Cursuri de Limba Romana / Romanian Language (Fall 25)

Registration is now OPEN 

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See All Fall 2025 courses

Enrolling your child in RUF's Romanian language classes is an invaluable investment in their future for several compelling reasons:

• these classes foster a strong connection to their cultural heritage, helping them to preserve and celebrate their Romanian roots.
• language skills open doors to a world of opportunities. Proficiency in Romanian not only enhances their communication abilities but also expands their horizons for future educational and career prospects, especially if they plan to study or work in Romania or with Romanian-speaking communities.
• our experienced instructors create a nurturing and engaging learning environment, ensuring that your child not only learns the language but also develops a deeper appreciation for Romanian culture and history

Give your child the gift of language, heritage, and limitless potential with RUF's Romanian language classes.

Course Offerings

We are offering two main courses of Romanian Language: Introductory Romanian Language (covers topics from Level A1 curriculum) and Intermediate Romanian Language (covers topics from Levels A1 and A2 curricula).

Each course will have 20 sessions that will be split in 2 modules of 10 lessons per module. 

Please note: The fee for each course will range from $10-$20/hour and will be set by the teacher. A portion of these fees will be used to fund educational initiatives in Romania (e.g., sponsoring learning experiences for students in rural areas). The fees will be collected after the student will receive confirmation that the student is accepted in the course. 

Course Dates

Classes start the week of October 20th. Schedule to be announced soon.

Course will be delivered exclusively online (over Zoom).

Course Description

Introductory Romanian Language

Teacher: Natalia Petrache
Teacher time zone: CST
Preferred Days/Times: Mondays or Wednesdays at 6:00 PM (CST), or Saturdays at 10:00AM (CST)

Objective 1: Understand and reproduce oral messages in familiar situations

1. Recognize sounds and words specific to the Romanian language
2. Identify specific words in slow-paced conversations
3. Recognize objects, features, and actions in slow-paced conversations 
4. Understand the general message from an announcement
5. Understand simple instructions
6. Be able to reproduce short and simple messages in Romanian language 

Objective 2: Learn to communicate what you need in specific situations

1.  Learn to communicate simple messages about objects, activities, and people
2.  Learn to start, maintain and finish a conversation in specific situations
3.  Learn to communicate effectively information about objects, activities, and people

Objective 3: Being able to read and understand a written text in Romanian language

1.  Recognize sounds/words specific to Romanian language from written texts
2.  Being able to read at own pace a written text that is familiar to the student
3.  Being able to read and understand simple messages displayed around us

Objective 4: Learn how to write a simple message

1. Be able to write letters, groups of letters and words
2. Be able to fill out missing words in a statement
3. Be able to write a simple but full sentence

Objective 5: Learn some basic elements about Romanian culture, including forms of politeness

1. Recognize and be able to reproduce basic forms of politeness in Romanian language

Interested in registering for this class?

Please note that the student may have to take a placement test before she/he can join a Romanian language course. The test will help us gauge the student's current level of proficiency, and it will suggest the course that is most effective for the student's immediate development.

Register Now

Intermediate Romanian Language

Objective 1: Recognize and reproduce specific messages in a conversation

1. Recognize specific pieces of information from a conversation
2. Understand specific bits of information from a conversation
3. Understand specific non-basic instructions given by the teacher

Objective 2: Learn to communicate what you need in specific situations

1. Formulate and communicate non-basic messages about objects, activities and people
2. Participate in interactive conversations and communicate short messages as part of the conversation
3. Communicate specific pieces of information about self, people, interests, etc.

Objective 3: Understand written text, interpret and express opinions

1. Be able to understand short and simple written texts
2. Identify pieces of information from most written texts encountered on a daily basis
3. Formulate and communicate ideas about the message from a written text

Objective 4: Become comfortable writing a message

1. Write a simple message or note based on the immediate reality
2. Be able to write a simple letter or postcard

Interested in registering for this class?

Please note that the student may have to take a placement test before she/he can join a Romanian language course. The test will help us gauge the student's current level of proficiency, and it will suggest the course that is most effective for the student's immediate development.

Register Now

Current Teachers

Prospective Teachers

Proiect finanțat de Departamentul pentru Românii de Pretutindeni" (1 martie – 30 octombrie 2025)

Conţinutul acestui site/ website nu reprezintă poziţia oficială a Departamentului pentru Românii de Pretutindeni

Are you interested in other classes? See all our courses

Key Features:

• Engaging and interactive lessons
• Expert instructor
• Personalized attention for every child
• Hands-on learning
• Course fees to be announced after first week of classes ✨ 
• Registration fee: $100

Class Dates

Class starts the week of October 20th. Class meets one a week for one hour. Schedule to be announced soon.

Class Format

Format: online on Zoom 

Class Modules

• Months 1-3: Drawing (12 sessions) 
  • Target Audience: 8-16
• Months 4-6: Animation (12 sessions) 
  • Target Audience: 10-16
• Follow up:
  • Advanced students can join our private Game Building class (4 sessions + 8 Q&A sessions)

Class Topics

• Intro to Programming
• Drawing basics
• Coloring
• Variables
• Animation basics
• Interactive programs
• Becoming a better coder
• Bonus: Resizing with variables
• Text and strings
• Functions
• Logic and if Statements
• Debugging programs
• Looping
• Writing clean code
• Arrays: Intro to JS

Game Design: The second part of class is based on students abilities and choices. Every class is different: we design a new game every time, and we walk the kids through creating their own games.

In 2021, after two months, with just a little help, the kids were able to create their own little game. Play our game on Khan Academy, and keep an eye on our Youtube channel for the latest version.

Meet our Teachers

Mihai Lehene

President and Founding Member of RUF

Mihai is a Founding Member and the President of RUF. Passionate and caring, Mihai’s goal is to inspire all around him to be better and help each other, especially his fellow Romanian Americans.

twitter.com/mlehene

@mlehene

Investing in the Stock Market

Learn hands-on how to invest and trade the stock market: For Beginners

Having basic personal financial skills is one of the most important things you can do to live a healthy, happy, and secure life.

As adults, we deal with our finances on a daily basis  through questions like:

• I have some extra money, what should I do with it?
• The stock market is going up – should I participate?
• What do terms like day trading, earnings, volatility, or ETFs even mean?
• What’s a good interest rate, and should I refinance?

Looking back, it would have been good if we had been prepared to answer these questions since we were kids.

Registration OPEN

Register Now

See all Fall 2025 courses

Why should you join this class

In our engaging program, we delve into the realms of trading and long-term investing, covering crucial topics such as portfolios, diversification, interest rates, stocks, the stock market, bonds, ETFs, Mutual Funds, and Hedge Funds. Our aim is to demystify these financial concepts and make them accessible and understandable for young learners.

What sets our course apart is our hands-on approach. Participants will have the opportunity to open actual brokerage or trading accounts, immersing themselves in the world of financial instruments. By using real financial tools, they will gain practical insights into how these instruments function in the real world.

Meet our Teachers

Marius Moldovan

Volunteer Teacher since 2023

Marius is a Senior Portfolio Advisor and Portfolio Manager at Northern Trust, specializing in wealth management, financial planning, alternative investments, and asset management. He has been teaching financial education with RUF since 2023. He is excited to promote curiosity and interest in investing, finance, and trading, and inspire children in an engaging and fun class.

Class Basics

• First class: Friday, Oct 24, 2025
• Sessions: 8 sessions, Once/month
• Class Starts: Friday, 5:00-6:00 PM CST
• Class Teacher: Marius Moldovan
• Target Audience: Kids ages 11-15 years
• Class Format: Online via Zoom
• Course fees: FREE (Excludes: Registration fees $100 to be paid after first class)

Class Details

RUF’s Little Traders Class is an educational program organized by the Romanian United Foundation (RUF) for children, typically in middle school. The goal is to introduce them to the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, investing, and financial literacy in an engaging, hands-on way.

1. Learn to Read: A Market Crash Course
2. Learn to Analyze: Technical vs Fundamental
3. Opening a Trading Account
4. Technical Analysis: Charting Fundamentals
5. Fundamental Analysis: X-Ray of a Private Company
6. Practice Trading: Orders and Concepts
7. Position and Risk Management

Interested in registering for this course?

Register Now

The Romanian Diaspora Funding Network (RDFN), with the support of the Romanian-American Foundation, presents an important study that lays the foundation for future donation mechanisms by analyzing who donates, how, and why among nearly 2,000 Romanians across Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the USA.

Produced by the Research Center for Civil Society based on fieldwork conducted by Wave Research and Triskuel, this report offers key insights into the motivations behind diaspora donations, the areas receiving the most support, country-specific donation patterns, and preferred giving methods. Designed for NGOs, donors, and partners, it provides essential data to strengthen the connection between the diaspora and Romanian organizations.

What Drives Romanian Diaspora Philanthropy – Report Highlights:

• High Engagement: 72% of diaspora members have donated in the past year or plan to donate soon.
• Annual Giving: Average donation is €780/year; most give 2–4 times per year, usually under €299 total.
• Where They Give: 79% donate in their country of residence; only 36% give to causes in Romania (46% among US-based donors).
• Top Motivations: Trust, impact, and personal fulfillment drive giving—especially in Spain, where impact leads.
• Most Supported Causes: Health (37%), volunteering (34%), education (25%), social services (24%), and development (23%).
• NGOs Lead: NGOs are the top recipients of diaspora donations in all countries, particularly in Spain. In the UK, families in need slightly edge out NGOs.

Download the full study to explore these insights and uncover new opportunities to enhance philanthropic engagement. For access to raw data files, please reach out to [email protected].

Registration is now OPEN

Registration Form

Conquer math Kangaroo problems like never before! Learn and have fun in this adventure of knowledge and discovery. It's intense, invigorating, and undeniably enjoyable. Join us, regardless of who you are or where you're from, and unleash your inner math genius. Parents, beware! Once your child enters this world of mathematical adventures, there's no turning back. It's addictive in the best way possible. And here's a secret tip: bring a friend your age. Conquer math challenges and create incredible games together for an amplified thrill. 

Discover the thrill of our captivating course, crafted to soar your child's Math skills to unprecedented heights, equipping them for real-world challenges, including the prestigious Math Kangaroo competition held annually in March.

Course Offerings

Age Group: 🚀 Our competitive math programs is tailored for students aged 6-14 (1st - 8th grade)

We are offering five courses: Math Level 1-2, Math Level 3-4, Math Level 5-6, Math Level 7-8, and Math Level 9-10

Each course will have 20 sessions that will be split in 2 modules of 10 lessons per module. 

Please note: The fee for each course will range from $20-$35/hour and will be set by the teacher. A portion of these fees will be used to fund educational initiatives in Romania (e.g., sponsoring learning experiences for students in rural areas). The fees will be collected after the student will receive confirmation that the student is accepted in the course. 

Course Dates

Classes start the week of October 20th, subject to meeting minimum enrollment requirements (please see course descriptions). Schedule to be announced soon.

Course will be delivered exclusively online (over Zoom).

Course Descriptions

Math Level 1-2

Teacher: Iulian Grindeanu
Minimum enrollment requirement: 6 students
Preferred Days/Times: Mondays at 6:00 PM (CST)

Class Description

Concepts covered: Pattern recognition, shortest distance, partitioning a set of objects based on certain criteria, logical quantitative and non-quantitative problems that use the elimination process, intro algebra, intro combinatorics and probabilities

Interested in registering for this class?

Please note that the student may have to take a placement test before she/he can join a Math course. The test will help us gauge the student's current level of proficiency, and it will suggest the course that is most effective for the student's immediate development. 

Register Now

Math Level 3-4

Teacher: Iulian Grindeanu
Minimum enrollment requirement: 6 students
Preferred Days/Times: Wednesdays at 6:00 PM (CST)

Class Description

Concepts covered: puzzles based on the use of geometry, order of algebraic operations, solving equations with limited choice set, optimization with limited choice set, logical quantitative and non-quantitative problems that use the elimination process, basic combinatorics and probability

Interested in registering for this class?

Please note that the student may have to take a placement test before she/he can join a Math course. The test will help us gauge the student's current level of proficiency, and it will suggest the course that is most effective for the student's immediate development.

Register Now

Math Level 5-6

Teacher: Mike Dinescu
Minimum enrollment requirement: 6 students
Preferred Days/Times: Thursdays at 7:00 PM (CST)

Class Description

Concepts covered: Counting patterns on three-dimensional objects, calculating areas of standard geometric shapes, identifying the nth element of a dynamic sequence, puzzles that use algebra (e.g., division), non-trivial algebra calculations, optimization with limited choice set, logical quantitative and non-quantitative problems that use the elimination process, combinatorics and probability

Interested in registering for this class?

Please note that the student may have to take a placement test before she/he can join a Math course. The test will help us gauge the student's current level of proficiency, and it will suggest the course that is most effective for the student's immediate development.

Register Now

Math Level 7-8

Teacher: Tony Ghiugan
Minimum enrollment requirement: 6 students
Preferred Days/Times: Tuesdays at 6:00 PM (CST)

Class Description

Concepts covered: Areas and dimension calculations of unconventional geometric shapes, volume of standard geometric objects,  complex fractions, identifying the nth element of a dynamic sequence, non-trivial algebra calculations, optimization with limited choice set, logical quantitative and non-quantitative problems that use the elimination process, combinatorics and probability, equations with one or several variables, angles and the geometry of triangles, prime numbers, elementary statistics

Interested in registering for this class?

Please note that the student may have to take a placement test before she/he can join a Math course. The test will help us gauge the student's current level of proficiency, and it will suggest the course that is most effective for the student's immediate development.

Register Now

Math Level 9-10

Teacher: TBD
Preferred Days/Times: TBD

Class Description

Concepts covered: Advanced geometry concepts (e.g., similar triangles ratios), proportions, factorization and prime numbers, complex geometric constructions and calculations (area, angles, sizes), complex fractions, identifying the nth element of a dynamic sequence, non-trivial algebra calculations, optimization with limited choice set, logical quantitative and non-quantitative problems that use the elimination process, advanced combinatorics, equations with one or several variables, probability and elementary statistics

Interested in registering for this class?

Please note that the student may have to take a placement test before she/he can join a Math course. The test will help us gauge the student's current level of proficiency, and it will suggest the course that is most effective for the student's immediate development.

Register Now

Current Teachers

 Prospective Teachers

We are currently seeking prospective teachers who are passionate about teaching Mathematics. We are especially interested in prospective teachers that could teach Math Levels 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-10. The ideal candidate would be a Romanian-speaking professional who lives in the US and who has a Bachelor Degree in Mathematics or other related field. We are offering course materials, a digital platform for hosting your classes, training, and a technology kit (that includes a chrome book) to help you get started. Prospective teachers would have full control over their teaching materials. If you are interested, please contact Iulian Obreja at [email protected].    

Student Testimonials

Conţinutul acestui site/ website nu reprezintă poziţia oficială a Departamentului pentru Românii de Pretutindeni
Proiect finanțat de Departamentul pentru Românii de Pretutindeni (1 martie – 30 octombrie 2025)

Key Features:

• Class starts on October 2, 2024
• 24 lessons 1h/week
• Program value $1000 offered to  Members* for $100 ✨ 
• Engaging and interactive lessons
• Expert instructor
• Personalized attention for every child
• Hands-on learning

Class Dates

Every Wednesday, 5:30-6:30 PM CST

Class Format

Format: online on Zoom 

Class Modules

• Months 1-3: Drawing (12 sessions) 
  • Target Audience: 8-16
• Months 4-6: Animation (12 sessions) 
  • Target Audience: 10-16
• Follow up:
  • Advanced students can join our private Game Building class (4 sessions + 8 Q&A sessions)

Class Topics

• Intro to Programming
• Drawing basics
• Coloring
• Variables
• Animation basics
• Interactive programs
• Becoming a better coder
• Bonus: Resizing with variables
• Text and strings
• Functions
• Logic and if Statements
• Debugging programs
• Looping
• Writing clean code
• Arrays: Intro to JS

Game Design: The second part of class is based on students abilities and choices. Every class is different: we design a new game every time, and we walk the kids through creating their own games.

In 2021, after two months, with just a little help, the kids were able to create their own little game. Play our game on Khan Academy, and keep an eye on our Youtube channel for the latest version.

Meet our Teachers

Eli Katz

Volunteer Teacher since 2020

Eli is a professional software developer in Chicago and has been teaching computer programming with RUF since April 2020. He is excited to promote curiosity and interest in STEM fields and inspire children in an engaging and fun class.

Mihai Lehene

President and Founding Member of RUF

Mihai is a Founding Member and the President of RUF. Passionate and caring, Mihai’s goal is to inspire all around him to be better and help each other, especially his fellow Romanian Americans.

twitter.com/mlehene

@mlehene

Conţinutul acestui site/ website nu reprezintă poziţia oficială a Departamentului pentru Românii de Pretutindeni
Proiect finanțat de Departamentul pentru Românii de Pretutindeni (martie – octombrie 2024)

Registration OPEN

Sign Up

See all Fall 2024 courses

Why should you join this class

Having basic personal financial skills is one of the most important things you can do to live a healthy, happy, and secure life.

As adults, we deal with our finances on a daily basis  through questions like:

• The market is going up – should I participate?
• I have some extra money, what should I do with it?
• What’s a good interest rate and should I refinance?
• How do loans work and how much is my monthly mortgage?

Looking back, it would have been good if we would have been prepared to answer these questions since we were kids.

In our engaging program, we delve into the realms of trading and long-term investing, covering crucial topics such as portfolios, diversification, interest rates, stocks, the stock market, bonds, ETFs, Mutual Funds, and Hedge Funds. Our aim is to demystify these financial concepts and make them accessible and understandable for young learners.

What sets our course apart is our hands-on approach. Participants will have the opportunity to open actual brokerage or trading accounts, immersing themselves in the world of financial instruments. By using real financial tools, they will gain practical insights into how these instruments function in the real world.

About the course

• Starting Date: October 4, 2024
• Class Teachers: Marius Moldovan
• Class Schedule: Once a month, First Friday of every month until June 2025
• Class Time: 5:00-5:45 PM CST (Chicago Time)
• Target Audience: 10-18 year-olds (anyone below 99 allowed)
• Class Format: Hybrid (In person at ROCO & Online via Zoom)
• Value: $1000 offered to  Members* for $100 ✨

What you will learn

• Learn to Read: A Market Crash Course
• Learn to Analyze: Technical vs Fundamental
• Opening a Trading Account
• Technical Analysis: Charting Fundamentals
• Fundamental Analysis: X-Ray of a Private Company
• Practice Trading: Orders and Concepts
• Position and Risk Management

Conţinutul acestui site/ website nu reprezintă poziţia oficială a Departamentului pentru Românii de Pretutindeni
Proiect finanțat de Departamentul pentru Românii de Pretutindeni (martie – octombrie 2024)