In addition to the scholarships they receive from the companies where they practice, as well as those from the state, the children of a high school in Ilfov county design projects for the school and the local community and go on experience exchanges abroad.
Marinela Culea PHOTO Teach for Romania
Marinela Culea, a teacher of economic subjects and director of the “Cezar Nicolau” Technological High School in Brănești, Ilfov county, won this year the Rural Teacher Gala in the “Student Leadership Development” category, organized by Teach for Romania, and last year was a finalist in the “Prevention of school dropout” category.
She wanted to become a teacher as a child, and her passion for the art of teaching came in a somewhat unusual way. Her mother was a cook at the boarding school of a secondary school in Sector 2 in Bucharest and always took her to work with her.
“Because it was very busy, the teachers took me in turn in the classroom. They put me in the front row and gave me cards to draw. It was my first contact with the education system and I really wanted to do what the teachers were doing back then”, said Marinela.
In every interaction she has with the students in the 26 years since she has been at the department, Marinela Culea tells them that she trusts them to increase their self-esteem and motivate them to succeed in what they set out to do.
The high school student council comes up with a project proposal for the school and the local community every week, and in this way the children develop their ability to make decisions and find solutions to the problems they face.
“It matters a lot that students can come up with project proposals and then involve other young people of their age in implementing them, so that they feel that they are part of the high school community”, scores the directory.
It permanently involves the more than 900 high school students in numerous projects, starting from civic, financial and ecological education to Erasmus projects, through which they go to various countries in the European Union.
Scholarship and job
The high school in Brănești has distinguished itself over the years through a series of remarkable projects at the national level. One of these concerns dual education, which involves a combination of the theoretical and the practical part by concluding partnerships with companies from various fields of activity.
Based on these, part of the students who study in vocational education are specialized from the school benches in trades such as mechanic, veterinary technician, car painter, worker in agritourism and ecological agriculture, horticulturist, pastry chef and waiter-cook, and after graduation they are employed by these companies.
Being a technological high school, students are educated at both high school and vocational level. In this last case, the high school from Brănești has courses taught in both the classical and dual systems.
High school students from Brănești learn jobs sought after on the labor market PHOTO personal archive
“In 2023-2024 we signed a partnership and we are now part of a dual consortium, together with the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Bucharest, and two other high schools and three administrative-territorial units, and we are trying that, by 2029, all the classes we have to turn into dual classes”, explains the director.
The great advantage of dual vocational education is that the students, from the first time they enter the courses, sign a practice partnership with a company with which the high school has signed an agreement in this regard.
For three years, the students are trained at the respective company, which also offers them a scholarship, equal to that offered by the Romanian state: 300 lei per month. This means 600 lei per month for each student studying in the dual professional system, to which is added another 100 lei contributed by the Ilfov County Council.
Students also receive other scholarships offered by the Romanian state (social, merit). Most students are employed immediately after graduating from vocational school by the companies that trained them during their schooling.
The fight against abandonment
Another project with a major impact on the local community is the free accommodation for 115 students from underprivileged families during their studies in the high school boarding school. “When problems arise in the family, we bring them to the boarding school”, says the director.
Children also receive three free meals a day, with the help of non-governmental organizations, if the financial situation of the family they come from is extremely difficult. All they have to do is stick to their books and follow the boarding school schedule, which is very strict: wake up at 6.30, breakfast at 7.30, and at 8.00 they go to school.
Through the Erasmus program, students visited various European countries PHOTO personal archive
After finishing the classes, at 14.00, the students return to the boarding school, where they do their homework. It is a regime specific to military high schools, but the students have adapted. “They are not running away from this program because they realize it is for their benefit. First of all, they realized that we care about them”explains Marinela Culea.
Through the World Vision Romania foundation, 50 students from the high school in Brănești are supported every year through the “I want to be in the 9th grade too” project to continue their studies. For example, the children received laptops this year, but also backpacks with supplies so that they don't drop out of school.
A new specialization: urban gardener
High school students from Brănești also came up with solutions to the problems of the community they belong to. For example, after they did a survey in the locality, as a result of which it turned out that a safe source of water was needed both for the students and for the local community, given that there was only a well in the area, they installed, next to the greenhouse in the school, a water filter.
Another civic project initiated by the students from Brănești is the greening of the Pustnicu Forest, which the high school in Brănești adjoins. The area is a dream, but the children and teachers found that the forest was full of waste.
The students collected all the garbage and, so that the area does not end up in such a situation again, they established the Eco Patrol.
Moreover, the high school from Brănești was designated Eco School because the students are involved in many ecological actions.
“We collect waste paper and recycle it, for example. On March 29, 2024, the parade of eco costumes took place in our school, created from recyclable materials”, exemplifies Marinela Culea.
It can now also boast of a unique project at the national level: the Brănești high school will become an Urban Greening center of excellence. The school yard will be transformed into a training center in arboriculture, vegetable and floriculture.
A vegetable garden and a flower garden will be set up there, and thanks to this center, within the high school, the urban gardener qualification was also introduced.
“Now there is a lot of talk about everything green. We want to do this concretely. This means the training of specialists, who know what kind of trees and plants are suitable for planting in big cities, but also know how to maintain them afterwards”, concludes the director of the Brănești high school.
