In 2019 Anselm Herold became an Erasmus+ ambassador in the field of higher education. We asked him to tell us his story:
“In the autumn of 2018 I completed a professional internship in Russia for almost three months with Erasmus+. To be precise, at the social circus project for children and young people, Upsala Zirk in St. Petersburg.
Upsala Zirk was founded more than 18 years ago as a project for street children in St. Petersburg. Currently more than 80 children and youngsters train regularly with the circus. In short, Upsala Zik aims to positively influence the lives of socially disadvantaged children and youngsters and children and young people with disabilities with the help of circus education, social work, creativity and art, and to serve as a springboard into life for them.
The combination of youth circus and social work and my enthusiasm for working with children and young people, combined with the fact that I learned Russian at school, made Upsala Zirk the perfect place for me to gain professional experience.
Thanks to the Russian-Austrian Sommerkolleg “Tandem” I arrived in St. Petersburg not only with my Russian polished up but I also had a friend, Sascha, who kindly picked me up from the airport.
Once I arrived at the circus things got started right away: in the circus' daily routine that was anything but monotonous my main task was to work with the children and youngsters. Since I know juggling and also the basics of other disciplines I spent a lot of time helping with the training. Moreover, I accompanied the children and youngsters on excursions and helped them with their homework. A great highlight for me was witnessing the development of a new show. From the creation of the scenes, training and finally the children's and young people’s first performances! It was a great, beautiful and very emotional experience for me to witness, as part of the team, how the children and young people with or without disabilities trained with enthusiasm on and off stage, exerted themselves, sweated, were sometimes frustrated, right up to nervousness shortly before the performance, accompanied by the pride of the artists and the radiant eyes of the audience, both the children’s and young people’s and mine and everyone else’s behind the scenes!
As I wanted to say a proper farewell and thank you to the circus I spent one of the last days baking and cooking together with the children. Making punch, nut cookies and pasta salad with approximately 20 children in a kitchen was quite noisy and a lot of action! When we said goodbye it was heart-warming to see how attached the children, youngsters and staff had become to me and of course I had also become attached to them!
For me St. Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe! Rich in architecture, culture and events (my recommendation: a show at Upsala Zirk!), the city of a thousand bridges and canals on the Neva never gets boring.
From my internship at Upsala Zirk and from St. Petersburg I take home with me a happy heart full of beautiful, educational experiences and the friendship and warmth of great people. And also the knowledge that circus is an ingenious medium to arouse enthusiasm and joy and to give children and young people self-confidence and open up new perspectives for them.
For me an Erasmus+ internship has the same potential. That's why I wish everyone who is considering going abroad with Erasmus+ the courage to make the decision and have fun doing it.”
Erasmus+ enables study periods and internships abroad for students and teaching and further education periods abroad for staff of higher education institutions.
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