The Grand Island Town Board welcomed a group of European dignitaries to its meeting Monday in Town Hall and presented the group with a town proclamation.
A group from Ukraine, hosted by the Grand Island Rotary Club, are visiting Western New York to learn about American education through the Open World Program, which invite delegates from other countries to the U.S. to meet local host organizations and partake in professional development activities. The delegates also learn about American home life and customs.
The Town Board proclamation noted the Open World Program is a legislative branch agency that serves the U.S. Congress by "exposing international delegates to legislatures in a successful democracy."
The 2018 theme of the program is STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) Education and Alternative Learning Rationale.
The Ukrainian contingent was welcomed to town by the Grand Island Rotary Club. Open World Leadership Center in partnership with Rotary International through the Rotary Club of Grand Island organized the itinerary and hosted the team while they are in Western New York this week.
Pictured, six visitors were honored prior to the start of town business. From left: Grand Island Town Board members Jennifer Baney and Beverly Kinney; Maryna Goncharenko, head of the Department for Educational Innovations, Impact Hub Odessa; Oleh Horbach, an informatics teacher and assistant principal at Specialized School No. 3 in Kyiv; Deputy Town Supervisor Jim Sharpe; Maksym Nikolaievskyi, deputy manager of projects and partnerships at the Ukrainian Leadership Academy; Anna Masovets, facilitator/translator; Oksana Pasichnyk, computer science teacherpreneuer and educational designer at Lyceum Sykhivsky in Lviv; Rotary Club of Grand Island President Dick Earne; Oksana Izakova, a STEM direction coordinator, NGO Center for CSR Development; and Town Board members Peter Marston and Michael Madigan.
In making the proclamation, the Town Board welcomed the Open World Program delegates, and "encourages them to learn about the town and local government, and supports their visit here in our community."