Alumni

The Challenger experience or, in my case, the long-term impact: Challenger is a project that changes visions and perspectives. For a year, I learned that any opinion has the right to exist, as long as it is argued and structured. One of the biggest challenges is to motivate and explain to people around you how important argumentation is and why you need to do it. After graduation, you understand that you want to live in a society where people express their opinion based on thorough documentation and not just subjective reasoning. Due to an intense year full of trainings and debates, you get to ask yourself the question “why?” more often and you can no longer blindly believe everything that is said by experts, politicians or the media; you always seek to find more reasoned perspectives of a particular case.

An experience that will be useful in the future. You will meet interesting and brave people.

My most valuable experience of participating in extracurricular projects. A project with a real impact on personal development. I had the chance to meet ambitious, hard-working people, full of desire and ability to change society for the better.

After graduating from the Challenger School of Critical Thinking, I was thinking of applying again for the next edition. The great flow of useful information, the interaction with mentors and the program colleagues become a good part of your daily life for a year. Challenger taught me to listen and accept different opinions; with help from my mentors I realized the importance of the argument and critical thinking as a healthy way of life.

Without exaggeration, Challenger pulled me out of my comfort zone from the very first stage. In addition to the experience gained during the debating sessions, the most valuable thing was the people I met, befriended and got to work with. If I could, I would definitely become a participant once again, because Challenger is about people, fun and experience through practice.

For me, Challenger is the program that paved the way for new opportunities. Here I learned how to identify a problem and how to come up with proper solutions. I learned what a good, conclusive speech looks like. Challenger is different from other programs, namely because of the dedication of the organizers to the participants. Personally, I was impressed with the support of the mentors throughout the program. In my opinion, it is one of the few projects that creates a community of graduates, with whom it maintains a permanent connection through various events and opportunities. For this reason, it is a program that continues after graduation and is not limited to a certain period of time.

Challenger helped me understand how important research is in making a decision. I have met many interesting young people from various fields of activity with whom we keep in touch even nowadays.

A program that takes you out of your comfort zone and makes your neurons move.

In this project I had the opportunity to meet many interesting people, active and eager to change something in the society. I also learned many useful things that I can use in my life and work.

The Challenger program really challenged me to think critically, to speak in front of the public, to build solid arguments, to identify problems and to debate solutions to them. Here I interacted with ambitious active young people, and together we succeeded to bring value to society.

Challenger opens up a whole new world for you. You learn the difference between an opinion and an argument, how to practice a debate on values and on strategy, how to argue any opinion based on real evidence, the importance of time and how to manage it properly, how to develop a questionnaire, collect data, interview citizens and develop a GOTV campaign.

Challenger meant for me communication, knowledge and friendship with active brave people open to new acquaintances! I participated in the program in order to interact with young people who think openly and freely. I had the opportunity to receive unique knowledge during trainings, mentoring and coaching sessions from the best mentors in the program. The most valuable experience I received was during debates, nothing makes you more confident than participating in debates! You get a kind of adrenaline and unique emotions! I recommend everyone to apply to this unique and useful program for young people in Moldova! You improve your critical thinking, you learn to argue your positions better and you become a better negotiator! ;) If I had the chance, I would apply again to the program! :)