By Edina Osmankaj (YES 2014-15, Kosovo, hosted by PAX in Berryville, VA)

I am Edina from Kosovo, and I’m currently in my second year of medical school. I completed my junior year of high school in the small, beautiful town of Berryville, Virginia. During my exchange year, I lived with a host family consisting of my host mom, dad, and little brother. It was a bit of a culture shock for me to move from a big city to a small town, but it’s the best experience that you can get from your exchange year because you can really make the most of it. In a small town, you get to know most of the students in your high school, make a lot of friends, and get involved in many activities. I was on my American high school’s swimming, cross country, and track and field teams. I also completed more than 200 volunteer hours at different organizations. 

Inspired by the volunteer work I did during my exchange year, I wanted to bring it home and give back to my country. I was the 2015-16 City Representative of my city, Prizren, and I organized a lot of activities throughout the year in which many non-alumni volunteers of various ages participated. With the help of our Alumni Coordinator, Rinë Fetahu (YES 2013-14), and a YES alumni grant, I organized a workshop to demonstrate the importance of volunteering and show appreciation to those who have volunteered at our alumni activities.

The workshop took place on May 20^th at the American Corner in the National Library of Kosova. The attendees included 10 volunteers that have helped me and other YES alumni carry out community service activities. We matched volunteers up with volunteers from different cities so that they could be exposed to different community needs in other parts of the country. Recycling and the lack of initiative among young people to organize productive activities were common themes in the discussions of issues across Kosovo.

One session included a presentation about the YES program and our alumni activities. We had a guest speaker, Monika Rodiqi (YES 2013-14), who spoke about the importance of volunteerism and how it helped her achieve her long term goal of getting accepted into her dream school. Alumni Coordinator Rinë Fetahu (YES 2013-14) led two sessions: one on the implementation of new ideas after the workshop and another on finding sponsors to help.

The workshop was very successful because the volunteers are now inspired to not only help us during our YES alumni activities, but also to initiate their own activities which YES alumni can support. I am thankful to everyone that helped organize this workshop and the enthusiastic participants.