So, once again, I'm going on a crazy adventure, but this time it's not to the Middle East, Africa, or South America; I'm going to Europe! I've been to Europe a few times before, the most recent and extensive trip I took was after senior year of high school. Three friends and I backpacked through Europe, armed with strict budgets, a few articles of clothing, and an scheduled itinerary complete with hostels, hotels, and train schedules. This trip was, to date, one of my favorite experiences of my life. We started in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and continued on to Paris in France, San Sebastian in Spain, Zurich in Switzerland, Munich, Germany, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre, and Rome in Italy, and finally ended in London in the United Kingdom. It was an amazing experience that I'll never forget.
For those of you who haven't heard yet, I'm going back, but this time to Prague, Czech Republic. In my four years at Fordham, I've become very involved in many clubs, but most notably AIESEC. I was introduced to AIESEC my sophomore year. It is the worlds largest student run organization, that works to promote international awareness through cultural exchanges, mostly in the form of internships. AIESEC is present in over 107 countries, and over 1,100 universities. I started AIESEC at Fordham (with the help of my friend Patricia). Now that I'm graduating and my full time job doesn't start until October, I've decided to go on an AIESEC internship to keep me occupied this summer. I figured I have nothing to lose, right?
AIESEC has many times of internships on the database, some are paid positions to teach English, work for a large international corporation or for a small local business. Some are unpaid developmental internships working with NGOs and non-profits helping with local domestic issues in the given country. But for me, I wanted something not business (I'm going to be working for a long time in the financial industry, I don't need to start early!) but also not dealing with little kids (as some English teaching positions are). I finally found the My Better Myself program, or MBM for short.
My Better Myself is an English program that helps high school students learn soft skills such as managing groups, leading teams, presenting, communicating, and working in groups. The program consists of ten international leaders who help facilitate the two camps. Each camp is two weeks long with 40 high school students in each camp. I'm one of the international leaders. The others are from Portugal (Lisbon), Brazil (Salvador), India (living in Singapore), Taiwan (living in USA), China (Hangzhou--I visited there remember?), Kazakhstan (Almaty), and Turkey (Izmir).
So here are the details, I'm going to be working for the next few weeks to further develop this program. MBM hasn't been established in the Czech Republic, and this is the inagural year for the summer camps. In order to make this the best it can be, I've been selected as an Agenda Manager with a facilitator from Kazakhstan. I'm going to have to get out to Prague a little early, so I'm leaving June 7th, although the facilitator/leader training doesn't begin until June 14th. Here's the tentative schedule:
- June 14-25: Training/preparation for the camp.
- June 28: Depart for camp (2 hours outside of Prague)
- July 1-13: First two week camp
- July 19-31: Second two week camp
I'm going to Europe!
