{"id":2664,"date":"2015-05-12T16:08:09","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T14:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pina.si\/?p=2664"},"modified":"2015-05-26T14:21:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T12:21:09","slug":"how-i-ended-up-as-an-evs-volunteer-in-koper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stara.pina.si\/en\/how-i-ended-up-as-an-evs-volunteer-in-koper\/","title":{"rendered":"HOW I ENDED UP AS AN EVS VOLUNTEER IN KOPER"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tired of the routine of the student\u2019s life, I was eager to travel, work and volunteer abroad \u2013 which is why I decided to take a gap year, and make the best out of it.<\/p>\n

At first, having been a member of the AIESEC international youth leadership and exchange organization, I went for two short volunteering projects (6 weeks each), in Poland and Portugal respectively: it felt as an obvious follow-up of my path in the organization.<\/p>\n

Once back home, I realized that these experiences hadn’t quenched my desire to travel \u2013 on the contrary -, and with still many months to go until the beginning of the new academic year, I decided that I wanted something bigger, longer, more complete, and more \u201cEuropean\u201d.<\/p>\n

I am an idealist, and love the idea of belonging to the European Union: I feel both Italian and European, and I am grateful for the opportunity the EU gave me to study for a semester abroad through the Erasmus programme (Zagreb, Croatia), and in general to travel, work and study without excessive complications in so many States.<\/p>\n

\"20150421_125137\"<\/a>I did some research, and I decided to look for a European Voluntary Service project: a challenge to myself; a chance to learn and hone my skills; a way to contribute to the local development of a fellow EU country and, on a broader scale, to the EU itself \u2013 all of which without having to rely on my family for financial support.<\/p>\n

I started looking for projects in dedicated websites and databases, which is how I eventually ended up on an ad posted by an Italian association from Palermo \u2013 CESIE. They were promoting a handful of EVS opportunities, among which a 6-months project with the Slovenian association PiNA.<\/p>\n

After studying in Trieste and living so close to the border, I was intrigued, and felt compelled to try and apply. That specific EVS was about youth, mobility, project management and education, with a prevalently \u201cEuro-centric\u201d and non-\/in-formal approach: what a great chance!<\/p>\n

\"10370828_10204608640242789_107752562702502310_n\"<\/a>The selection process started and, after sending my CV and Motivation Letter and passing two interviews (with CESIE as Sending Organization and PiNA as Receiving Organization), I was finally selected.
\nFlash-forward to today. After more than one month in Koper, I can say that I am really happy with my choice: the work is interesting and often challenging; I am immersed in a different culture, and had the chance to meet and collaborate with colleagues and other EVS volunteers from all over the continent.<\/p>\n

It is something I strongly recommend to anyone who wants to grow as a person; to enrich his or her CV; to know new people, places and cultures; to strengthen his or her language skills, and have a great life experience!<\/p>\n

The bottom line? Let\u2019s live (and learn, and travel, and experience new things) while we\u2019re young!<\/p>\n

Ludovica, 22 years old, Italy<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few months ago, I was about to graduate from my Undergraduate course in Applied Interlinguistic Communication at the University of Trieste, in Italy: a couple more weeks, and my studies were going to be over, after three intense years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[104,86],"tags":[94,92,61],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stara.pina.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stara.pina.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stara.pina.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stara.pina.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stara.pina.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2664"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/stara.pina.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2823,"href":"http:\/\/stara.pina.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions\/2823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stara.pina.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stara.pina.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stara.pina.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stara.pina.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}