The network can only be alive if the members are part of an active and creative community. Everything starts with small groups, even our alumni network is growing day by day and now has almost 5000 members. The same goes for our alumni volunteer group: today it consists of 30 enthusiastic people from 15 countries. Let's take a look behind the scenes and read this short summary of our volunteer programme.
The international Alumni Volunteer program dates back to 2016, the start of the Alumni Network Hungary's network, when volunteers occasionally helped at various local education fairs, promoted the network, and mentored new students. By 2019, alumni membership grew significantly, which also meant that it was necessary to rethink the volunteer program and to create a new structure and strategic framework for effective future collaboration.
Between 2016-2019, more than 90 volunteers participated in the first phase of the program, where they carried out various activities, mostly individually. They contributed their ideas on how to participate in the promotion of Hungarian higher education, or they provided different and diverse content to the development of our website. In the last two years, the network expanded, which required a community of volunteers instead of individuals, so we organized the work in a systematic framework and focused on teamwork. Nowadays, our common communication messages have been formulated and more community-based activities have appeared.
The program’s structure gave a safe and good environment and visions for the volunteers and slowly it became a community even in the last challenging year (2020). “We can still reconnect and network through this platform amidst Covid-19 world restrictions.” Benjamin Kojo Woode from Ghana
Currently, we have 30 volunteers from many countries such as Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria. They studied at 12 different Hungarian universities in 25 fields such as engineering, business administration, health and medical sciences, fine arts, and IT. Most of them graduated (or are in the process of graduating) with a Master's or Ph.D. degree between 2016 and 2021. The diversity of our volunteer group is reflected in 23 languages, most of them speak at least 2 languages.
“It’s a great opportunity for intercultural collaboration. Also, a good opportunity to meet excellent people.” - Feifei Wang from China
Volunteers help the network with a variety of activities:
- they promote higher education in Hungary by sharing their experiences gained during their studies in Hungary, writing blogs, or creating vlogs (e.g.: Feifei Wang Youtube channel)
- they occasionally participate in various online educational and scholarship fairs. “It’s a good way of networking and getting recent updates with Alumni.” – Ayaz Shaikh from India
- they facilitate the recruitment of new students and help as mentors in the process for prospective students preparing for Hungary.
“Many prospective applicants aren’t so familiar with Hungary and the Hungarian education system. As I studied, and still live in Hungary, I could provide a fairly good introduction about those topics to the prospective applicants I was in touch with. Furthermore, it was an opportunity for me as well to keep in touch with my previous Hungarian colleagues/teachers whenever I needed some advice or direction within the volunteering procedure. It also kept in my mind how happy and proud I am to be part of such a community.” - Oqba Basal from Syria
- they facilitate the process of self-organization or create local alumni networks in their own country.
In return for their devoted work, alumni volunteers receive ongoing, personalized professional support regarding their activities and feedback on their work, and we organize training opportunities for them to perform specific tasks.
“It helps us to know the circle of alumni and keep this community alive and active.” - Zahra Fuladvand from Iran
“We are up to date with the latest news about volunteering and the volunteer community around the world, and benefit from their experiences.” - Mohammed Abboh Adam from Sudan
This year, our plan is primarily to facilitate and create local or glocal alumni groups (characterized by both global and local considerations and connections) and to continue promoting higher education in Hungary. You can read about some volunteer experiences here (e.g.: Mirhadi Samidzada or Aidana Smagul). Follow the news and later this year there will be a possibility to join our group.