New Entrepreneur (NE):
Name & surname: Natalia Verdugo
Country: Spain
Age: 30
Sector of activity: Education
Did you already start your business? No
What is your future business? Educative services with focus on interculturality and environmental education
Host Entrepreneur (HE):
Name & surname: Morgane Masterman
Country: Portugal
Sector of activity: Education
Experience in running a business (in years): 5
Name of business/website: Faísca Voadora
What is your business? Educative association with focus on interculturality, human rights, active learning.
Period of exchange: 01/05/2023 – 31/08/2023 & 01/10/23 – 30/11/2023
Duration of exchange: 6 months
When I started thinking about starting my own association in order to have a bigger autonomy on my work, I had so many doubts. Regarding my pedagogical experience, I had no idea of the management of projects on a big scale – logistics, budgets, partnership building… That made me really afraid. Discovering the EYE program, I found a solution! A way to learn by doing, on a safe frame, that afterwards I could adapt to my own reality.
Since the beginning, I was involved as a member of the staff, trying to build my role inside of it. There’s a division of task inside the association, regarding the practical issues (accounting, social media, logistics) and also the fields of action (local and international) that afterwards come together in the regular meetings in order to discuss together and support each other.
I was involved in a lot of activities of the association, some of them already known to me (animation of projects, hosting groups) but other ones completely new (taking care of the logistics, interacting directly with partners, being interviewed in local radio about the association…). Also, the tasks that were more delicate to do without experience, such as the general accounting, were explained to me when asked in order to understand the bigger picture.
Since the beginning we discussed my own learning goals, and we followed up regularly.
I gained a lot of practical experience, such as long-term planning, budget management, partnership building, logistical management of projects… but also a lot about teamwork, communication, and about pedagogy and non-formal education. For the hosting association, they could afford to host more groups, and we also could have an exchange on pedagogical practices and points of view according to my experience. Through the stay abroad, I also connected with future partners for new projects.
Of course, there were challenges. Stress management on moments of high activity levels and how to deal with frustration were the hardest ones, and I feel that I finish the stay with a big learning outcome that I can apply to future jobs.
I plan to stay in contact with Faísca Voadora, in order to work together as colleagues or partners.
I fully recommend the program to other people that, like me, want to develop their own ideas but don’t dare because of the lack of experience or resources. It is great to have this possibility to learn from the experience from other people that are willing to share and exchange.
Thanks!