Cape Town Anika Christofferson Volunteer Story

Anika Christofferson: EAP and BASP Volunteer

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Anika is from Seattle, Washington and is studying medicine. She first heard about Scalabrini through her University’s study abroad program and volunteered with Scalabrini for 3 months in the Employment Access Programme and the Bachelor Support Programme.

“I’m passionate about engaging with people and Scalabrini offered a way to engage with people directly. I’m volunteering with two different programs, the Employment Access Program and the Bachelor Academic Support Program. I start at 08h30 searching for jobs and assisting clients with CVs and Job Applications and then in the afternoons, I help out with the Bachelor Academic Support Program, mentoring students and helping out with their projects.

I’ve learned so much about teaching adults, as well as about communication across language barriers.

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“Through the Employment Access Program, I’ve found out a lot about the career climate of South Africa and I’ve become quite confident in career building. I’ve also learned to be able to be present and to isolate my emotions from my work, to make myself more available to clients – I think this will be really helpful working in medicine.”

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Cape Town is geographically similar to home, with the mountains, but Cape Town is higher energy than Seattle. Seattle is progressive, but Cape Town has a greater activism scene. There are a lot of demonstrations in Seattle, but here, activism is something you’d put on your CV – it’s part of the everyday conversation which is amazing to experience.”

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