DENMARK: Andebølle Ungdomshøjskole (EVS Aug 2009)

Plaats: Vissenbjerg
Duur: 12 maanden
Begin: Augustus 2010

Vrijwilligersprofiel:

The volunteer must be mature, open-minded and able to work based on his/her own initiative. We would prefere a person speaking Spanish who is also able to speak English at a conversational level. Volunteers with a good knowledge of computer technology and communication will be preferred.

Andebolle Youth College is an international school with an international environment. A volunteer with a non-Danish cultural background will hopefully give the folk high school some extra intercultural energy and input to both the students and the staff.

A. Project environment: profile of the organisation and local community

Andebolle Youth College is an international Folk High School for young people who are aged 16.5 to 19. Students come from both Denmark and abroad, and during the period of the course they live at the school.
There are about 12 staff members, including teachers and technical personal. Generally the staff members have extensive experience in intercultural work.

Andebolle Youth College is one of the many Danish Folk High Schools which base their work on the teachings of N.F.S. Grundtvig and contemporary educators, who believed that valuable lessons about life could be learned through dialogue, teaching and social interaction.

A course of study in what Grundtvig called the 'school for life' will help students grow as a person, and the integrity and self-confidence they gain will support them in their professional life.

The Danish Folk High Schools have no tests or exams - they emphasise the importance of culture, creativity and the people-to-people aspects in life. This is conducted through open discussions and by openly answering questions to uncover the magnitude of cultural differences in order to learn how to accept and respect these differences.

The overall humanitarian purpose of the Danish Folk High Schools is to strengthen the students' ability to form his or her own opinion and to respect different views as expressed by their fellow students. In our opinion this is the most important characteristic - and the strength - of the Danish Folk High Schools. In a globalised world these ways and means of education are especially important in order to prepare the students to consider the entire world as their future workplace.

Andebolle Youth College has existed more than 35 years and can accommodate up to 90 students.
It is situated at the countryside close to the world famous fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen's birthplace Odense. It takes about 30 minutes to go from Anbebølle Youth College to Odense.

Odense is the largest city on the island of Funen and it has approx. 185.000 inhabitants. To read more about Odense visit www.visitodense.com

The formal education at Andebølle Youth College will be presented in the English and/or Danish language and will be conducted by working with different primary subjects such as:
- Theatre
- Music
- Art and Design
- Computer technology

The folk high school has many facilities e.g.
- access to a PC-network
- facilities for practising music
- Workshops for various arts activities
- Lecture hall

Rules
- Alcoholic beverages are only allowed on Saturday nights
- Smoking not allowed inside the school buildings

B. Proposed activities for EVS volunteers

The volunteers will be a part of the special fellowship which you find on a folk high school. He/she will participate in our Danish courses, and through the entire stay the staff will help and support the volunteer whenever needed.

As some of the students at the school combine their stay with a visit to a Spanish-speaking country, the most important task for the volunteer is to create a Spanish-speaking environment at the school. This could be done through informal Spanish courses, dancing classes, other cultural activities, etc.

The volunteer will also work with our IT manager and the students in order to create a computer environment which meetsthe individual cultural requirements of the students.There will be plenty of opportunity for new initiatives and for the volunteers to create their own activities.

If the volunteer has specific creative skills he/she will also be very welcome to create practical projects using those skills.As the programme is quite intensive, there are often activities at the High School in the weekends. If the volunteer works during the weekend, he will have time off at an other time during the week. The average working hours per day will be about 7 hours.

Lodging and boarding:

The volunteer will be lodged at the high school where he/she will either have his/her own room or share a room with another volunteer. There will be shared toilet and bath facilities. The local AFS chapter will arrange a weekend host family for the volunteer. He will eat at the school together with the students and the staff.

The volunteer will be invited to social events arranged by the AFS's local chapters together with other volunteers, exchange students and host families.


C. Risk prevention, safety and protection

Andebolle Youth College complies with Danish safety regulations. The work at the school does not involve any special risks.