A Wild Year

A Wild Year

Rebecca from the United Kingdom volunteered at “European Wilderness Society” in Tamsweg, Austria, from May 2018 to May 2019, where she volunteered in a nature conservation organisation, to save Europe's last remaining wild places. Specifically she supported events, reporting, and graphical design work.

European Solidarity Corps has changed my life for the better. The last 12 months, I have been volunteering for a small nature conservation organisation in the Austrian mountains, called the ‘European Wilderness Society’. The experience has been wild, challenging, and oh-so-rewarding, as I navigated myself through both personal and professional adventures.

Let me take you back to early 2018, when I saw an advertisement on the European Youth Portal for a ‘wild volunteer’. I was intrigued. I had been stuck for months working in temp admin, feeling lost and disappointed. I had a degree in biodiversity and conservation, but I was struggling to find an organisation who would take a leap of faith on an inexperienced graduate. I needed experience to be able to get experience. Even though I was so enthusiastic about conservation, sometimes I would wake up in the morning and wonder if I would ever escape administrative jobs. My heart was yearning for the opportunity to put my knowledge into practice. I was ready to go from reading about how to make a difference, to actually making a difference.

Enter European Solidarity Corps. They had many opportunities for volunteering – for people just like me, who were young, enthusiastic, and wanting to do something valuable with their time. I sent off an application, and nervously waited for a reply. After a telephone interview, I was over the moon to be offered the chance to work in nature conservation. And in the Austrian mountains! I watched ‘The Sound of Music’ to celebrate.

Moving far from home was my first challenge. Everything moved very quickly, and I remember my first night in Austria, standing in my room in a Pension with my suitcase, and feeling suddenly very lonely. It hit me that I didn’t know any German, I didn’t know what kind of work I’d be doing, and I missed my family. Time moved on, but it took a while for the homesickness to heal – eventually a combination of my team, my work, and the mountains put me back on my feet. I learnt very quickly how to rely on myself and trust in myself. I got to know myself very well, living on my own, and the solitude in the evenings gave me time to ask myself deep questions and reflect on the answers. I was happy to be volunteering, and I liked the person I was becoming.

So on a personal level, I evolved over the 12 month volunteering into a stronger, more critical and confident person. I have become more willing to say yes, and also more willing to say no. However, my head is also full of new knowledge. Volunteering in the office of a nature-based NGO, I was given the opportunity to work in many new and exciting divisions, and I learnt much. Because we were a small close-knit team, I was able to support many different aspects, including project writing, events, marketing, design, and communication. I had never considered myself as graphically creative, but I was given a computer in the office with an Adobe licence, and I spent hours learning how to design reports, flyers, posters, books.. and so on. I even had the opportunity to participate in an art event in Ukraine, which I helped organise. Here I met so many inspiring artists, and it was a pleasure to see their perspectives on the world.

One of the best parts about my volunteering experience, was meeting and working with people of so many different cultures. Even though we all had different backgrounds, we were united with our love for nature, and our care for each other and for our work. I have finished my volunteering period feeling proud and with a strong network, ready to take on the world.