A World Beyond Walls: Bringing my small country to students

Imagine a world without diversity and different cultures. Seems pretty boring right? Well, that’s the life of young students sometimes. They don’t necessarily have the chance to discover new countries, minorities or cultures. This is why I personally love to visit schools here in the area, to share some insights about my lovely home, Hungary. 

Hi, my name is Alexa, and I am a long-term volunteer here at INPRO. My background is in software development, so you can imagine my fear when I was asked to go to schools and give presentations to schoolchildren. I never thought of myself as someone good with kids. I could not have been more wrong.

Throughout my school visits going around in the area, I found that I am in fact more than capable of working with school children. They engaged with me and found my presentation interesting. I was able to not only talk about what everyone else gets told when they want to know about Hungary but also share personal stories and insights. 

I talked about my region, the Bakony Hills; about my home city, Veszprém, and shared inside information about my nation. I was able to talk about school traditions, the signature Balaton summer, and so much more. During the Global Village short term project in fall of 2024 I also had the opportunity to work together with countless individuals from different nations. Together, we held many educational events in multiple different schools for students.

My interactions with the students have been quite diverse. I had a lovely little girl tell me how beautiful she thinks I am and had multiple students tell me that Hungary is their favourite country to go to for vacation. However, as much as we would like to stay on light and fun topics, due to the curious nature of young people, I also found myself in more difficult conversations such as having to discuss the political situation of my country. 

I found being able to visit schools and work with school children an incredibly rewarding and lovely experience, and I am more than happy to continue with them. 

My advice to anyone who is scared of something is just to try! You might discover something that you will love doing. : ) 

Üdvözlettel:

Alexa from Hungary