European Integration – Democracy Promotion by the EU in Eastern Europe

There have been a few historical turning points in modern European history. The turning points of 1648, 1815, 1919 and 1945 had great impact on the developments of Europe. The last turning point of 1991 is not an exception to such record. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the liberalization and transition of the former Eastern Europe changed the balance of power and the European landscape. This article stresses the new role of the EU as a norm-provider in determining the future outlook of Europe. Such a new role led to the big bang enlargement in May 2004, which indicated that the Cold War was sent to the historical dustbin. It also shed light on the new role of the EU as the most important hegemonic actor in European politics

Make Your Job Summer Program: A Report to the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship

Make Your Job Summer Program condenses the material in NFTE's year-long high school curriculum into an intensive two-week course. Over the course of these two weeks, from 9-5 pm each day, students learn about businesses and entrepreneurship while simultaneously designing their business plans. At the end of the program, students present their business plans to a panel of judges to compete for seed money. At two of the 18 sites, NFTE also offered an 8- 10 week version of the program called Startup Summer. Startup Summer is for students who already participated in NFTE during the school year and takes the program a step further by helping them execute their business plans. Students in Startup Summer continue to receive support in launching their businesses into the school year. 378 students participated in the BizCamps and 77 participated in Startup Summer (at the Los Angeles and New York City sites). Although some sites had run NFTE-related summer programs in prior years, other sites were running the summer program for the first time. Two of these BizCamps (Girl Empower BizCamps) served female students exclusively.Our research examines both the impact and implementation of the program and considers:- the types of students who enrolled in the program and why;- how the students experienced the program;- the perceived match between program design and student backgrounds and abilities;- how staff understood the goals and expectations of the program;- the capacities and resources that supported implementation;- the challenges experienced in delivering the program; and- how the program was adapted across sites