Diana Cocoru is a Connector in Bucharest, Romania, who recently reported back on her Team’s first meeting.

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“Connecting is my definition,” says Connector Diana Cocoru. “Although I didn’t know until recently.”

The 26-year-old Bucharest local makes a habit of knowing lots of things, though.

With three Bachelor’s and two Master’s degrees, experience working with the European Parliament and African social change network Kabissa, and proficiency in three languages, Diana brings a lot of valuable resources to her Team and community.

Bucharest’s Victory Avenue
(photo courtesy Wikipedia/Creative Commons)

Equally important, she’s coming to her work as a Connector with the right mindset: she wants to connect people while remaining impartial.

I have always been a conflict mediator in my family, and any team I have coordinated or led. Actually one professor in secondary school told my mom that never ever has one person managed to break into all the smaller groups in our class. It was not my purpose anyway—I was just asking and speaking with all people, not paying attention to the invisible borders between the groups.

I have bridged resources with those who needed it. I have learned diplomatic networking and saw how important it is to know that A is looking for something and B can give it and the satisfaction of bringing A and B together.

From my short experience on Idealist, people who surface through this [Network] are all very strong personalities with good resources. It is important to know when to let other Connectors organize, express, change, and not put your frustration in front of it. It takes maturity to do this.

For Diana, Romania has nothing to lose and everything to gain by becoming a part of the Network:

Romania is too closed as a nation, still lacking trust in the other. By getting involved in this initiative, perhaps people will get to know “there is another way.” Nowadays society doesn’t wait for the political people to act in their interest. Through Idealist, I see people confirming this phenomenon of “taking my life in my hands, because I can.”

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