OPPORTUNITY FUNDS-BULGARIA 

For High School Juniors and Seniors

The EducationUSA Opportunity Funds program assists highly qualified yet economically challenged high school students who are likely to be awarded full financial aid from U.S. colleges and universities. Opportunity Funds provides financial resources to cover the up-front costs of applying to US universities, such as testing, application fees, or airfare. In addition to their impressive academic achievements, Opportunity students also bring cultural and socio-economic diversity to U.S. campuses.

Bulgaria is one of the few European countries involved in the Opportunity Funds program, joining Belarus, Bosnia, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. This US State Department-funded program is also available in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Bulgaria, being the poorest member of the European Union, has many highly talented students who are deterred from applying to US universities due to cost. To encourage these bright youngsters to consider the US as their educational destination, the Bulgarian Fulbright Commission’s EducationUSA Advisor, Snezhana Teneva, in close cooperation with Regional Educational Advising Coordinator Cheryl Francisconi, has launched an Opportunity Fund program in Bulgaria beginning in February 2016. From numerous applicants, twelve eleventh-graders from all across the country were selected to take part in the first phase of the program, which covers the cost of test preparation, testing fees, and translation of application documents, and also provides support for creating CVs and writing admissions essays, and guidance in selecting universities to which to apply. If successfully admitted to US universities with full financial aid, these students will go on to the next phase of Opportunity Funds during the 2017-2018 school year, which covers visa fees as well as travel and relocation to the US.

The first module on Redesigned SAT prep took place at the National Training and Logistics Center of the Bulgarian Red Cross in the village of Lozen near Sofia  on April 3-9. It gathered eleven Opportunity Funds students and three lecturers. Official guests to the first Opportunity Funds training were Angela Rodel, Executive Director, Bulgarian-American Fulbright Commission and Tammy Paltchikov, Cultural Attaché, U.S. Embassy.

The three courses included in the event’s curriculum – Redesigned SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, Redesigned SAT Math and Researching Universities were led by Asst. Prof. Boyka Bozoukova, University of National and World Economy, Ivan Dinkov, math teacher, American College of Sofia, and Snezhana Teneva. The lectures and training addressed various exam tasks, strategies and challenges and explored ways to further strengthen students’ preparation for applying to accredited colleges and universities in the U.S.

The second module of the Opportunity Funds Program, Bulgaria, took place again at the National Training and Logistics Center of the Bulgarian Red Cross in the village of Lozen near Sofia on July 3-9. It focused on preparing the ten participating Opportunity Funds students for the TOEFL iBT test and introducing them to the U.S. undergraduate application process and documents. The three training courses were delivered by experts in their field. Asst. Prof. Vladimir Phillipov, Department of English and American Studies, Sofia University, taught iBT TOEFL – Reading and Writing. Sophia Kleinsasser, Fulbright ETA alumna and ESL teacher at the American College of Sofia, presented the listening and speaking sections of the TOEFL iBT test and the EducationUSA Adviser Snezhana Teneva led The Application Process and Pieces course.

The third one-week module of the Opportunity Funds-Bulgaria program covered important topics in college application essay writing and filling out application documents. Fulbright ETA alumnus Sophia Kleinsasser discussed with the eleven Opportunity Funds-Bulgaria program participants essay topic choice, style of writing and all stages of essay writing while EducationUSA adviser Snezhana Teneva provided students with expanded guidance on preparing their college application documents.

We strongly believe that the Opportunity Funds students will make the best use of the knowledge and know-how acquired during this unique opportunity and wish them all a very successful and rewarding application process.