The student leadership program ‘The Big Adventure “It’s Up to Me” is one of the nominated initiatives for the prestigious international Emerging Europe Awards.

The awards are given by the London-based think tank called Emerging Europe. Emerging Europe is committed to boosting the social and economic development of twenty-three countries in Eastern Europe by supporting various initiatives in the region. It provides access to information and educational resources, facilitates new partnerships between organizations in the region, and drives growth and investment in Eastern Europe.

“The Adventure” is the only Bulgarian initiative nominated in the Young Empowerment Initiative of the Year Category. This category celebrates projects and programs which aim at providing opportunities to empower young people and help them actively participate in social processes. There are eleven other categories which celebrate national investment promotion agencies, tourism campaigns, city FDI promotion strategies, sustainable projects, equality-friendly initiatives, and so on. The Bulgarian initiatives nominated in some of the other categories are the Invest Bulgaria Agency, Sofia Municipality, and the Bulgarian online platform for consultancy service for people with disabilities – JAMBA.

A jury of experts is going to decide on the winners in each category and the awards will be given at a special ceremony in London on June 22.

The Big Adventure

“The Big Adventure: It’s Up to Me” is a program which gives students from 1st to 12th grade the opportunity to fulfill their potential, develop effective teamwork skills and mindsets such as “it’s up to me” and “I can”. In the course of the program students also learn how to reflect and analyze their work and how to share their lessons learned and experience from the series of challenges a.k.a. missions.

“The Adventure” is an initiative by the non-governmental organization “It’s Up to Me”, founded and led by Teach For Bulgaria supporters and alumni from various classes. The program is the successor of the annual conference “For the Success of Every Child” which was organized by Teach For Bulgaria from 2012 until 2016.

This year’s closing event of “The Big Adventure” is going to take place at the Faculty of Physics at Sofia University on June 9 and over 300 students, teachers, guests, and supporters of the initiative are expected to attend it.