Our Managing Director, Nina Corder has an opportunity to be part of the Mentors group for the 2022 Professional Fellows Program by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Global Leaders Division. The ProFellows Program is a two-way exchange involving professionals from selected European countries and mentors from the United States to build connections and promote collaboration. One of those Pro Fellows is Nóra Kiss. Nóra has graciously shared her #419herstory with us!
"Since I have been here with the fellowship program of Great Lakes Community Action Partnership, I have learned a very expressive methodology. To tell in one word how I feel about a certain thing or event. My word for my four-week stay here is CONNECTION. That one word can be interpreted to mean two things right away. One is connection with people, the other is connection with countries and cultures.
For me this is another connection because I spent one year as an exchange student at Springfield High School 26 years ago. So, I was able to reconnect myself to the city. And connection as a whole has defined my Fellowship Program. It was a great honor to spend this 4-week period with Nina Corder at Women of Toledo. It was inspiring to see what they have accomplished by building brick by brick which has given me the opportunity to learn so much. My programs were all very diverse and varied and presented a great slice of the situation of women in Toledo. I was invited to attend the WOT Board meeting, HerHub luncheon and even City of Toledo meetings. However, one of my favorite opportunities was meeting Peter Ujvági and as well Baldemar Velazquez to learn about their work at FLOC. Inbetween meetings, luncheons and those of the like, both myself and my fellow Pro Fellow decided to get to know the cafés in the area that also make espresso as we are both very fond of food and coffee. When we asked Nina where to go, she immediately mentioned places that are HerHub members. It was a pleasure to visit all these places and we had fabulous coffees everywhere. It was even more pleasure to know that we were supporting women.
Lastly, I just have to take a moment to express my gratitude for my mentor, Nina Corder. Her personality and approach to the issues around her are so inspiring to me. Her values, including perspective thinking, relationship building and solidarity are all values I can easily identify with. However, I learned from her that we learn from each other because we are partners.
Each opportunity was inspiring on its own way and confirmed that communities can move forward. Visiting Toledo and this surrounding area has been both exhilarating and quite the learning opportunity. Like I mentioned before, this trip can summed up with one word - connection - because I truly made a variety of connections. Each of which I will never forget and take with me the rest of my life."
Nóra Kiss is the chief advisor for the mayor of Budapest (2nd District) She is working on projects related to cultural issues, community building, inequality and social responsibility. Ms. Kiss is in charge of strategic planning. She monitors trends in Hungary and implement international best practices into the district's future planning. Her focus is on the identity-shaping role of the culture so she is cooperating organically with cultural opinion leaders. Also has an interest on Women related topics. Ms. Kiss is committed to inspire dialogues so she initiated a series of talk show called ‘Protected Space’ which intended to fill a gap in Hungarian public life. In this program the thematic occasions that occur every month, experts and public figures like actors, musicians and influencers talk about gender roles, domestic violence or abuses at work. Ms. Kiss has graduated in Pedagogy at University of Szeged and holds an MA diploma in Sociology at Eötvös University. As a lifelong learner she is about to finish her MA Minority Studies.
Nóra, we are so grateful for the time you spent with us here in the Greater Toledo area! Come back and visit us again soon!
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