4. Following my heart: When giving is more than receiving

My best friend studied Business Administration; he got a specialization in Economics; and like him most of my closer friends. During those years in the university I’ve been involved in several conversations about business, profit, investments, etc, jumping from micro to macroeconomics concepts, and even planning our own consulting company. However my mind was in the other side of the coin.

Started volunteering five years ago, and by then of course I was the “black sheep” of my group of friends, having out of the box opinions about working without salary or spending my time, for them, in “useless things”. During those years their opinions did not change and neither mine, in fact I can say those friends gave me the strength to continue and for that I’m very grateful to them.

Why my opinion didn’t change? — Is a question that was present in my friend’s minds. Young students are energetic, looking for a passion to follow, and mostly they want to change the world. And that is what keeps me going. Doing volunteering I found the opportunity to do something I believed, and I still do, that can create an impact which can not only change my life, but also can provide positive change in others. And this is what made the difference.

Years have passed and I found my self in another country, leaving, learning and enjoying in a different culture, far different than mine; but at this point those two year’s investment of my life in Macedonia brought me the best and most exciting experience I had until now. However two years seem to be too short for making bigger changes, there is still too much to do in this country and too much opportunity that are not been used properly, specially now and in the coming years under the context of the EU integration.

Is needed to find young volunteers to continue the work done in Macedonia, and to spread the impact that can be done, for that objective we need to attract and retain the right people into our organizations. From my specific experience in the past years working with university and high school students I can mention the following learning points.

- The presence of the international young specialists brings a whole new dimension to the projects. The teams are formed by young people from different nationalities and allow learning from other countries’ experiences and initiatives around the topic we are interested to approach.

- Providing the opportunity to put the theory into practice brings the motivation to young individuals to prove themselves what they have learned and what is left to learn, which also provides the motivation to continue supporting as volunteers for the future.

- Programs for young people should be also be run and by young people. The involvement of young individuals provides the trust and energy to the project to be executed from the beginning to the end, which is reflected by the learning of the team members and results of the project.

Over everything we have to be aware that volunteers are the most powerful energy that can create meaningful impact in the society. With a clear vision and common understanding of what we want to create, support or change, they will be able to do it. I can openly share this because I started as volunteer in AIESEC and it changed my life bringing me the most beautiful experience I've ever had.

Thank you AIESEC.