Kristina Koneva
Kristina Koneva
Erasmus+ Homo Universalis was by far one of the best student exchange projects that I have participated in. This project was formed by 5 high schools from 4 different countries: Macedonia, Italy, Spain and Romania. The languages of communication during this project were English and French and the main topic was the life and works of Leonardo Da Vinci whose humanistic ideas can be found in the basis of Erasmus and the European Union.
In October 2018, I hosted an Italian student for a week during the first project meet-up held by my high school “Orce Nikolov” in Skopje. During this week, we participated in numerous workshops organized in our high school, visited several museums in Skopje, went on a field trip to Ohrid, etc. As hosts, my classmates and I, had the opportunity to showcase our culture and lifestyle to the students-guests, so every evening we planned different activities to do together in Skopje and we, of course, organized a big party the day before everybody had to go back to their home country. I met plenty of new people who became my friends and with whom I talk to till this day. It was very interesting listening to everybody speaking in their native language.
In May 2019, I attended the second project meet-up held by Istituto di Istruzione Superiore "F. Alderisio" in Stigliano, Italy. I stayed with an Italian host family for a week and they were extremely kind and welcoming. We did a lot of interesting activities such as: painting on ceramics, making clay objects, making models of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions, etc. We also visited several museums, went on a field trip to Matera, played some football… During the evenings, the hosts made sure we had a great time dancing and singing and they taught us some really fun traditional dances. The food was delicious as expected and the people were lovely. For me, Erasmus was an unforgettable experience and I have so many memories that I will keep with me forever.
In 2017, I participated in the “Première Guerre Mondiale – les jeunes, la paix et la réconciliation” (“World War I – youth, peace and reconciliation”) project which was formed by the partnership of the French bilingual class in my high school “Orce Nikolov” and the high school “Charles Baudelaire” in France. The project meet-up was in Roubaix, France and the language of communication was French. As part of this project, my classmates and I had the opportunity to visit several cities like Brussels, Vienna, Paris, Pisa, Cannes, Nice, etc. in the span of two weeks. It was an amazing travelling experience and my classmates and I had so much fun exploring the cities together.
Another great student exchange project that I have been a part of is the “De Vardar à Nishava” (“From Vardar to Nishava”) project which was a collaboration between the French bilingual class in my high school with the one in the high school “Pirot” in Serbia. Compared to the other student exchange projects, this one didn’t include as much of a culture shock since Serbia is our neighbor, however, this was definitely not a negative thing. My classmates and I had so much in common with the students from Serbia that we related in so many ways which ultimately brought us closer and we enjoyed hanging out together. In October 2016, I attended the project meet-up in Pirot, Serbia and I stayed with a Serbian host family. In March 2018, I hosted a Serbian student during the meet-up in Skopje for the second part of the project.
I completed 60 hours of volunteer work as a Program Support Volunteer at the American Corner Skopje in the 3-month period from October to December in 2019. I assisted in organizing and managing events hosted by the American Corner such as: workshops for children (Discovering STEM - using MakeyMakey and Snap Circuits builder kits in order to broaden children’s knowledge in the STEM field), Yes Alumni Talks, EducationUSA presentations, etc. I helped in the process of reviewing applications of students applying for the Yes Abroad program in the Yes Abroad office. Additionally, I assisted in inserting new members in the database and organizing the resources (books, movies, magazines) in the American Corner library. This volunteering experience really improved my communication and management skills and increased my confidence.
“Изрази се преку медиумите” (“Express yourself through the media”) is a high school competition for a best media product in which I applied two years in a row. It was organized by the high school newspaper “medium.edu.mk”. In 2018, I applied with a photo story addressing some problems in my municipality. In 2019, I applied with a one-minute video addressing the topic of the competition “Сакам да живеам во чиста животна средина” (“I want to live in a clean environment”). Both of my media products ranked in the top 15 best media products of the competition. I enjoy taking photos and making videos, therefore, I loved participating in this competition.
As a follow up from the competition mentioned above, the high school newspaper “medium.edu.mk” in collaboration with the campaign “Не игнорирај! Реагирај!” (“Don’t ignore! Take action!”) organized a eco-journalism summer camp in June 2019. It took place in Strumica and lasted 3 days. First, we had interactive lectures about what eco journalism means in theory and we were given a quick course on photography principles. Then, all of the participants were divided in teams of two and were supposed to use what was previously learned in order to produce a good photo-story by taking photographs in some of the nicest places around Strumica. On the last day, we presented our photo-stories to the other participants and I am extremely satisfied by the photo-story that me and my teammate were able to produce in less than a day. In addition to this camp, when I got back to Skopje, I also had the chance to practice the role of a journalist by interviewing the UK ambassador, politicians and activists at the Queen’s annual birthday celebration organized by the UK Embassy in North Macedonia in June 2019.
