Skills Matter 2009: Agnes from Hungary

I am Zöld Ágnes from Hungary and I have spent the last 2 months in Ukraine, Simferopol. Why did I do that? I was there on an international internship with AIESEC, which might be the end of my experience in this NGO. In 2006, I started working in the AIESEC Local Committee of Győr as a student of the local university there. Since then, I have had the opportunity to work with international students, organize events and even test myself as a member of the leadership body in my LC. After these years, I felt a gap without going abroad and make a living on my own.

I chose Simferopol because I wanted to widen my knowledge in the field of training and development. This internship offered this opportunity to me. I held trainings 2 times a week as a part of an international team for university students within the project called Skills Matter. We had several topics such as leadership, time management, goal setting and others. I also had the chance to hold lessons in high schools within a project called World Without Borders. These activities helped me increase my knowledge in the mentioned topics through my exposure to different points of view not only from my teammates, but the participants as well. I got to know different ways of thinking and I think this helped me discover and better understand my own way of thinking.

I didn’t spend my time just working. I was in many beautiful places in Crimea. I visited great cities, like Sevastopol and Yalta. I experienced the beautiful nature near Bachcisaraj and Novij Svet, the history in Evpatoria and Sudak. I even had the chance to go to Donetsk. This way I would like to send a big thank you to all our guides, who helped us a lot. Without them, I couldn’t have known half of what I know now. If I had to mention the biggest temptation about Crimea, it is the people living there. I experienced so much kindness, caring, understanding, helpfulness and trust as I have never expected before I got there. This refers to the local committee in Simferopol and all the people I have met through other channels.

Of course, there are difficulties during the time spent abroad. I can tell that not knowing the language is almost the smallest difficulty. I could write about the differences in habits, infrastructure, weather and communication with locals and team mates. (As an example, it was new not to be able to drink tap water.) These are all lessons to be listened and learnt from.

Eventually, I got more than a challenge. I knew that I will have help, but I made new friends. I knew that I will work with trainees from other countries and now I have friends from Australia, Canada, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Egypt and from Turkey. I thought that I would get to know the country and the culture, but it was only enough to break the stereotypes I had brought with me. I need to mention that Ukraine tempts me to return as I feel I got to know only a small part of what I could.

I would like to finish by wishing all of you to find and live with the opportunities that are in front of you, because you might gain much more than you originally expect from yourself.

Zöld Ágnes, Hungary
intern in AIESEC Simferopol
project Skills Matter'09