First of all hello to everybody who is reading. I’m Berun Agić from Bosnia and Hercegovina and I’m studying to become a software engineer. This is my story of an amazing and life changing summer in Heidelberg that I will never forget.
It all began for me in 2022. As I was going through my usual instagram stories, one of them had a sentence that caught my eye. The sentence was „Do you want to do an internship in Germany?“, and my first thought was, well this sounds too good to be true. But since it was published by my university I gave it a shot, and it was one of the best decisions that I ever did. After resarching about the internship and the whole Internship Programme of German Business, I decided to try my luck and apply, and sure, not long after I found out that I was lucky because half a year later I found myself in Germany, surrounded by new friends and opportunities.
For me the whole process felt natural, from gathering the documents, to the interviews, to the preparations for the travel and internship, so when the moment finally came and I met everybody for the first time in Germany it was amazing. The love and support we had from the people who make this Programme possible is just great. On every step of the way they did the best they could to help us and to be ready for our new adventure.
The other scholarship holders that I met, were amazing people who gave me new hope that there is a future in this region and that there is a future that we all can live in peace and prosperity. Also being able to finally gather knowledge in my own field of studies with practical work experience in a company like Everest Systems that has such a professional enviorment full of talanted people gave me hope in my own abilities.
You would usually see me arrive early so that I could be one of the first in the office, that way I had enough time to prepare myself breakfast (thankfully we had a corn flakes machine in the office), and get ready to work. My mentor, and the people around me were amazing at what they do, and I looked up to them in every way. They were there for me in every aspect to guide and help me find my own solutions to the problems I had to solve. Talking with so many professionals form Germany, Brazil, South Korea, USA, etc. who work at the same company as you do is eye opening for the opportunities that this Programme has to offer you.
One should also not forget the benefits of being in charge of your own life. What do I mean by that? Well you are free to do with your time and money however you please. It is a bit scary at first to be an „adult“ and do all the thing for yourself that you usually take for granted like planing the house budget, going grocery shopping, planning your whole day, etc. But after a time you feel proud of yourself for managing to live the life and you fell free because you also live your life the way you want.
A very important aspect of this Programme is the connection with all the other scholarship holders who are all over Germany which means you travel from place to place. traveled to 6 other countries and to more than 25 cities in total. For me, Friday after work didn’t mean going back home, but going to the train station to join another adventure. Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands are all countries that I visited with my friends from the Internship Programme of German Business.
The whole internship felt like a dream. Heidelberg, my company, my new friends, it was all just everything and more that I hoped for, so thank you Zoran Djindjic Internship Programme of German Business for the Countries of the Western Balkans for making this dream a reality.
Berun Agic, generation 2023