Sofia Siwka
Guest blog by Sofia Siwka, Cohort member in Ecogenia’s Olympus 2024 service project
Why would a trained lawyer participate in Ecogenia’s service project building trails on Mt. Olympus? It would be easy to assume it is not a relevant pathway or professional experience – but guess what? Spoiler alert! It is relevant, as I learned through my participation in Ecogenia that «Every job can (and should!) be a sustainable job».
I am Sofia, I recently graduated from the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and this is my own unique experience as a cohort member of Ecogenia’s Civic Service Project – Olympus 2024.
It all started when I started questioning what I was doing as a young lawyer in Greece. At least from what I had seen during my internship, I did not like the traditional “lawyering” let’s say. So it was time to take some distance to redefine my professional goals and this is when I found Ecogenia. I began to search more about it and quickly realized that Ecogenia’s vision and goals resonated with me. I never imagined that I would set aside my daily life in the city for a while to join a group of people that would maintain trails in Olympus, work on natural disaster prevention and raise awareness in the local community. However, I dared to try something new – and despite my insecurities at first, as it was something out of my comfort zone, I can now say for sure that it was the best choice. Indeed, I spent three months different from the daily routine I was used to until then, I worked with special people who were an inspiration to me and I gave back to my community creating a positive impact in the Olympus region. Dream job? Yes!
But that was not all. Through my participation in the program I was given the opportunity to explore aspects of myself which I didn’t know existed. I developed new skills, useful for the future, such as
- I learned to work as a part of a team for a common purpose, to act like a supportive capacity where I am needed;
- to judge the circumstances and understand when I need to take the initiative, in order to achieve the goals that we have set as a team;
- to be responsible, to work methodically to accomplish the task that was assigned to me ;
- to dare to openly express my concerns and think creatively to solve a problem.
In addition to these, I learned a lot from my unique role in the team, which was the Communications and Storytelling Officer. My job was to manage the daily social media account to share stories from our work in the field, in addition to reporting weekly milestones and outputs. I worked closely with the Ecogenia leadership and founders to implement this work and I learned to use my imagination again, which I had put aside for years.
Also, through the manual work on the trails I learned to work practically and to try for the best possible result with the tools I have. Especially during this time, we had the opportunity to work with a delegation of eleven people from California Conservation Corps, which brought me in contact with different cultures, both working and cultural. I met people with the same values and concerns as me, people from different backgrounds who complement each other’s knowledge.
But what is my point saying all this? My point is that my participation in the program has helped me to grow both as a person and as a professional, because all of these skills that I have acquired and the new things that I have learned would not have happened if I had not chosen to step out of my comfort zone and dare to do something that looks different. The concerns about the professional future are still there, they will always be there in one way or another, but if you don’t dare you will never know. But beyond that the purpose is more than personal. If we want to see change in the world we have to start somewhere and where better to start than in our community, the one we live in. Because as we say at Ecogenia «We think globally but act locally».
Cheers to the new adventures!
