As an Anthropology graduate and current Public Relations student, I'm very passionate about people. I love knowing them, working with/for them, helping with anything I can and just trying to make a difference in the communities I'm part of. I'm a very social person, and I like to talk to anyone about anything and everything — so, this project was right up my alley.
After joining FNT in March as a local volunteer, I had the opportunity to also join this ESC project in order to assist the European Youth Week. This opened the door to much more diverse work, with a lot more to do, but also a lot more fun to be had.
I loved finding out more about how our centre works and being given more responsibilities/things to do in general — I love being busy! I love having tasks and feeling like I'm contributing to the whole ecosystem we have here, even if some days were long and very tiring. It's a very fulfilling job to have and I absolutely loved working with so many different people of all cultures and backgrounds in the environment of our youth centre.
Last fall, when I started my Masters' programme, I had to finally and officially enter the workforce. One unexpected problem I encountered was the fact that I just didn't trust my English enough to gather up the courage to apply to jobs that involved speaking it; despite having gone to a bilingual high school and having multiple certificates, I had never had the chance to use it in day-to-day conversation, for such an extensive period of time. Although it was challenging to have to speak in a foreign language so much, after the month we spent here at FNT I truly feel like I am a better communicator, which is a priceless skill to have when you want a career in the social field. I was very, very excited to meet my international colleagues, as well as all the international participants I had the chance to talk to, and finally get to use my 15 years of learning English for something other than just ordering coffee abroad. 🙂
In short, this was an experience I will cherish forever. It's always been my dream to be able to volunteer and work in such an organisation, especially considering how few places young people nowadays have where they can learn new stuff, develop their skills and simply just spend their time, free of charge. I am grateful for every participant who comes to our centre, as well as for the volunteers, for choosing to partake in our ecosystem and as a result making this a space worthy of acclaim. I advise everyone reading this to give us a try, whether it's volunteering or just as a participant — you won't regret it! 🙂