My name is Clément Lamy and İ work for Pi as an intern since the 01/03/2021. The first reason why İ am currently doing an internship, that is because it is mandatory for my studies. İndeed, İ study social work in Germany and am now in my fourth semester. This university is situated in Berlin, is called “Katholische Hochschule für Sozialwesen in Berlin” and is specialised in the social field. One of my motivations for studying social work are that İ like to work for and with other people in order to improve their but also my daily life.
As İ began my studies, members from this university informed us students that we will have to do an internship in our fourth semester. Later, we were told that we could do this internship abroad with the help of Erasmus +. İ was really interested and took part at a conference in order to know more about this opportunity. İ received a list about countries that had already partnerships with this university in the past. On this list, there were mostly countries that are current members of the European Union. Nevertheless, there were countries such as Thailand and Turkey.
I interested myself for Turkey for private and professional reasons. İndeed, the Turkish diaspora is spread all over the world and is particularly important in Germany. Within this community, many of them face difficulties such as financial and social difficulties. Those difficulties could be an obstacle for a successful integration. Therefore, in those cases, the help of social workers will often be needed. That is why, it could help social workers to know more about the Turkish culture and learn the Turkish language. Another motivation for me was to learn new pedagogical methods, İ already know different pedagogical methods as a French person living in Germany. Furthermore, İ spent one semester in İreland and an internship of six months in Northern İreland. Yet, however those are different countries, they have a lot of similarities, especially what concerns pedagogy. One reason for it could be that they are geographically seen, not far away from each other. İndeed, they are all western European countries. That is not the case of Turkey that is situated between Asia and Europe. Furthermore, İreland, Germany and France follow a Christian tradition while Turkey follows a Muslim tradition. İn my opinion, religion and traditions had an huge influence on social pedagogy and other sciences, even if in our modern world, sciences are now separated from religious beliefs. Therefore, İ hope that in Turkey, İ will learn some methods and theories that are different to what İ learnt until now.
“Katholische Hochschule für Sozialwesen Berlin” has different Turkish universities as partners but cooperates with only one Turkish working placement. You probably guessed it; the name of this organization is: Pi Gençlik Derneği. İ checked the website of Pi Youth Association (English name of the association) and could read that this organization fights for the rights of young turkish people and support them in order that they get much more professional perspectives. Those are ambitious objectives but necessary things that contribute to improve civil society. Furthermore, those objectives suit the objectives of a social worker. Therefore, İ told the Erasmus coordinator of my school that İ would like to do my internship by Pi Gençlik Derneği in İzmir. She gave me support and told me that İ should make sure that my tasks as an intern suit the pedagogical principles that are followed in Germany but also in the rest of Western Europe. İndeed, in the past, different students from my school made internships by Pi, and wrote in their reports that their tasks did not always correspond to what western European understand with social work. İ was also invited to read the reports that were made.
After having informing myself about Pi, İ contacted them through mails and didn’t have to wait long for an answer and an online meeting on Skype was rapidly settled. During this meeting, we introduced ourselves to each other and talked already about my potential tasks. The contact was warm and professional. Shortly after that, İ had to write a mail with activities that İ could imagine doing during my internship. Those events happened in December 2019 and my internship was scheduled for March- July 2021, that is why we got back in touch later in December 2020 in order to finalize the process. We wrote for example a learning agreement that fixed the objectives that İ would have to do during my internship. It took us a long time because my university and Pi didn’t have the same understanding about tasks that suit a social worker and we had to rewrite the learning agreement many times. Nevertheless, İ manage to council the expectations of Pi and my university and wrote objectives that both parts agreed on. We faced other difficulties as well such as the Covid situation that made us change the dates of my internship and fulfill many documents. Yet, İ think that it was worth it because İ really enjoy my time here!
I will finish this blog with my personal expectations for this internship by Pi. As İ wrote earlier in this blog, it is not the first time that İ go abroad for internships and studying. İ love it because İ learn to develop and improve qualities that benefit me in my private and professional life. That is why İ expect from this internship by Pi that İ will develop and improve different competences. One of the things that İ really want to improve is my knowledge of the Turkish culture and Turkish language (my level of Turkish is currently A1, beginner). Furthermore, İ wish that İ could fulfill the objectives of Pi by supporting youngsters in their professional plans for the future. İ try to encourage them to believe in themselves and have always hope. As a good friend of mine said: “İ didn’t come so far to give up now!”. Last but not least, İ am enjoying the work with Pi and wish sometimes that İ would stay longer. That is it, İlginiz için teşekkürler, see you.
Clément Lamy