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Elisa & Ibrahim

By Manuel Geier 20. Oktober 2017

Elisa

Hi, my name is Elisa and I am from Deutschlandsberg. I am 21 years old and I study Sustainable Food Management at the FH Joanneum in Graz. In my free time I enjoy organizing and taking part in Erasmus plus projects, doings sports like mountain biking, travelling and spending time with my friends and family. I also love being in the nature, cooking and Spanish and Italian language.

What do I like about youth projects?
My first project was the European Voluntary Service in Santiago de Compostela. It was an amazing year and the start of my “Erasmus life”. Taking part in these kind of projects gives me a lot of new perspectives of life, makes me meet amazing people, allows me to travel all over Europe and encourages me to develop myself. Organizing Youth Projects gives me the opportunity to share all that with young people and to give back what I receive.

What have I experienced by taking part in Youth Projects?
I experienced how diverse Europe is and how many things we have in common. I experienced that stepping out of my comfort zone can lead to great results and is definitely worth it. I experienced that there are a lot of people who follow their dreams and work everyday on their goals they want to reach – and that I can do that as well. I experienced that strangers become friends in a couple of days and spend an amazing time learning together.

Why am I part of wEUnite and who told me about it ?
This summer I applied for a project in which wEUnite was the Austrian partner. So I met Nina for a chat over a cup of coffee. We immediately grew sympathy for each other and were all sure that our collaboration would turn out to be successful. I hope to collaborate with wEUnite in a lot of projects in the future.

Ibrahim

Ahoi ! My name is Ibrahim. I`m 23 and I live and study in the beautiful, chill city of Klagenfurt. I`m a psychology student who likes to read in empty libraries, working out when the gym is not so crowded and to sleep when it’s snowing cats and dogs outside. For the time being, getting my bachelor and other self-improvement activities are the center of my attention.

What do I like about youth Projects?
I love the diversity of people and their Ideas and World-views. People and their stories are very interesting for me as there`s always an idea, a though or a perspective that’s new to me. I also love how relatively fast one can make life-long friendships during projects. I met amazing people and I know that there is still new and interesting people for me to meet.

What have I experienced by taking part in youth projects?
Its very hard to express what I experienced in youth projects. Shortly said, I`ve experienced self-development, meeting great people and learning from them.

Why am I part of wEUnite and who told me about it?
My amazing friend Tini introduced me to a wEUnite project that tackled a very interesting topic, which was youth leadership. The Project`s Title was “Desire to inspire” and it was the first project that I took part on with wEUnite and that proved to be a very good decision.

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Matthias & Magdalena

By Manuel Geier 10. Juli 2017
Hey. My name is Matthias and I’ve spent most of my 27 years of age studying computer science and mathematics. At the moment I work as a Data Scientist at Catalysts and I will at some later point go back to university to pursue a PhD. I love playing, watching and discussing football, I adore many old French movies and more recently I have started to very much enjoy film photography. I also do and care about many other things.


What do I like about youth projects?
They represent an endless source of opportunity. Opportunities to learn new things you didn’t know you want to learn. Opportunities to meet open people from all over the world. Opportunities to travel to new places that you had never even considered.


What have I experienced by taking part in YPs?
I’ve met many fantastic people from all over the world. All of them kind, open minded and interesting in their very own way. I learned many things about myself. For some of them I am unsure if I would have been able to learn them by myself.

Why am I part of wEUnite and who told me about it?
By pure chance I met Manuel G. one evening. Almost immediately he invited me to a project that was about to start in a few weeks from then. I was in a spontaneous mood and so I agreed without understanding what any of this was about. It turned out great, the lesson here is to always trust strangers.

Hello lovely People! I’m Magdalena, I’m currently 19 years old & live in Vienna! I study social work & besides that I would call myself a political activist. What I enjoy in my free time? Good discussions, food, friends & sports ( Cross fit & Yoga).

What do I like about Youth Projects?
First the most obvious part: getting to know new People, new countries, new languages, new traditions.. and so on. However, apart from that: getting to know myself better, especially in challenging situations.

What have I experienced by taking part in Youth Projects?
Ups & downs, tears & laughters, foreigners becoming friends.

Why am I part of wEUnite and who told me about it?
Establish connections, gain experience, create & be part of a beautiful movement. And I got to know about it from a friend.

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#MusicMakesFeelings – our follow-up

By Manuel Geier 26. März 2017
After the youth exchange „Music Makes Feelings“ in Rijeka/Croatia (read about this project here) we were supposed to come up with some kind of follow-up, to spread the things we have learned and experienced in the project. 

As the title already suggests, this project was about music connected to feelings. This is why we decided to use social networks to spread music and share which feelings certain songs bring up. What we did was the following: we started a chain to post a favorite song and to share why this specific song is important to you. Some people have connected their songs to their first love, others to a special experience or memory, and some chose a song that makes them happy and cheerful. In any case, music makes all kind of different feelings – and this is what we wanted to show and spread.

We started our chain with the Austrian team and nominated further people to continue the trend. As a sign for our follow-up we used the hashtag #musicmakesfeelings 



As usual with such kind of online activities, not everyone feels motivated to continue this trend and share their songs and feelings, even if they were nominated to do so. But this is something we have learned from it 🙂 

It was a good experience for us to find an idea and try to make it work – we really hope that you listened to some of the shared songs and got positive vibes out of it!

Continue having good feelings with music and spread them amongst your friends 🙂

And here is the official project video in case you are curious what we did there and how we made music and feelings in Croatia MusicMakesFeelings-Video

Yours,
Manuel G., Nina, Tini, Marion, Pato, Manuel E.

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Music makes feelings – Rijeka

By Nina Bianca Dohr 17. März 2017
From 3rduntil 9th of March wEUnite had the pleasure to take part in the second part of the Youth Exchange “I feel good” which was called “Music Makes Feelings” organized by Syncro Synergy Croatia. As the title already says, the participants explored their experiences and feelings about all that has to do with music while being in the beautiful city of Rijeka. Pato, Tini, two Manuels, Marion and Nina started their journey to Croatia with lots of motivation and enthusiasm. And they came back happy and with many new songs stuck in their head! 

The first day started with great teambuilding activities in the sun. After finding all the seven dragon balls the participants could make a wish. They chose Karaoke, and magically, their wish was granted later that week!
Apart from nightly jam sessions and cool activities in the hostel, the participants got the chance go to the city as a group. Half of them visited RiRock, an organisation that helps to connect youngsters with music through music lessons and providing them with places where they can practise, and the other half Radio Rijeka. Both trips were really interesting and everyone was happy sharing their impressions later in the big group.
Another great experience was the flashmob that took place in the centre of Rijeka. It started with everyone standing frozen on a spot and then being “defrosted” by the tunes of “Don’t Worry Be Happy” played on the clarinet. The joyful atmosphere was enhanced by the sunny weather, and later everyone gathered for a picture.
During “I feel good” the participants did not only learn about music and feelings, but also about different countries and cultures, numerous languages, their personal strengths and weaknesses (enhanced by acting out all Youthpass key competences during the city rally in Rijeka), the idea behind those Erasmus+ projects, and most importantly: they made friends. Spending a whole week with 30 people from officially 5 (but really more) different nations makes you see the world from different angles and understand opinions that differ from yours. You learn so much about others but also about yourself and your country as you talk about all the similarities and differences in your free time. (Which was always a lot of fun, as you can see on the pictures below).

Now each member of the Austrian team will share their thoughts on the Youth Exchange:

Nina:

Music makes feelings – what a beautiful title for an amazing youth exchange. Being in Rijeka again with many people I had the pleasure to meet before and also lots of new faces was simply great! Never have I seen a group of strangers grew together to such a strong team this fast. Having been part of it makes me feel proud. This experience and all the memories will stay with me for a very long time 🙂

Tini:

It’s hard to describe this week in just a few sentences. I learned a lot about myself and experienced what it is like to be dragged out of my comfort zone right into the stress zone. But life starts where the comfort zone ends. I’m very thankful that I got the opportunity to improve myself and got inspired to try new things that used to scare me. This week in Croatia made me a better person 🙂

Marion:

This was only my second Youth Exchange, but I could feel from the beginning that we all would have a great time together. Our group dynamic was just so purely friendly and full of positive energy. When thinking about it now, I feel really grateful to have been part of it and to have shared happy and sad feelings with such wonderful people.

Pato:

This YE was something very special. I think it was one of the greatest experiences that I could have ever had. Creating music out of nothing with people who are unique in every different way you can imagine. Starting from the first day on we all shared a deep connection together. It was being open-hearted and open-minded. In fact, it didn’t take us a day to learn all those names by heart just because we were so different. Some played an instrument, some didn’t. Some had their funny dance workshops some had their own private time with a companion at the seaside. And everybody was still part of this amazing group. We were one big amount of kindness and amazingness.

Manuel E.:

Never have I ever … felt so emotional on a project. This Youth Exchange was not only interesting or just a good idea. It was timeless and sometimes breathtaking. Now I know that music truly makes feelings. 

Manuel G.:

After this project I really believe that “Music Makes Feelings”. Within this awesome week with so many great and lovely people, I learned and experienced a lot that helped me to grow once more. I feel so much better, so much more motivated and so much more positive than ever before. I am still overwhelmed by all these wonderful memories in my head. A big thanks and a lot of hugs to every single one of you! You made this project very special to me!

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Local events – our follow-ups!

By Nina Bianca Dohr 1. Dezember 2016
As a part of the Youth Exchange “I feel good” in Rijeka, Croatia, each country team was supposed to pass the on the spirit of sports & a healthy lifestyle to their friends, families, neighbours, colleagues and as many other people in their daily surroundings as possible. As our team is spread over Austria, we had two follow-up events, on the 19th and 26th November, one in Graz and another one in Vienna.

#1 Graz

During our Youth Exchange in Rijeka we had the possibility to participate in a really cool treasure hunt that enabled us to explore the city and have fun together in a group. Nina, Konrad, and me (Marion) then thought that it would be great to implement a similar event in Graz for our follow-up.

Said and done! We decided it would be best to have 20 tasks for the participants to fulfil within three hours. The tasks were a mixture of fun-facts such as “Which international popstar went to school in Graz?” (Conchita Wurst, by the way) , exercise “How many steps lead up to Schlossberg?” (260) and specific Graz knowledge like “Find the friendly alien” (nickname of Kunsthaus museum). I think we had as much fun thinking about them as the participants did completing them.



We then gathered on Saturday 19th of November at the main square to meet the contestants and let them embark on a self-guided exploration around Graz.

Because it was also a delight for us and because we got so unlucky with the weather the first time, we then decided to do a treasure hunt 2.0 the following weekend. It was a great success not only because the weather was a lot nicer, but also because even more people showed up and wanted to explore the city. And, of course, because there was chocolate as a prize.

Organising an event like this and especially thinking about tasks for participants let us get to know our own city better. We worked as a team and everyone contributed something and had good ideas, so we learned new interesting things about Graz ourselves.


#2 Vienna

The team in Vienna (Alex, Bartek, Manuel) organized a Football Match in the Westside Soccer Arena, on 26th October 2016 at 10:30 am, for their friends and friends of friends to spend some good and active time together. There have been fourteen people who played football in two teams for 1.5 hours. Some of the participants were professional players, whereas others were just amateurs (and sometimes even afraid of the ball); so we had a huge variety of players which was no problem at all, but rather beneficial as we could learn a lot from each other. The primary goal was not to win, it was to be active, have fun and enjoy time with people that share the passion for football. And those goals were definitely achieved!

See them in action:


Thank you very much for having all of you as participants and stay active & healthy! 🙂

Yours, Marion and Manuel