My experience as an IVY volunteer in Alexander Innovation zone

It’s been 3 months since I started my IVY journey and the only way I could describe my experience is beyond what I imagined. My name is Evangelia Papomata and I am an Interreg Volunteer in Alexander Innovation Zone. My main task is to promote the Interreg project co-working via Instagram-Facebook-Twitter-Youtube, to write articles and post them in our website and assist in any way I can my coworkers.

Alexander Innovation Zone (AIZ) is the managing body that has undertaken the management and development of the Thessaloniki Innovation Zone. The role of AIZ is to strengthen and promote the innovative activity of the wider area of Thessaloniki, with an emphasis on public benefit purposes.

So far I have taken part in many projects such as the ‘’CO-Working’’ and ‘’Together’’, which are about guiding the new startupers and networking action with successful Thessaloniki Startups. But the project that got my attention was the ‘’Productive Truancy’’ which is aiming for students to get a glimpse of the real word.

How this project works? Well…it is very simple. Students of Central Macedonia visit innovative companies of Northern Greece and are being educated by established professionals. As a result, they learn how the workspaces are, find inspiration about their future careers and motivation to achieve their goals. 1300 students visit 25 innovative companies which are: Apifon, Zelia, Embryolab, CHIMAR, BETA CAE, EPSILON NET, EXANDIA, Olympia Electronics, Titan, etc.. The Productive Truancy was implemented strictly online due to the Covid-19 pandemic from 2017 until 2021 but from now on, in 2022 we started the live visits.

I feel fulfilled when I look the impact that this project has in the students, especially when they said to us that due to this experience they came up with a future business idea and are going to share this experience with their friends from another schools. It makes me look back to my school years and hoped to have more actions like this one. Nevertheless, I feel lucky that I am able to provide them with that. 

Thank you IVY for helping me do that!

– Evangelia, IVY Project Partner for the Greece-Bulgaria project “Co-Working” at the Alexander Innovation Zone SA

"Stories of European Cooperation": Co-Working project

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Discover the Interreg Greece-Bulgaria Co-Working project

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