Volunteer in Berlin

My name is Sigurd Vedsted Drejer and I am 21 years old. I worked as a teacher’s assistant at a German school, W-I-R Schule, in Berlin from September 1st 2019 to August 16th 2020 through The European Solidarity Corps.

In the summer of 2019 I graduated high school and I worked at 7/11 during my school years. Furthermore, I spend my free time hanging with friends, playing computer games and running. I wanted to use my gap year for something meaningful and I had no interest in working at 7/11 full time for a whole year just to save up money. I got a message on Lectio about the possibility of volunteering in Europe for free and I went to an info meeting and found it very interesting. What mainly made it interesting was that it was free. I already knew you could travel to countries and pay way too much to help a community. To me it doesn’t make sense to pay to do volunteer work because you offer your help. Besides, I have an interest in EU and its values and you learn a bit of that during your stay. That is why ESC made a lot of sense to me. So many things were awesome during my volunteer year. If I have to mention one thing, it’s to live together and get a whole network of volunteers from all over Europe. People had different jobs in Berlin. Some were assistants or performers at a children’s circus while others ran a church café with a focus on homeless people so there were always interesting stories from people’s work place. I myself lived with three girls from Tanzania, Spain and Turkey and I worked with a girl from Poland. There were often cultural exchange when we were together and I learned a lot about other nations politics and cultures.

You get a whole other view on yourself and Denmark as a country. I learned a lot and I dare to say that I have learned more about myself that year than all three years of high school. I learned German and I made friends from all over Europe. I have learned a lot about other cultures and I have learned how to work with kids with and without disabilities. I have learned a lot about Berlin and Germany. There are so many things that I’ve learned that I can’t mention it all. After I got home from Berlin, I started studying geography at Copenhagen University. It is my dream to return to Berlin to live and work, and I have no idea whether it will be for a year or permanent. I can’t imagine staying in Denmark from now on until I die. My gap year has definitely given me a wish to work in especially an EU-country.

Updated on Luni, 30/10/2023