Poles are well-known for their exceptional hospitality. And here's another proof!
This year's recruitment for the Buddy project has just ended with a record number of volunteers. The recruitment's slogan was “Are you chatty? Get a Buddy!".
We, the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), promoted the action among our friends, on social media and also via student mailing. The number of applications is an absolute record! 290 Poznań students are ready to help hosting the incoming people from abroad.
What is the Buddy project?
The Buddy project - previously known as Mentor - is one of the ESN's international projects. One of our values is "students helping students". We know how hard it can be to move across the country and start studying in a foreign city and that it is even harder when it means moving to another country or continent. This is the reason that every semester we're looking for people willing to help foreign students.
Training and support
We organise a webinar dedicated for Buddies in which participation is mandatory for new Buddies who have been qualified for the first time. We also have a Facebook group which is a medium of communication between Buddies and ESNers - a place created for asking questions and asking for help.
What do Buddies do?
Pick incoming students from the airport or the train station, help to check in a dormitory, help with contacting International Office and Faculty Exchange Coordinators, help in buying commutation tickets, take a walk around the city and do their best to help their mentee to accommodate in a new environment.
We proudly present... this year's statistics!
ESN UAM Poznań Association has 66 active members and during the upcoming semester we're going to take care of about 470 foreign students (99% coming to study at AMU) - 330 of them from Erasmus+ exchange.
We have recruited 290 Buddies and 95% of them are AMU students. Last year there were 180 volunteers, so we are growing stronger!
Among AMU Buddies there are 95 people from the Faculty of Modern Languages and Literatures, 30 people from the Faculty of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences and 27 people from the Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology and the rest come from other AMU Faculties.
Polish Buddies (Mentors) are paired with foreign students from over 40 countries.
People involved
People especially involved in this successful edition of recruitment are: Filip Franowski, Alicja Jeziorska, Marta Komisarczyk, Magda Antoniewska, Marta Winkler and Karolina Jankowska. Thank you!
If you're reading this article and are in need of help (or know someone who does so), remember that you can reach us via email:
buddy.uam.poznan@esn.pl - questions regarding Buddy project,
president.uam.poznan@esn.pl and esn@amu.edu.pl - other questions.
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