Serve the City Madrid

Living and interning abroad for 7 months has been a life-changing opportunity for me. It sounds cliché, but you really get to know yourself when you're living abroad for a longer period of time. It has been really worth it to get to know new people and learn to work in a professional setting in a different socio-cultural context.

STC Madrid has been an amazing internship place for me to learn how the NGO world works and to feel what it means to make a difference to the lives of others in need. The advantage from working both on the project side and on the background from the office is that you get a lot of experience in how the organization runs, how projects are managed and how they are done in practice.

An average day at the office means that you work from 10 AM to 5 PM with the members of the core team. This team exists out of 5 people, who are always super willing to help you. One person will be main responsible as your internship mentor and guide you as much as needed.

On a day at the office, you'll bring your laptop and work on whatever tasks are in your area of interest (or depending on your study program). This can be for instance finance, administrational tasks, grant researches, social researches or project planning. On projects, you'll help in the executive process. For me, the combination was really fun, because I like to use my skills and intelligence in researches and thinking processes, but I also enjoyed the practical side of carrying out the project activities a lot.

Actually I'm a pretty easy-going person who doesn't get feared easily. I came to Spain with a really open mind and no expectations, and I think that this really helps to find your way and meet new friends.

However, of course, over the 7 months I've been in Spain, I've experienced feelings of being homesick every now and then. The most important thing for this, is to know that you have many people around you who are also away from home or who are nice and willing to support you. Thanks to the great people I met, my homesickness never lasted long.

Before this internship, I had been in Madrid one time before and from then on I loved the city. However, living in a city is very different of visiting it as a tourist. From the day I was a resident of Madrid, I started loving the city more and more. The people are so open and helpful, and it is really easy to make friends. The vibe is relaxed and with respect. Everyone can be him/herself in Madrid, there's freedom for everyone. Besides that it's the safest big city in Europe. As a girl, I was never afraid to walk home by myself in the middle of the night. There's low criminality and people are really helpful to you.

To wrap it up... Madrid is just an amazing city and I recommend everyone to go experience it!

Being part of Serve the City has been a once in a lifetime experience. I’m getting immersed in the amazing NGO world, discovering new ways to interact and help the community where I am currently living. It's a very rewarding and challenging job as every day is different. You need to be very flexible and be able to think quickly when an issue arises. I'm very glad to have been given the opportunity to be part of such a proactive organization!

Most of the students' feedback is positive as they feel that they not only grew spiritually but that they also turned into better people and more responsible human beings who are eager to help others no matter the nationality, skin color, accent, or mother tongue.

It is very rewarding hearing from them after their placement time is over. They come to us to tell funny stories and let us know how this experience has changed their way to see the world. They feel wiser and grateful.

Well, this is such a complex question. Every program destination has its own uniqueness as the projects are adapted to the cities’ needs and special requirements from the NGOs. However, if I had to choose, I'll definitely go for the cosmopolitan sunny Madrid – because where else can you find the sun shining 365 days a year?

We are a movement of people aiming to create a sense of community through serving the city by helping the underprivileged society. We are the nexus in between people willing to help and NGOs willing to be helped. Connecting human beings is our specialty, and I'm proud to be part of such an epic journey!

We are proud to say that our volunteer programs and internships were created to make things simple for our participants. We have everything prepared beforehand so we can offer the best ever lifetime experience abroad. It's the right combination in between feeling helpful and wandering around amazing cities full of history and cultural events ready for the volunteers to discover and enjoy.