Privacy Policy LEAP

America for Bulgaria Foundation in partnership with Babson College in Boston, MA, USA

Leadership Education in America Program (LEAP)

Date: November 25, 2025

This Privacy policy (the “Policy”) is prepared for the purpose of the third edition of the Leadership Education in America Program (“LEAP” or the “Program”) designed and funded by the America for Bulgaria Foundation (the “Foundation”, “ABF” or “we”) and administered by Babson College in Boston, MA, USA (“Babson” or the “College”). The Policy is intended to inform you about how we process your personal data as an applicant and selected participant in the Program. Please, also read the Privacy Policy of the America for Bulgaria Foundation available at www.us4bg.org, ABF’s official website, which contains detailed information on how the Foundation processes personal data of users of its pages.

The Foundation will process the personal data of the applicants and participants in the Program in accordance with the applicable legislation, the guiding principles, values and ethical rules announced on our website.

Application and selection process

To apply for the Program, you must complete the application fields on the landing page: (https://us4bg.org/leadership-education-in-america-program-home/), developed for the purposes of the Program, and submit a filled-in application form. When applying you are required to provide certain information relating to you including personal data such as: names, age, citizenship, current place of residence, phone number, email address, title/position, organization, industry/business sector, information about your education, professional experience, qualifications, internship, academic honors, awards, hobbies, volunteer work, extracurricular activities, language skills, trips abroad as well as other information as included in the application form. We need this data for the purposes of reviewing and evaluating your application. If you are selected for participation in the Program, you will be required to provide additional information incl. personal data, as described below, which is necessary to ensure your participation in the Program, organize and conduct the related short-term training in the USA, secure your residence in the US and provide you with accommodation during the training, as well as for possible further analysis and evaluation of the results of the Program and its publicity.

Our key partner for the LEAP Program will be Babson College – a premier American educational institution in Boston, MA, USA, which will conduct and host the Program in the US by determining and implementing its core learning modules. For the purposes of Program implementation and its funding, ABF and Babson College need to exchange data and information about applicants and selected participants in the Program. This exchange is also necessary to provide you with the opportunity to apply and participate in the LEAP Program and to ensure to the maximum extent your interest and benefits of the training. In addition, your personal data may also be processed for the purposes of protecting your or another person’s vital interests during your participation in the Program, as well as for the purposes of the legitimate interests of the Foundation and the College in conducting the Program and enable you to participate in it which are not overridden by your fundamental rights and freedoms. ABF and Babson College will jointly control the processing of your application related data for the purposes of the selection procedure according to detailed written commitments. The personal data related to your participation in the leadership training in the USA will be handled by Babson College according to the Privacy Policy available at www.babson.edu/privacy-policy/. The transfer of your data to the USA is subject to the Standard Contractual Clauses for international transfers, as adopted and last modified by the European Commission, and signed by the parties.

This year the Foundation will be supported by its longstanding partner – the Association of Bulgarian Leaders and Entrepreneurs (ABLE) which will be responsible for the overall administration of this year’s edition of the LEAP program. ABLE will carry out all activities of coordination, communication, organization and implementation of each stage of the Program, including the activities of collecting and processing personal data of applicants and finalists on behalf of ABF, in accordance with written commitments, signed data processing agreement and the applicable data protection legislation.

During the application process you provide us with certain personal data by filling in the fields on the application page and completing and submitting the application form. We need this information to evaluate whether you meet the criteria for participation in the Program and make an adequate and fair assessment of your application as well as to enable you to participate in the different stages of the selection process as outlined on the landing page.

Since an equal number of participants from the public, private and non-government sectors will be selected to participate in this year’s edition of the Program, your submitted application will be reviewed and assessed by a selection committee comprised of team members of the America for Bulgaria Foundation (ABF), the Association of Bulgarian Leaders and Entrepreneurs (ABLE), the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law (BCNL), and the Institute for Market Economics (IME). Your application will be evaluated according to predefined selection criteria as defined in the description of the Program available on the landing page. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to an individual online video interview with the members of the selection committee through a reliable and secure video conference connection (e.g. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet). In this case, your personal data (name, email, image, voice) collected during the interview will be processed by the selection committee only for the purpose of evaluating your performance in the selection process.

Applicants who successfully pass the video interviews will be shortlisted and invited to participate in a two-hour virtual training module. The virtual module will be hosted and organized by Babson College through WebEx, a secure web and video conference connection, where you will be required to enter your first name, last name and email address to join the virtual module. To secure your participation in the virtual module, ABF will provide your names, email address, position/occupation, organization/employer, industry/sector to Babson. For the purposes of your active participation in the virtual module, your camera, microphone and chat need to be enabled during the virtual module. Please note that personal information such as your first name, last name, email address, physical image will be visible and your voice will be audible during the module and may be recorded by Babson, which will be further communicated to you by Babson. ABF and Babson will process this data solely for the purpose of evaluating your performance in the selection process and they will not be disclosed or passed on to third parties.

To ensure transparency and good faith of the selection process, ABF will announce the results and will publish the names of the finalists selected for participation in the Program on the dedicated landing page, ABF’s website, monthly newsletter, as well as on its profiles in social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. The Foundation will also use the email address you provided in the application form to inform you of the result of the evaluation of your application.

Participation in LEAP Program

All selected participants for the US Program will attend a pre-departure orientation weekend organized by the Foundation and will have individual video interview with Babson College to define the level of the participants’ group and customize the content of the training. For this purpose, ABF will provide Babson with a brief introduction (biography) of each participant, a photo provided by you, as well as the application forms of the final participants including the personal information contained therein.

To the extent that you are among the finalists selected to participate in the Program and travel to the USA, before departure, you will be required to provide additional information to ABF such as your passport information, [details required in order to complete any visa/immigration requirements necessary for the air travel to and entry in the USA] and passport photo. Such personal data will be submitted to:

  • selected travel agency for the purposes of arranging and purchasing the airline tickets;
  • selected insurance company for the purposes of arranging an emergency health insurance;
  • Babson College for the purposes of organizing your residence, accommodation and logistics in the USA.

Please, note that you may also be required to provide personal data relating to you, directly to Babson for the purposes of securing your transportation in USA, providing accommodation, carrying out organized cultural immersion activities, and conducting the training. Babson is committed to arranging your participation in the training and your stay in the USA and may provide this data to third parties, including partners, service providers and competent authorities, for the purposes of authorizing and organizing your stay in the USA. The personal data related to your participation in the leadership training in the USA will be handled by Babson according to the Privacy Policy available at www.babson.edu/privacy-policy/.

As of the date of this Privacy Notice, the USA immigration authorities do not require international visitors to certify their Covid-19 vaccination status or other infection disease. If the applicable statutory requirements for entry and stay in the USA change, you may be required to certify your Covid-19 vaccination status or other infection disease. The Foundation will not collect or otherwise process such information about you in connection with your participation in the Program. It could only be required by the competent US authorities as a condition for entering and residing in the country.

Return from the USA

For the purposes of promoting the Program, the Foundation may create photos and/or video materials with your image related to and illustrating your participation in LEAP. Your personal data (names, job title, organization, images, etc.) as well as the information shared by you in connection with your participation in the Program may be disclosed, incl. through audiovisual means (e.g. photos, videos) on the website of the Foundation (www.us4bg.org), the LEAP program landing page, its profiles on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, on the YouTube and Vimeo platforms, to be published in the electronic newsletter of the Foundation as well as be shared with our partner (ABLE),  for the purpose of illustrating the Program and giving publicity thereto. In addition, participants might be invited to complete a survey or questionnaire providing information about their experience and impressions during the Program, thereby ensuring to get the most out of the training and that it is delivered in a manner that reflects best practice in similar type of exchange programs. The information in the survey may be used to evaluate and prepare a statistical analysis of the results of the Program. Your impressions, insights and experiences in connection with and as a result of your participation in the LEAP program, which you decide to share with us, may be published in the communication channels mentioned above in order to promote the Program.

Your personal data will be stored by ABF pursuant to our retention policies which authorize retention for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or as required by law, whichever is longer. The appropriate retention periods for the different type of personal data are determined by ABF considering the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the data, as well as the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your data, the purposes for which we process your data as well as the applicable regulatory and legal requirements. For more information on the retention periods of the various categories of data, please refer to the contact details below.

Your rights as a data subject

Right to be informed

 

You have the right to receive information about what personal data of yours is being processed by the ABF and this right is guaranteed through this Policy. We strive to be transparent in the processing of your personal data.  

Right of access

 

You have the right to access your personal data at any time. Please contact us if you wish to access the personal data we process and store about you.

Right of rectification

 

If the information we store about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to rectify or complete it. Please, note that you are expected to provide accurate, complete, and true information in order to apply for and participate in the Program.

Right of data erasure

 

You are entitled to request the erasure of your personal data that you have provided to us and/or we have created for you within the Program, for example if the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed.

Right to restriction of processing

 

You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain cases. This means that you allow us to store your personal data, but not to use it. If your request is justified, we will store as much data as is necessary to meet your request in the future.

Right of data portability

 

We will allow you to obtain and reuse your personal data in a safe and secure manner without affecting the usability of the data. This right only applies to personal data that you have provided to us and that we store with your consent or for the purposes of implementing a contract between us.

Right to object

 

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data if you believe your fundamental rights and freedoms are overridden by our legitimate interests.

Right of consent withdrawal

 

If you have provided your consent to use your data for specific purposes (for example when subscribing to our newsletter), but later change your mind, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. For this purpose, please follow the instructions contained in the message sent. Please note that the withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of the processing of your personal data based on the consent given before the withdrawal.

Right to lodge a complaint to supervisory authority

 

If you consider that we have not responded timely and/or adequately to your requests or that we have violated personal data protection legislation, you can file a complaint with the Personal Data Protection Commission. You can find contact information at the following email address:  https://www.cpdp.bg/en/index.php?p=pages&aid=5.

To exercise your rights, you may submit a request to the following email address: [email protected].   

This Privacy Policy enters into force from the date indicated above and will be valid until the adoption of any changes in the future. We reserve the right to update and change the Policy as necessary, so please, refer to the landing page for any updates of the Policy. If we consider the changes to the Policy essential, we will notify you of these changes in an appropriate manner.

If you have any questions related to this Policy or you would like to receive additional information about the way we handle your personal information within the Program, please email us at: [email protected].