My name is Xiaozheng Song from China. I was an intern in Serve the City Leuven in the summer of 2021. This was not my first time volunteering, as I volunteered a lot in my home country, China. I like the feeling of being needed and helping people. It also offers me opportunities to be involved in the big exciting events happening around me by contributing my own efforts!
Last year, I came to Belgium to pursue my master degree. Thanks to Serve the City Leuven, I got myself an internship job during this summer vacation after one year’s study at KU Leuven. My major is business management (marketing). I applied what I learned from school to my daily work and learned new things by working as an intern with the help of our team leader Gabbie. I was in charge of marketing aspects of the organization, mostly creating social media contents. The working environment is quite free and chill and team members are very nice and open. I really enjoyed working here.
As for my volunteer background and the non-profit attribute of our organization, I was very happy to contribute my efforts to the city where I lived. It made me feel more connected to our community. I tried a lot of new things this summer: transporting goods by riding a local bike trailer in the city, demolishing a house, putting posters and so on. I have never thought these could be a part of my study experience abroad.
Most importantly, I can see that deep friendships are formed among us through participating in voluntary activities and working together.
Moreover, I was very happy to be a bridge between Chinese community and our city.
For the recent event Flanders 2021: 2021 UCI Road World Championships, almost half of the volunteers were chinese living in Leuven due to our marketing campaign and recruitment work. I am very happy to see this happening!Serve the city,let’s make our city a better place together by volunteering and welcome to join our team!
– Song, Intern 2021, Serve the City