Success Story by Valentina Perisic
I have been involved with EU projects and project management in general ever since college. I started out with small student projects, such as founding and funding student magazines, symposiums, and conferences, as well as smaller events and humanitarian actions. The bigger the events and projects got the more funding I had to seek. First, I worked with national funds provided by Croatian ministries and institutes, and later on the work brought me to Erasmus+ projects.
Many years ago, during my first TC for youth workers in Germany, I met CIP Citizens in Power founders and volunteers. Ever since then, I have been collaborating with the organization through mutual projects.
Since my work experience is mainly about project preparation, application, and implementation I have worked towards educating myself in that field as well. I have graduated EU Project management (preparation & implementation) at a private College in Croatia and went on many workshops and lectures dedicated to the topic. Soon enough I started educating others about it, through the Croatian Employment agency where I delivered workshops about EU funds opportunities and EU project management for unemployed youth in Croatia. Soon enough I decided to start my own business in the field but I lacked entrepreneurial education, especially business management. At this point I have discovered Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme and decided to apply. Immediately, I have contacted CIP thinking that the team could introduce me to a host company in Portugal, where I initially wanted to go. Luckily, fate had other plans for me, and last summer I arrived to Cyprus as a Young entrepreneur learning and sharpening my skills together with CIP. This turned out to be one of the best decisions in my life.
I have learned 300% more than expected, I meet great people from all over the world and fell in love with the island of Cyprus. I have explored almost every corner of the island and learned so much about the people, culture & diversity. The decision to participate in EYE helped me grow at least 3 meters!
The opportunity that EYE gave me, and the kindness, expertise and willingness to share that CIP provided, helped me expand my network, gave me practical experience in the field, perfected my project writing skills and overall taught me a great deal about all the details I need to have in mind if I wish to run my own company.
The experience was more fruitful than I could ever imagine. Together with CIP we have successfully applied 4 Erasmus+ projects which were all approved by Cypriot NA, I have delivered 4 trainings for youth workers abroad, all while I was running more complex projects. The best thing about the work for CIP was that, as I was preparing myself to become an entrepreneur, I was preparing, implementing, and managing educational projects on various ramifications of entrepreneurship. I was indeed learning to be an entrepreneur by teaching others about it.
Today I feel grateful to the programme that provided me with this opportunity to grow and refine my skills in the best possible way. I would recommend the programme to all young entrepreneurs out there, whether they just started out with their company or they just plan to. All you need is a viable business plan and a desire to learn and explore. And of course, a good host that you could grow together with.
