Monday, October 7, 2013 signifies the launch of the second year of the U.S. Department of State funded Global New Media Lab and the start of GNML Online Session #1. PH International is excited to once again welcome Dr. Rob Williams as Lead Instructor, Stacie Clemens as Program Manager and Nicole Baker as Program Assistant. THe tri of PH International staff have craeted a revised curriculum for the 10 session online program aimed to provide current FLEX, A-SMYLE, and YES students in:

* Developing 21st century skills in social/digital media technologies
* Learning how to use social media as a powerful tool to advocate for social change
* Developing a Social Media for Social Change Campaign
* Collaborating with peers from around the world

We are very excited for the many new features of GNML Online being launched this year! Highlights include Virtual Guest Speakers and our GNML Online Volunteer and YES Alumni from Egypt, Mahmoud Rady!

Not to mention that this year, PH International's Chief Information Officer, Vasiliy Fokin based in Moscow, Russia developed the in-house GNML Online classroom platform! Visit us on the web at http://ph-int.org/gnml/.

During the September, civics clubs students of the ACETT program partner schools from city Zugdidi were involved in the voluntary work at Radio Atinati.

On September 17, 2013 ACETT Civics Club members from Batumi #14 public school initiated the Black Sea coast cleaning action “Protect Black Sea, Live with Healthy lifestyle”.

Within IDEA Project Powered by Microsoft YouthSpark, On September 27, 2013, trainers of NGO "Parostok" (Vinnytsya) conducted a training on the topic "Sectets of Successful Employment" for 30 students of Vinnytsya Inter-Regional Professional Rehabilitation Center for People with Disabilities "Podillya".

Meet Stacie, Dr. Rob, and Nicole, listen to our quick overview of our exciting Global New Media Lab 10 session online program and Vermont-based Youth Tech Camp (April 2014), and learn the secret GNML group cheer (at the very end).

From August 27 to the mid-September 2013, the Ministry of Social Policy of the Autonomic Republic of Crimea conducted a Web-conference on Draft 2014 – 2017 Program for Social Protection and Employment of Population in Crimea. Everybody could send to the Ministry by e-mail his or her suggestions on this topic. IDEA Center in Simferopol affiliated with a local NGO ‘Hand of help’ supported this discussion within IDEA Project Powered by Microsoft YouthSpark.

With participation of trainers of IDEA Project Powered by Microsoft YouthSpark, a seminar for social workers was held in Rivne dedicated to acute issues of supporting crisis families.

On August 29, 2013, a seminar for unemployed youth was with support from “IDEA Project Powered by Microsoft YouthSpark” in Lutsk City Employment Center. The topic of the seminar was "New information technologies – a key to successful job search".

On September 3, trainers of NGO “Parostok” carried out a training “Secrets of success in the labor market” for experts of NGOs of Vinnytsya Oblast (region).

Throughout August 25-27, 54 high school students from 3 regional towns of Armenian, Nor Hachn, Dilijan and Chambarak, got together in Tsaghkadzor to participate in an intensive English language summer camp organized within the two-year English ACCESS Microscholarship Program. The program offers the only free-of-charge option for English classes in most of the participants’ communities.

In Sept. 2012, having begun the program with little to no competence of English, the students now got actively engaged in different English sessions related to youth role in movements for social change, on Web 2.0 technologies and social media, on cross-cultural differences, on environmental issues, etc.