2/01/2013

Internship in RIMAS, Vienna, Austria, 2012.


I am a student of political science at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University. During the 7th semester of my studies I had to do an internship, which was compulsory. The decision to accept a challenge of the 3-months-length  international internship at RIMAS was one of the best choices I have ever made. Before leaving to Vienna, Austria, I had some concerns, doubts about my future studies and career after graduation, but this great opportunity helped me to consider what I really want, broadened my minds, inspired me to set the specific goals and go for it. 

Invaluable  working experience in RIMAS



The Research Institute for Managing Sustainability at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (RIMAS) is a think-tank commited to contributing to the achievement of sustainable development at all societal levels (for example, the individual, corporate, municipal, regional, national and international levels) by developing and applying scientific insight. The experience of working there was very interesting and valuable for improving a wide variety of skills and academic knowledge. Firstly, I got familiar with RIMAS‘ activities, different projects and mission overall during the introductory presentation at the day of arrival. Also,  I get acquinted with (new for me) academic subjects such as Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Sustainable Development while doing scientific literature research and knew more about UN Millenium Development Goals and how the businesses do affect it. With this required background knowledge I continued on doing variuos specific tasks which were literature, political documents and internet research, the search  for new potential institute‘s partners and their contacts, the research about the status of assistants of parliamentarians in EU and ect. What is more, I was included in the dynamic real work of the team and was very excited about that. It was a pleasure to be surrounded by very talented, intelligent, creative and, surprisingly, very friendly people coming from all over the Europe. Almost every day during the lunch breaks we were sharing our moods, ideas, discussing the latest issues, teaching  each other new Lithuanian and German words, at the same time improving English language skills. Eventually, I just adored the schedule in RIMAS which was motivating to put all my efforts on implementing tasks and concentrate while working in order no to waste time. There were no very strict working hours so I could get enough of sleep in the mornings and almost always ask for a day off then it was needed. So, all in all, there were too many good reasons not to like the time spent in RIMAS – I absolutelly enjoyed it and recommend it to you!



Living Viennese style: unforgettable and adventurous  time in the capital of Austria



Many many great memories come to my head when I remember living in Vienna. For most of them I am very thankful to my dear friend and colleague Ieva, as we were experiencing working in RIMAS and living in Vienna together. At a first glance, during our first days, the city looked a little bit cold and people seemed quite closed, but after the deeper exploration of Vienna, many hours of sightseeing  we fulfilled our high expectations, actually, it was better than we even could think. We got many acquantances, made not so much, but some really good and kind friends. What is more, we did a lot of travelling inside and outside Austria, bet everytime coming back to Vienna we felt like coming back home and felt a relief after long tiring trips. I can assure you, that this fascinating city of high culture is realy worth of visiting and even living there!
Vaida Kuliesaite 
(jeigu kils klausimu, rasykite vaida.kuliesaite@gmail.com)

No comments:

Post a Comment