Stories

Volunteering to inspire tomorrow's entrepreneurs

I first heard of the Social Innovation Relay from our communication department. They presented the purpose of the events and stimulated participation very well. I immediately thought: “I would like to try to work with, guide and lead young people.”

To me, it is important that business and educational organizations work closely together. When they cooperate they can help young people to become functioning and successful entrepreneurs. Also, programs like SIR are important for the further development of young people. I wish I had the opportunity to attend events and programs with a similar focus when I was young. My professional life would have developed faster and easier. 

When volunteering, I really enjoyed how these students thought about certain problems and sometimes I was surprised by their questions. They had no limits in their thinking. This was very inspiring for me. I was amazed that they were not troubled by the challenge and that they immediately started working on the project. The groups I worked with only needed a little help from me.

From volunteering at the SIR, I found out that I can mentor a group of people to a successful outcome. One of my groups went to attain second place. I could see them enjoy their success and this gave me a very good feeling. The final event itself was well organized, all my expectations were met.

I really recommend volunteering in SIR, it is a great experience to see and work with the students. They have a huge potential for the labor market and will maybe rival us in a few years’ time, but they will be valuable rivals. It is worth it to lose a working day for SIR. Even if we are all busy and later have to catch-up that “lost day”, it is all compensated by the energy of the students

Written by Roman Frno, an NN business volunteer from Slovakia.