and have seen such change in action during my work with the ultra-orthodox community. 

Application central - post #1

Where would you place yourself now in your professional or personal journey?

And there are so many stories to tell, too many, such an excess of intertwined lives events miracles places rumors, so dense a commingling of the improbable and the mundane! I have been a swallower of lives; and to know me, just the one of me, you’ll have to swallow the lot as well. (Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children)

I chose the path of politics, public diplomacy and conflict resolution as much as it chose me, many years before I was even born. The path was being paved for me for over a hundred years and now I feel I must follow it – letting it guide me but also continuing to pave it forward as I go. The first step was made so far back in my family’s history it cannot be traced exactly, yet it seems that the first traceable step in my fate’s journey started in 1917 with the Pogroms in the Ukraine.

The next steps were the Holocaust, the fall of the Soviet Union and Ukraine's independence and my family immigrating to Israel. My steps as a teen included growing up during the second intifada in Jerusalem, becoming a proud Seed of Peace and a student at the Mahindra United World College. As an adult I started adulthood with two years of army service as the Director of the Russian Branch of the IDF Spokesperson Unit. My media skills led me to take the first steps in the world of media where I worked for five years.

My path has now led me to the PresenTense and the sphere of social innovation. I know that the next steps will be three fold – professional, academic and personal. In my professional track I strive to create my own venture and am now working on 2 technologic start –ups. In my academic path I aim to create a new methodology to create and analyze threats. In my personal life I wish to make a change in the social and political environment in Israel. I wish to do this through entrepreneurship, innovation and economic development. I have seen the tools of entrepreneurship; professional networking and mutual economic dependence create meaningful and long lasting connections between people of different religions, nationalities, colors and genders where many other methods have failed.       

I, Alina Evgenivna Shkolnikova, later variously called Alina Shkolnikov, Ilana, Bazooka and even Commander, have become heavily embroiled in fate – at the best of times a thrilling sort of involvement at the worst a humbling association. I have been a swallower of lives; and hope to continue on that path. 

* Application was written while still working for PresenTense. 

 

After a long MIA on - I'm finally back.

While I was gone I got the chance to apply (and get accepted) to a few different programs and projects. All with very long application processes that required a lot of writing. 


In the next few blog posts I would like to share some of my answers on my blog.