EUSA has been promoting volunteering opportunities for several years, and we are excited to share good practice of cooperation with another organisation, currently being hosting and sending organisation, enabling exchange of volunteers.

This edition of the student column brings you personal stories of people involved in such an experience.



Zrinka Tabain is due to finish her undergraduate studies in Food Technology at University of Zagreb. She has been passionate about sports from a young age and has been training karate for over ten years. For the last 3 years she had been volunteering at EUSA events, started with the European Universities Games 2016, 2017 European Universities Championships in 3x3 Basketball, Beach Volleyball and Sport Climbing, 2019 European Universities Beach Handball Championship and has been a part of FISU events  volunteering at World University Handball Championship and participating at the FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy 2018 in Russia, where she was awarded the status of FISU Ambassador. Her sending organisation is Ocean of Knowledge from Zagreb, Croatia.
She is currently working with the Sports Department at EUSA assisting the organisation of European Universities Games 2020 that will be held in Belgrade, Serbia in July this year. She chose the project because of her involvement in sport from a young age and to a wish to gain even more experience in the field of sport organisation management projects. ESC in EUSA also allows one to experience working on European projects which also help in developing communication and organisational skills.



Nives Raznjevic is a Biochemistry absolvent at the University of Ljubljana. Last summer she participated in Erasmus+ training course in Lipik, Croatia which absolutely inspired her. From that moment she knew she wanted to be a part of it. Seeing everyone connect and talking about real life issues and a manners of solving it though non formal learning... Everyone got so excited and energy was so high. So that is why she decided to apply for volunteering at Ocean znanja through the European Voluntary Service/European Solidarity Corps, having EUSA Institute as her sending organisation.
She was hoping to learn how to give back to society through teaching how to be workshop facilitator. A little bit more than two months from beginning of her voluntary service with the help with her mentor and coordinator, they organized a workshop where she was a facilitator for the first time! She recalls she was very nervous, but wanted this so bad, so she prepared herself so that nervousness turned into an excitement. Everything went pretty well and she is really looking forward towards new volunteering experiences, especially those similar to this.



Zrinka Cuk is the President of the NGO Ocean znanja, located in Zagreb, Croatia. For the past two years she works in the organization with international volunteers in the Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps programmes.
Ocean Znanja is an NGO that works like a platform where young people can fill up their potential though organizing, writing, performing and reporting about different workshops, local and international projects, art events, educational and free time activities that are done by youth for youth in the local community of Zagreb. They have events and workshops on weekly basis, all free to attend. Also they send every year up to 100 young people on different international mobility projects and seminars. They are hosting and sending volunteers for long and short periods of time in Europe and neighbouring countries. This has been the biggest step that the organization has done and international volunteers changed the face of the organization in many ways and helped them to really make a visible and strong local impact.



Andrej Pisl is the Communications and Projects Manager in the European University Sports Association (EUSA) and the EUSA Institute. His first contact with the organisation was in 2002, when he volunteered at the EUSA Basketball championship in Koper, Slovenia. He fell in love with university sport, and was first active in the Slovenian University Sports Association (SUSA) and later became part of the EUSA Office.
EUSA became an accredited organisation for European Voluntary Service (EVS) in 2012, and has since then hosted 20 long-term volunteers, now also part of the European Solidarity Corps (ESC). The volunteers have a chance to work on international projects of social responsibility, many of them supported by the Erasmus+, as well as work on university sports events, both competitions, as well as educational events. EUSA also offers its own international volunteer programme as a short-term volunteering opportunity for young participants, in cooperation with the local organisers of the European Universities Championships and Games.