Community Connections Recruiting Businesses and Families to Host Moldovan Visitors

April 17, 2002

In preparation for the arrival June 6 of seven men and three women from Moldova, a former republic of the Soviet Union, the Johnston Community College Community Connections program staff is recruiting host families and host businesses for the three-week internship program. The interns are English speaking, professional business and industry entrepreneurs ranging in age from 28 to 48.

Internship opportunities are matched with participants based on interests and experience. Companies that will be contacted about hosting an intern run the gamut from small, family-run enterprises to major multinational firms. Companies participating in the program will provide opportunities for hands-on experience as well as exposure to how businesses operate in our economic system. The opportunity will also be available for building a lasting relationship with some of the young men and women that are the present and future business leaders of Moldova.

Host families will provide the interns with an up-close and personal look at American family life and culture. In exchange, the families will be exposed to a people and a culture that few Americans know about. Host families are not expected to provide transportation for interns.

The JCC Community Connections programs works to provide professional training and exposure to day-to-day functioning of a free market system, encourage public-private partnerships in Moldova by including private sector and government participants, and create grass roots links between U.S. and Moldovan citizens.

Community Connections is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. State Department. Johnston Community College is one of three community colleges in the state participating in the program.