Bogdan Dragomir

As the President of the Romanian Association AVR, Bogdan Dragomir acts as a pragmatic catalyst for educational reform in Romania, focusing on the intersection of traditional academic values and emerging technologies. The core of his projects is education through cognitive agency. The Association's initiatives are designed to ensure that AI serves as a tool for cognitive growth rather than a shortcut to intellectual atrophy, strictly maintaining the "human-in-the-loop" philosophy.

Education Through Cognitive Agency

The Association AVR focuses on several key pillars to modernize the Romanian educational system:

• Teacher Augmentation Programs: Rather than advocating for the replacement of educators, AVR conducts training workshops that help teachers use AI as a "Socratic Assistant." These projects focus on automating administrative tasks and initial lesson planning, allowing teachers to dedicate more time to high-level mentorship and the development of students' critical thinking.

• AI Literacy for Students: AVR has launched pilot programs for middle and high school students aimed at overcoming the "Dependency Trap." These workshops teach students the mechanics of Large Language Models (LLMs), emphasizing how to verify outputs, identify algorithmic bias, and use AI to stress-test their own ideas rather than simply generating answers.

• Curriculum Adaptation: Working alongside educational experts, the association facilitates the integration of "Desirable Difficulty" into digital assignments. Their projects aim to redesign homework and assessments so that they remain "AI-resistant"—requiring original synthesis and personal judgment that cannot be fully replicated by a prompt.

• Bridging the Digital Divide: Recognizing the uneven landscape in Romania, AVR focuses on providing rural and underserved schools with the necessary digital infrastructure and training. The goal is to prevent a "two-tier" education system where only urban centers benefit from the "Smart get Smarter" trajectory of AI development.

Three Main Tangible Results Over the Last Three Years

Over the past three years, the work at AVR has moved beyond the "hype" surrounding AI to find practical ways to support their mission of reconstruction and education, yielding three tangible results:

1. The "Human-First" Classroom Pilot. A series of educational projects was launched with the goal of using AI to teach critical thinking, rather than just "teaching AI." Instead of using AI to generate final answers, a methodology was implemented where students use AI to create "first drafts" or "counter-arguments," which they must then fact-check and critique. The result has been a visible shift in student engagement: they are no longer just consumers of an algorithm; they are becoming "editors" and "architects" of information.

2. Internal Augmentation: Scaling Our Agency. Within the AVR team itself, AI has been integrated into daily workflows—not to replace staff, but to handle "cognitive grunt work." By using AI for data synthesis, scheduling, and initial research, the team has effectively doubled its capacity for high-touch, human-centric work. This has allowed them to spend more time directly with the communities they serve. It is a real-world example of the "Centaur" model: using the machine to clear the desk so the team can focus on the values that truly require a human heart.

3. AI as an Ethical Creative "Muse".Within public diplomacy workshops, the concept of ethical prompting has been developed and promoted. Professionals are taught to use AI as a collaborator—a "Muse"—to boost their creative output without losing their personal voice or intellectual property. By treating AI as a tool that provides "raw material" rather than a finished product, AVR has helped a new generation of creators in Romania see technology as a way to scale their brilliance rather than a reason to stop thinking.

The Path to Leadership and International Experience

Bogdan's path to leadership has been marked by a series of significant achievements that confirm his expertise. His academic successes include two first-place victories in geopolitics competitions at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (2010 and 2011). This foundation allowed him to transition from theory to practice: he has been managing youth educational activities since 2011 and has organized over 25 international educational projects for youth and adults since 2012. His contribution to the development of international cooperation was highlighted by his participation in significant forums such as the Ladoga Youth Forum (Ladoga 2024). These achievements demonstrate his ability not only to generate ideas but to successfully implement them on the international stage for over a decade.

Leadership as Responsibility and Clarity

For Bogdan Dragomir, the most important part of leadership is being the person who takes the hit when things go wrong. "If the team succeeds, they get the credit. If the project fails, I own it," he asserts. People will only take risks and work hard if they know they won't be thrown under the bus the moment a deadline is missed or a mistake is made.

He judges his success as a leader by whether the people he works with have become more capable, more confident, and more skilled than they were before they started working together. "A real leader builds other leaders, not just followers. In the end, a leader is a person who can make difficult decisions in difficult times, guided by the best interests of the group rather than sensitivity or the fear of offending someone," he concludes.

Areas for Cooperation

The goal of submitting the project to the International Contest "Leaders of Public Diplomacy" is the opportunity to collaborate within the educational sphere of the Russian Federation and to apply the developed model of "AI as a tool for the cognitive development of children" in the Russian language. This model has already been successfully implemented not only in Romania but also in Bulgaria, Serbia, and several other European countries.

Contacts

E-mail: dragomir.bogdan.alexandru@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dragomir.bogdan.alexandru