Here and There

About a year ago, after visiting the American College of Sofia (ACS), I was flipping through its fine alumni magazine when I ran across something that caught my eye in the "alumni notes" section at the back.  There were entries by two recent graduates talking about how they had returned to Bulgaria from studying overseas and had become active in a group called "Tuk Tam"--yes, Here and There.  They described the group as a sort of social and networking club that was encouraging other alumni to return to Bulgaria, take jobs here, and contribute to the country's future.

How should I put this?  That I was excited?  Very excited? 

You may have heard that the initial indications of the latest Bulgarian government census is that the national population will fall below 7 million people, after being up over 9 million not that long ago.  What's worse, some of the best and brightest of Bulgarian youth had been part of this flood to the West, since it has become relatively easy for them to study or, with a solid ACS education behind them, find work in Western Europe or the U.S.

I felt complicit in this brain drain since I was serving as chairman of U.S.-Bulgarian Fulbright Commission, which sets policy for the U.S.- and Bulgarian-government-sponsored academic exchanges, which send outstanding Bulgarians to study in the U.S., and of course I'd encouraged many more to go.  But with each farewell blessing, I'd try to remind them to return to Bulgaria and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes they had acquired in the U.S. to make Bulgaria a more prosperous, more democratic, and more beautiful country.

Then this is what I found on the Tuk Tam website: 

"We are "Tuk-Tam" -- an NGO uniting Bulgarians, who studied and worked abroad, and who have returned or want to return to Bulgaria.

"We are just like you -- active, smiling, ambitious and positive. We believe in Bulgaria and want to assist with what we have seen and experienced abroad.

"Our goal is to create an active social and informational network for our members, so that we can share experiences, develop common interests as well as accomplish various social projects. We aim to create contacts among the young Bulgarian professionals, who have studied or worked abroad."

Since then, I have been in frequent contact with Hristo, Diana, and Vanya.  I have happily opened the Sofia American Corner (on Slaveikov Square) to their career-planning and networking events.  I recently put them in touch with Junior Achievement Bulgaria (JAB) so that they could contribute to Manager for a Day and Smart Start, a two-day entrepreneurship conference and job-shadowing program for high school pupils and college students that took shape last year.  Actually, Milena Stoycheva at JAB and her team already had a wildly successful Manager for a Day program in place for 10 years; I just helped expand it into a networking and training conference to give hope to Bulgarian youth looking for challenging and rewarding jobs in a competitive economy.

I have learned a lot about vision and passion and pursuing what you do best from these Bulgarian partners.  YOU can too by checking out their websites:

http://tuk-tam.bg/index.php?page=za-nas&hl=en_US

http://bulgaria.ja-ye.org/pls/apex31mb/f?p=17000:1001:4307183362640240::::P0_APP_LANGUAGE:3

What do you think young Bulgarians need to find career fulfillment here in Bulgaria?  Why do they go abroad, and what would bring them back?