NAME: Ivayla Pesheva

TITLE: Deputy Minister for Public Relations

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Bulgaria (Europe – Balkan Peninsula)

ABOUT ME: I joined the F.O.R.E.I.G.N.E.R.S. because when I was an exchange student in Finland I had a tough time at first but there was a similar organization over there which organized lots of interesting and fun events for us – the foreign students and helped us socialize easily. Now I want to return the favor by helping the foreign students at ODU… and also, to make some new friends, of course.

EDUCATION: Bachelor in Public Relations (Sofia University, Bulgaria), specialized Intercultural Communication and Organizational Communication in Finland. Currently working on my MBA at ODU.

EXPERIENCE: I have worked three years for an advertising agency and almost a year for an IT company where I took care of the internal corporate communications and wrote my graduation thesis – a project for an Internal Portal for employee interaction. The project was implemented successfully, I got an A+ on my thesis defense and I am happy they still keep using the portal.

INTERESTS: reading, writing, drawing and painting (although that I don’t find any time for that any more), humor (reading, watching, listening, using it), bicycling.