For this EFILife edition I have one extra article to write … my goodbye!
10 months have just passed as if they were one and it seems like yesterday I was typing my “Welcome to Paola“. I landed in the EFIL office in September 2014 with a scholarship – Master dei Talenti – sponsored by the Italian foundation CRT. Then, feeling hard to leave this dream job, I decided to post pone my return flight until end of June 🙂 I am happy to have had this great opportunity which allowed me to have a better picture of EFIL’s work.
Apart from layouting and publishing this great newsletter I was involved in all main EFIL areas: Partner Development (happy I could still see the birth of Intercultural Exchanges Bulgaria!), Advocacy (as support member both for the online and in-person advocacy training “Exchange Voices!”) and ECTP (European Citizenship Trimester Programme) camp as support member.
The part I found the most inspiring was EFIL ACADEMY: working with Izabela and the preparatory teams for the organisation of the seminar on “Transversal Competences for Global Employment” in Antwerp and the one on Intercultural Learning for host families in Sweden. It’s simply beautiful to see how ideas, people and dynamics develop throughout the process. I definitely want to become a trainer myself and meet all the wonderful people I crossed during EFIL seminars once again!
Since I didn’t have any AFS background before, I started volunteering for AFS Belgium French: by getting to know other volunteers at the volunteers’ weekend at Hostende and by doing my first host family visit. It was just a taste but I’m looking forward to continuing my volunteering back home, in Italy, or wherever I’ll be.
I think that what makes this internship special – apart from the people I was working with (!)- is the fact that at the end of the day you learn how powerful the words active citizenship, intercultural learning, non-formal education are and gain lots of motivation to keep up believing that we can all contribute to a better world.
… But now it’s time to say arrivederci and to tidy up my desk for the next intern! May him/her feel welcome and take out the most from this amazing experience in this city rich of learning opportunities! (p.s remember to put your fish in the EFIL aquarium 
Paola
To keep in touch: c.paolaitaly@gmail.com