In a dynamic collaboration aimed at fostering cross-cultural understanding and entrepreneurial skills, a youth exchange event between Poland and Ukraine recently concluded with resounding success. Lasting from September 18th to September 24th, our event was an inspiring experience for both us and our participants, who took part in week-long workshops focused on deepening their entrepreneurial knowledge, developing soft skills, as well as fostering cultural and interpersonal connections.
During the workshops, our guests had the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge regarding the most important entrepreneurial issues that will be very useful for them in the future on their business paths. For these seven days, hosts shared their insights, explaining complex business topics using both real-life examples and simple analogies. Each chapter concluded with a set of engaging exercises, which not only allowed our guests to reinforce newly gained knowledge but also provided a great opportunity for bonding with their new friends.
One of the activities we prepared for the participants was the Intercultural Evening – a time dedicated to getting to know our cultures, exchanging experiences, sharing our favorite foods, showing off traditional clothing, as well as singing national songs and having fun together. During the evening, our guests also took part in quizzes with exciting prizes, allowing us to gain even more knowledge about both Ukraine and Poland.
To give our participants an even better understanding of discussed issues, we conducted two meetings with local entrepreneurs – a conversation with Mrs. Justyna Samolej, CEO of the Fundacja Nowy Staw, the organization taking care of Dom Nasutów, a beautiful and inspiring place where our event took place. Mrs. Samolej introduced us all to the engaging history of her business, the challenges she faced on this path, as well as shared tips for becoming successful entrepreneurs ourselves. The second meeting took place during our trip to Lublin, where we were able to gain valuable insights regarding managing an art institute from our friends managing Centrum Spotkania Kultur. Besides that, we had a great opportunity to discover the beauty of the Old Town of Lublin, taste local cuisine, and relax before the next parts of our trip.
The culmination of our work was creating business plans and videos promoting the idea of entrepreneurship by our participants. Even though these tasks were complex and challenging, each and every one of the participants did amazing work, as all the results were truly inspiring, creative, valuable, and of high quality.
On Saturday evening, we also conducted one last knowledge quiz, which was a great way to recap all of the shared knowledge and compare it to the results of the other participants. The competition was fierce and friendly, as there were prizes waiting for the winners.
We summarized our whole event on Sunday when we discussed our future, upcoming activities, and plans. Proud of the effort and work everyone put in during this week, we were happy to hand our participants certificates of completion for the course.
This exchange event was truly a transformative and breakthrough experience for many of us. We are very happy that we were able to be such a significant part of it and are hoping for more similar, exciting events in the future. Thank you, everyone!
