Provide Long-Term Mentors to Disadvantaged Youth

Dear friends,

At the end of the school year, we are happy to inform you that thanks to your support this year we organized 24 career workshops for 130 students from 6 different classes in 3 schools in Sofia, Gorna Malina and Novi Iskar.

In these meetings, students had the opportunity to meet personally with professionals such as an architect, travel agent, digital marketing expert, IT specialist, water lifeguard, HR specialist and others.

In order to stimulate the professional engagement and learning motivation of at-risk youths, we invited several big international companies to present the career opportunities they provide. Guests in the classrooms were companies such as Telus International Bulgaria, DM Bulgaria, Metro Bulgaria. They presented to the students their social policies and benefits, as well as the training and development programs in which they involve their employees.

We are happy to share with you photos from the career workshops at Metro Academy, which we organized with students from Novi Iskar and Gorna Malina.

We sincerely thank you for your support, without which we would not have realized meetings between students and volunteers.

Dear friends,

We are happy to share with you that in recent months we have managed to attract volunteers from four large companies to be inspirations for young people from small towns and with little motivation to study.

15 volunteers took part in career workshops in three of the schools we work with. They presented to the students the opportunities for professional realization in the field of outsourcing business, fast moving goods, marketing and information technology.

They told the students their stories about their personal and career path, about the satisfaction and difficulties in their careers. They shared valuable advice on what skills are important to have in order to be successful and inspired the students to believe that anyone who wants and puts in the effort will be able to succeed.

Each of the students had the opportunity to participate in a personal meeting with the volunteers. In these meetings, the students asked personal questions that they were interested in and to which they were looking for an answer.

Dear friends, thank you very much for your support. In the coming months, the rest of the career workshops during the second academic term in Bulgaria are coming up.

Dear friends,

The new school year 2022-2023 has started, and with it the meetings between volunteers-people with different professions and disadvantaged youth have started.

In the last month, we were able to present our foundation and mission to over 10 large companies and their employees. Our goal is for employees to take on the role of volunteer-inspirers and mentors for working with young people living and studying in small villages. These young people have a limited idea of the professional opportunities that exist. And they do not even suspect that a significant part of the professions can be carried out remotely.

We are happy to share that three major companies have already responded to our invitation to visit our schools.

The first big company is dm-drogerie markt, which met with 40 students from the village of Gorna Malina. They told the students about the history of the company and about the different professions at the headquarters. They emphasized the professions that are interesting to the students and explained what the requirements are for fulfilling the specific professional duties.

At the beginning of the new school year, the team of the "Step for Bulgaria" foundation continues its meetings to attract like-minded people to schools. We also launched a campaign to attract volunteers - individuals to meet and work with students.

We sincerely thank you for your support, without which we would not have realized meetings between students and volunteers.

"Yeah, what offices do these people work in? It's like in fairy tales here. They have places to relax, to play and all the desks are in one open place - it's like they are one big team", says Stilyan from 11th grade after his visit to the office of BNP Paribas. He sees an open office for the first time.

"It's very interesting to see where the mentors work. Yes, it's great to listen to their stories at school, but when you go to their workplace, everything becomes more real. You start to believe that everything is real and achievable", shares Mia from 10th grade after the visit to the office of BNP Paribas.

"I still can't believe that the manager of the company took an hour to talk to us. This man is fantastic. He had so many difficulties, but he never gave up. This is probably how to become a leader”-  are the words of Mitko after he visited a chocolate factory.

"I didn't know it could be so impressive working in a manufacturing plant. Everything is so planned, organized and clean. And you know that you yourself produce elements that are part of the cars around us. Maybe I can become an engineer, too.” - thinks Tsvetan from 11th grade, who visits a factory for production of electrical components

Dear friends, we share with you the impressions of young people who had the incredible opportunity to participate in special events to visit the workplace of mentors.

As you know, the Step for Bulgaria Foundation works with young people from small villages who have a limited idea of the real business environment that exists in Bulgaria. For the first time 38 high school students had the opportunity to visit a business company or manufacturing plant and learn in person about the work of their mentors.

The youths heard motivating stories of difficulties and successes. They learned that with desire, work and efforts, you can achieve a lot, no matter where you were born, what school you study in or what small village you live in.

They participated in discussions about the importance of developing teamwork skills, conflict resolution, planning, sales skills and more.

The most important thing they learned and saw in practice is that it is very important to study and try to go to university.

Thank you for your support in organizing these special meetings.

Dear friends,

We are happy to share that thanks to your support, we have completed a mentoring internship for two girls in the field of marketing and communications. The girls took part in a real project related to updating the website of the Step for Bulgaria Foundation. During the last three months, the girls learned to work with wordpress, image and text processing programs. They improved their skills for teamwork, giving and receiving feedback, preparing and defending proposals.

A student from Tutrakan also joined the mentoring program, organizing a career workshop at her school and being responsible for the technical preparation meeting of the seminar, as well as for the relevant communication reporting.

Our main work with disadvantaged young people continues in the career workshops we organize. There are already 17 meetings this school year.

Thank you very much for your support.