Interesting internship in StepEurope ry

Hello all, my name is Ioanna and I am a Master’s degree student in University of Turku, recently I had the opportunity to complete my internship in StepEurope ry. I have been a volunteer to StepEurope since last spring and worked in the organization for 2,5 months. First week I had to familiarize myself with my upcoming tasks, how the organization works and every new information that someone needs before they start to work somewhere. The next week the focus was put to the upcoming International training we were organizing and to the other events that we had during autumn / winter time.

Highlights of the internship:

  I participated in the Not Just Numbers workshop in Novia where I also shared my experience as a European citizen living in Finland and helped with the overall workshop to progress. My everyday tasks involved arranging meetings, brainstorming events, sending emails and replying regarding our upcoming Erasmus+ training Not Just Numbers that I will discuss further in this post. During the internship I participated in organizing and was part of many events, like Ravintolapäivä in Vimma – where besides working there on the day of the event, I also made a big Greek salad with some help from my colleagues. “Behind the Labels” seminar was an event that was held in the Institution of Migration where people of immigrant background shared some experiences about their life leading to their immigration to Finland, also helped with the event “Media Workshop” at Kirjan talo.

One of the big events and the one that I put a lot of work into since the beginning was the International Not Just Numbers training that was held in Laivahostel Borea, an old boat in the river side of Turku, on December. Not Just Numbers was an international youth worker mobility project aimed at strengthening cooperation and developing capacity of youth organisations in dealing with migration and asylum issues.

The project was a training of trainers, based on non-formal methods and experiential learning. The project aim was to improve the quality of local activities in the fields of migration and asylum awareness conducted by consortium members in their countries. It was an eight-days training that brought 30 youth workers and youth leaders from seven European countries: Finland, UK, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Hungary and Romania. I was in charge of the communicating with the sending organisations, preparing the info guide, and delivering some workshop sessions during the training.

  My overall internship experience was interesting and at times challenging, which means that I learned a lot during the whole time. Working in an International environment can teach a person many things and open someone’s eyes to new ideas and views. I am happy that I could be part of the organization that has as main goal to inspire young people to take a positive step in their lives and play an active role for the creation of a more diverse and tolerant society.

Ioanna