ESC Stories

I am Alessia Compagnucci, I come from Italy, and my ESC project at A4ACTION lasted seven months — from December 2nd, 2024, to June 30th, 2025.

When I decided to apply for this project, I had recently graduated and was spending my days at home applying for jobs and studying for a public competition. But after so many years of university, I felt the need to do something more practical — something that would allow me to spend time with people and prove to myself that I was capable of handling more concrete, hands-on activities.

While searching for opportunities, I came across this ESC project and immediately found it interesting because I was looking for something connected to education and non-formal learning. So, I sent my application and, just two weeks later, I packed my bags and moved to Romania.

The evening I arrived, I met some of the other volunteers I would be living with for the next few months. At first, I was a little scared because living with other people means adapting to new habits and a new environment. But as soon as I got there, they welcomed me with a group dinner, and we decorated the Christmas tree together with festive music in the background. I immediately felt at home.

The next day, I met the children for the first time. I was nervous because I had never worked with so many kids before, and I wasn’t sure how to behave with them or if I’d be creative enough to organize activities. But from the very first meeting, they showed me so much love. Day by day, I slowly began to understand how the Youth Centre worked — also thanks to my colleagues, who set a great example for me. Activities that had seemed like big challenges at the beginning soon became part of my routine.

During the winter, the other volunteers and I spent a lot of time at home — but it was never boring. We had karaoke nights, played games we invented on the spot, and often learned more about each other’s countries and cultures. We didn’t need much to create good memories. In January, we went on our first trip to Iași. Even though there wasn’t much to visit, we had a wonderful time. One of my favorite moments was on the train, when we laughed so much together — it showed how little it took for us to have fun.

January was also the month we started new activities: working with high school students and creating content for social media. Both were new experiences for me, but I really enjoyed recording videos and meeting the teenagers, even though sometimes they weren’t very interested in the topics we presented.

I’m not a public speaking expert or a content creator, but with the help of the other volunteers and the whole A4ACTION team, I managed to complete tasks that would have felt too big for me just a few months earlier. In short, I had the chance to try many new things, which helped me develop important skills — and I had fun along the way.

I wish I could tell you about difficult moments during this project, but the truth is that, although there were some, they were always related to things happening back in Italy — never to my experience here. Of course, there were moments of discouragement, especially at the beginning, when I had to face new responsibilities for the first time. But being surrounded by people who were always ready to support me made those obstacles seem much smaller and turned them into opportunities to learn.

The support I received — both from my mentor and during the On-Arrival Training and Mid-Term Meeting — was also very valuable. It helped me look at this experience with a critical eye: to reflect on what was happening, what I was learning, and how I was growing. It reminded me of all the positive things this project was offering me. For example, we did several exercises to reflect on how our projects and motivation evolved over time, and for me, these moments showed that, despite a few ups and downs, this experience had been overwhelmingly positive.

The hardest part of all was saying goodbye to the children, the other volunteers, and everyone I met during these months. But it comforts me to know we’ll see each other again and that I’ll carry these memories with me forever.

During this project, I came across a quote that perfectly sums up my experience. In Italian, it says: “Quando vai a dormire felice di ciò che hai fatto, quando ti svegli felice per ciò che fai e devi fare, questo si chiama Vivere. Se non è così, si chiama campare.”

It can be translated as: “When you go to sleep happy with what you’ve done, and you wake up happy for what you do and must do, this is called Living. If not, it’s just surviving.”

And for these seven months — I truly lived.