Announcing Greenheart’s Spring 2025 Global Impact Grant Winners
By Jennifer Harris
Greenheart believes in connecting people and planet through fair trade, personal development, environmentalism, and volunteerism. Our cultural exchange programs help create global leaders by building mutual understanding and fostering diplomacy. Another way Greenheart further encourages our alumni to give back to their communities is through our Global Impact Grant.
A Greenheart Global Impact Grant is a financial award of up to $2,000 given to exemplary members of the Greenheart community. It provides current participants and alumni with the opportunity to create, improve, or maintain a community-focused project abroad or at home. As the Greenheart alumni network continues to expand, more and more of our participants are working towards an environmentally sustainable, socially just, and peaceful world.
Please join us in congratulating our THREE Spring 2025 Awardees:
- Anush Arsenyan // Armenia
- Emmanuel Dolo // Mali
- Olena Vuzka-Malets // Ukraine
Anush Arsenyan is a people-centered leader with extensive experience in alumni engagement, event coordination, and grant management. With a background in communications, she has led impactful initiatives at American Councils for International Education, working at the intersection of community-building and strategic planning. A 2017 FLEX alumna hosted by Greenheart, Anush continued her involvement through the 2018 Greenheart Global Leaders Conference and her service on the Greenheart Alumni Council in 2023-2024. She is driven by a strong sense of purpose, values meaningful collaboration, and is passionate about creating inclusive spaces where ideas and people thrive. Deeply committed to giving back, Anush actively seeks out volunteer opportunities as a way to support her community and foster long-term, positive change.
Her Project: She Leads
“She Leads is a comprehensive leadership and mentorship program aimed at empowering young Armenian women (ages 18-25) to actively participate in civic life and politics. With the Greenheart Innovation Grant, we will be able to host a three-day intensive training covering public speaking, political literacy, advocacy, and media navigation, followed by a mentorship component pairing participants with experienced female leaders in government or civil society.” – Anush Arsenyan
Emmanuel Dolo is a Malian youth leader and 2022-2023 YES (Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study) alumnus. Passionate about environmental sustainability and youth empowerment, he leads the project “Roots & Renewal: Environmental Action in Mali” to promote cultural awareness, tree planting, and community clean-up efforts. Emmanuel is also the founder of Dolo Visual, a platform that uses photography to tell stories that inspire social change.
His Project: Roots & Renewal – Environmental Action in Mali
“Roots & Renewal aims to spark a movement of environmental responsibility and inspire collective action for a cleaner, greener Mali. With this youth-led community initiative, we will lead an effort to promote environmental awareness and action in Bamako, Mali, through a community clean-up campaign and a tree-planting drive. These activities are designed to engage local youth, residents, and schools in sustainable practices and empower youth to become long-term environmental stewards in their communities.” – Emmanuel Dolo
Olena Vuzka-Malets is the Program Director of the Ukrainian Volunteer Service, a trainer in civic engagement, management, motivation, and volunteering, and a guest lecturer of the “Leadership in Volunteering” course at Ukrainian Catholic University. Her participation in the FLEX exchange program in 2018-2019 allowed her to deeply understand the values of civic engagement and volunteering on a global scale. Olena has extensive experience working with local self-government bodies, international organizations, developing training courses and programs for volunteer coordinators, and supporting volunteering in frontline regions. She is actively involved in mentoring, strategic management, and designing methodologies for the development of volunteering in Ukraine.
Her Project: ActiVY – Activate
“The primary objective of ActiVY is to equip young volunteers with the skills and ongoing motivation, confidence, and frameworks necessary to actively foster youth participation in civic life. With the Greenheart Innovation Grant, ActiVY plans to facilitate a 3-day engagement lab aimed at empowering long-term volunteers who will be promoting youth participation in Lviv, Ukraine. Ambassadors will deepen their understanding of youth participation models, gain practical tools for civic activism, and work together in small teams to design and carry out visible public interventions such as pop-up consultations, lessons on volunteering, or public activism in city spaces. This initiative aims to make youth participation more tangible, inclusive, and community-rooted in the context of Lviv’s City.” – Olena Vuzka-Malets
Congratulations! We can’t wait to share how their projects progress.
Got a project in mind? Earn up to $2,000 for an opportunity to create, improve, or maintain a community-focused project abroad or at home. Follow Greenheart on Facebook and Instagram to see when the next application window opens.
Click here if you’d like to donate to help Greenheart fund Global Impact Grants like these.
Thank you!