All those cinephiles, filmophiles or informally, film buffs, who are reading this, for sure have seen and by that, I mean know one of the greatest western movies of all time: The Magnificent Seven – directed by John Sturges with the acting presence of the “King of Cool” Steve McQueen. Kudos for you! You have good taste in movies. And for those who haven’t seen it, I suggest you do, because this story will not be about Steve McQueen’s gang from 1960, yet, it will be about „The Magnificent 63” – the 20th generation of the Zoran Djindjic Internship Programme of German Business for the Countries of the Western Balkans.
Greetings, reader(s)! My name is Marko Maras; I am a postgraduate student and student associate at the Faculty of Civil Engineering – major in Geotechnical engineering – in Skopje, North Macedonia.
During the period from 1st July until 31st December 2023, I have had the privilege to be a part of Beak Consultants GmbH in Freiberg (Saxony) as an intern in the field of Geomechanics and Earth Observation (EO). More specifically, I carried out tasks within a research project for the European Commission Horizon Europe (S34I initiative), focusing on ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of raw materials for the European Union industry. The objective of the project is to enhance raw materials exploration and location management by leveraging EO data and employing innovative data analysis methods. Furthermore, I worked on projects related to raw materials production, where my responsibility was to do revision of factual maps and geological intersections using specified software packages. Oh, yeah, I was also a co-pilot. Not the “Top Gun” type of co-pilot like “Rooster”, but a MUAV-Multispectral Unmanned Aerial Vehicle co-pilot (I flew drones). So, enough about me, let’s do a little rewind to day one (“The Arrival”).
The 24th of June 2023, Brandenburg airport – Berlin (“Top Gun opening scene” ft. “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins– playing in the background); 63 scholarship holders landed in Germany, for one their best and comfort-zone overcoming experiences of their lives. A little jet-legged, carrying various sized bags of clothes and so on; we got in the buses taking us to Prebelow (about an hour and a half drive from Berlin) – time for the intro week to start! 63 new faces, 63 new names (approximately), 63 new personalities, 63 new minds, all in one place; to meet, to interact, to laugh, to play beach volleyball for hours late in the afternoon, to get prepared for our internship lives for the next ½ year in Germany. The days were filled with various teambuilding activities, where we learned about what awaits us after we all get into our trains going east, west, north or south. Learning about life in Germany and the Internship Programme itself was one thing but learning a little more about each other was the most important thing. After a few days, bags packed again, the road took us to Berlin again for other activities planned for the introductory week. For the frau’s and fräulein’s reading this sentence – pardon me : ), but Berlin seemed like a woman’s bag. Meaning, so much to experience, so many places to get lost, so many adventures to have, to cut it short – a beautifully organised chaos – a real cosmopolitan place to visit and explore. And like that, with a blink of an eye, the introductory week ended. Carrying our bags again (now towards the central train station ), in a week we had new phone numbers (or dual sim cards in our phones), new numbers to call and voices to hear when we would arrive at our internship cities, new friends to visit. The magnificent 63 of us, were now being scattered all around Germany; scattered yet feeling like one, we would once again all gather at the midterm meeting in Nuremberg and in the meantime, well all of us were writing our own stories in our own cities, travelling to each other, working, growing personally and most importantly – growing together!
During my internship time in Germany, I realised that the generation as a whole, is somewhat like a “swiss army knife”. I’ll explain. The Internship Programme of German Business gathers specific characters, unique in their own way, and suitable for the very principles the Programme was founded on: ability to understand, respect and integrate, help and share, grow and contribute for the better future of the home region. Every individual I met, is unique – magnificent in their own way. And I am not talking about conventional skills such as knowing a language or being good with computers that make them unique; I’m talking about knowing how to make someone laugh, knowing to sing or play the piano, knowing to box or wrestle, knowing to climb or run fast, knowing how to make honey – beekeepers, people that could dance like you’ve never seen anyone dance like that before, people that simply make you happy while being around them and speaking to them. I had the honour of meeting all of them; I had the honour of having hour long conversations with them, listening to their thoughts and way of looking at things – perspectives! Now that is the best part of this Internship Programme.
The discreet versatility is what makes every one of the scholarship holders an essential part of, what I named “The Magnificent 63”. Come on, where else would you find people you could make 50 or 100 pancakes in 1.5 hours, travel for hours in a train and laugh, talk until 3am and not be tired for work in the morning, have Brazilian jiu-jitsu lessons, have dancing lessons, play beach volleyball on a tournament in Berlin, go hiking and grab a beer somewhere in the middle of a hiking trail (yeah, only in Germany you have a beer garden somewhere along the hiking trail – ). Anyway, the entire experience is so much more than just six months being an intern in a German company. You grow so much more in-between the lines; become a better version of yourself and most importantly, the six months (or three months) are only a prelude to what comes after; and after comes a life-long group of friends that you simply feel happy for meeting.
To all of you who have read this short story, I hope you liked it. If not, well you’ve already read it anyway if you’ve come this far. I could give some words of motivation to all of you who wish to apply for the Internship Programme of German Business, like a certain set of facts or arguments used in support or a proposal, but the facts I’ve already given in the upper part of the text. And motivation is just a cover-up that makes you feel good for a very little amount of time. But what I’d like to say, actually give you a rhetorical question to think about: “What do I (you) need to do in a period of one week (let’s say), so when that week end’s I (you) could turn back to it and say: Job well done!” Well imagine having the opportunity to divide six months in Germany, into weeks, how many times you think you’ll say “Job well done!” to yourselves at the end of the internship? I didn’t know either, and you don’t have to think about that at all. Why I mentioned this rhetorical question is just so I could add that it’s not about how many times you’ll say “Job well done!” to yourselves, it’s about the “Thank you!” you’ll feel for everything at the end of internship. That’s the most rewarding part of it all. The thank you for the friends you’ve made, experience gained, fun had, kilometres travelled… So don’t over think it, just apply for the Zoran Djindjic Internship Programme of German Business for the Countries of the Western Balkans!
Marko Maras, generation 2023
