I was a volunteer in a circus and my role was to assist in and later teach circus lessons for kids, perform and do some general administrative tasks, without having any previous experience in circus arts. That sounds almost impossible but as it turns out, with the right attitude and work, your ESC volunteering can be successful even in a field that is (almost) completely new to you. These are the things that helped me:
Having no experience in a field just means you have a whole new world to discover. If you are curious enough and put in the work, you can learn how to do new things as well as discover new things about yourself.
Don’t be embarrassed to admit you don’t know or understand something, even if it seems elementary and everybody around you is familiar with it. Especially because sometimes, the people who have been doing one job or working in one field for a long time think something is obvious because it is an everyday thing for them, and forget that in reality it might not be so straightforward.
It seems quite obvious that to be able to do something new, you have to learn it and so, be willing to learn it. But the impulse for learning something might not always come from the outside. You have to seek out ways to learn what interests you: use the opportunity of being around people that know something you don’t.
Don’t be afraid to speak up. Not having any experience in one specific subject doesn’t mean you don’t know anything. Listen to your instincts and use your knowledge, if something doesn’t feel right or you think something is not being done well, or even if you just do not want to do a certain part of the job (for good reasons), say so.
And most importantly…
All of the above will be much easier if you are already interested in the topic that your volunteering is dealing with. For example, while I enjoy working with kids and performing, the reason I chose my volunteering was because I wanted to learn circus arts and know more about circus in general. It might be that some volunteering opportunities require a certain amount of related experience or knowledge but the most important are your willingness to learn and passion.
Text: Živa Jamnik
Fotka: Cirkuskus
Živa je dobrovoľníčkou programu Európskej komisie Európsky zbor solidarity na dobrovoľníckom projekte v organizácii Cirkuskus. Projekt bol podporený Európskou komisiou z programu Európsky zbor solidarity.
