Skapto 3 construction begins
Photo courtesy of www.more-honors.org
Wearing AUBG T-shirt under tie: Codru Vrabie
By Silvana Enculescu
April 24, 2006
He talks with the confidence of someone who knows what he is doing. Perfect structure, outstanding English and that little anecdote to give his speech uniqueness are what make Codru Vrabie?s discourses so pleasant. What else can you expect from somebody who works for the Romanian Institute of Training?
A former Polytechnic University dropout, Codru Vrabie graduated from AUBG in 1998, majoring in political science. He had simultaneously studied law at the University of Bucharest.
?Back then [in 1993] I used to buy a different [newspaper] every day, to try and get a sense of political events from all the available perspectives. I was very much interested in politics ? actually this is one of the reasons why I dropped out of engineering,? says Codru.
Missing a university in Romania offering a political science specialization, Codru Vrabie applied to AUBG. The first time was in 1993 when the Soros Foundation somehow misplaced his application.
?I was in rage, thinking it must?ve been something fishy and corruption must have been present. So, next year I applied again?just to spite them, if you can imagine?for two scholarships, not one, and I got them both,? Codru says.
At AUBG, he found ?the pleasure of discovering liberty, of exercising rights, of starting idealistic projects with student clubs, of tasting both victories and defeats in fighting a worthy opponent- the AUBG administration.?
While AUBG managed to change him from a ?well-rounded nationalist,? to someone who doubts there is only one definition of ?Romanian? he can agree with, it failed to stop him from being ?principled, hard-headed and naïve.?
?That?s why I?m not making lots of money of the incredible mistakes of the transition and the EU accession process,? Codru admits.
Codru puts Symeon Giannakos, professor of international relations and political thought, and politics professor Robert Phillips at the top of the list of people who influenced him.
?[Phillips] has been and is being an excellent mentor, and I only wish for every AUBGer the luck of running into such a person one day ? it makes such a great difference,? he says.
Nevertheless, there were also people he had conflicts with during his university years.
?In my freshman year I had a fight with Jassen Nedelchev, about the way the basketball intramurals were (un)organized. I took it upon me to organize them,? Codru says.
He also fought former dean Chuck Grim on the curriculum committee and criticized professor Ben DeDominicis ?for being too much into ?realpolitik? and motivation.?
?We have never sorted out that problem, but now, eight years into day-to day relations with Romanian politics, I see he was right to emphasize that part of his classes,? Codru says.
A true gentleman, Codru ?admired both the wits and charms of AUBG ladies.? He confesses having had a number of meaningful relationships while a student.
?Well, there were three ladies I met during those years, whom I loved and I cherish and respect for making my life so much more interesting. One who taught me Bulgarian, another whom I taught Romanian, and a third who always ran away from me,? he says.
After graduation, Codru returned to Romania where he got a job at The Center for Legal Resources. In 2002, he started working with the Romanian chapter of Transparency International, a global civil society organization dealing with corruption.
During his four years with Transparency International, he worked in drafting seven laws, five of which were passed by the Parliament. Some addressed anti-discrimination, freedom of assembly, political party finance, grant-making and public-procurement. The anti-corruption legislation related to creating a system of rules that could safeguard decision-making from the undue influence of private interests and pressure groups, says Codru.
Codru Vrabie saw the Romanian Chapter of Transparency International grow from a budget of 30,000 euro a year in 2002 to one of 350,000 a year in 2005, when he left the staff but remained a board member.
He now works for the Romanian Institute of Training, where he offers assistance to civil servants on matters of ?euadministration,? where ?eu-? is the old Greek prefix meaning good.
?I?m corking up the loopholes in the administration, after I acquired my skills with the prosecution.?
For the 35-year-old, the future looks bright and he is not considering taking any time off. ?I can?t simply retire and travel across the world, to visit the wonders and I?m not thinking of the money, but of the drive that keeps me going, keeps me wanting something new, different,? he says.
Even if he is always on a tight schedule, his mobile phone forever ringing, Codru Vrabie never forgets to put AUBG on his agenda. He has been a member of the AUBG Alumni Association since 1996 and helps recruit students, faculty and trustees.
For years, he was the one to bring the freshmen from Romania and Moldova to AUBG and introduce them to life here. And if this wasn?t enough of a proof that AUBG was a special place for him, he included the More-Honors award he won for ?Wisest of the year? in his six-page-long CV.
?When I?m set for a meeting, I wear an AUBG T-shirt under the tie, and that makes me feel young again,? says Codru.
