Student: Daniel Hassel
Employer: Sport North Harbour, Auckland/New Zealand
1. Acquisition of the internship
1.1. How did I find the place for the internship ?
I did an seven months internship at
Sport North Harbour in Auckland/New Zealand from february till september 2002.
After getting a scholarship from InWent GmbH (former Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft
e.V). I was quite lucky to get a workplace by sending one email. I heard about
Sport North Harbour from a guy who was working with us at a sports meeting in
Trier. After sending an email to the General manager they promised me that I
can work for them. The biggest advantage was that I had the scholarship and
that I was not in need for much money.
1.2. How did I hear about the InWent scholarships ?
Someday I found a handout about the
different programmes of the InWent GmbH and asked Dr. Borgmann for his opinion.
Without his help I wouldn`t have
been able to get one of the scholarship.
He has got a lot of experiences
concerning the different scholarship programmes. So if you are interested in
going abroad don`t hesitate to ask Dr. Borgmann for the different scholarship
programmes. You can`t start too early as for many programmes you have to apply
from 18 months in advance.
2. The internship at Sport North Harbour
About 12 people work at Sport North
Harbour. Sport North Harbour is a so called Regional Sport Trust, in some way
comparable to the German “Landessportbünde”. In comparison to the German system
Sport North Harbour is more involved in practical tasks such as coaching
teachers, organising and managing Events etc. They offer a wide range of tasks
as for example sport development, active living, event management, junior
sports or sports tourism. I had the chance to have a look in every single one
of these “businesses” and by this way learned a lot of the organisation of
sports in New Zealand. My main subjects however were event management, junior
sports and active living.
3. Finding a room
It was easy for me to find a room as
one of my colleagues at Sport North Harbour had one single room for rent. I
paid 70 NZ-Dollars a week, what is very cheap. Nevertheless it is still quite
easy to find a room especially in Auckland, New Zealand`s biggest city. In
newspapers such as “Trade and Exchange” you can find a huge variety of
different rooms for rent.
I had a small single room with a
bed, desk and a cupboard. I lived in a small and cosy house together with two
girls from New Zealand.
4. Social Environment and integration
From the first day of my internship
I had a very good relationship to my colleagues, which even improved by the
time. There is only one big office at Sport North Harbour so that you are in
contact with the colleagues all the time. It also helped a lot that I lived
together with one of my colleagues. Futhermore I had contact to some Germans
who were living in New Zealand. You can find them on websites as
“neuseeland.de” or “neuseelandhaus.de”. Even though it is not recommended to
have too much contact to Germans in a foreign country due to language skills, I
think it is very good to keep contact to at least a few. It helps you to
discuss some problems native people won`t understand…
5. Auckland and New Zealand
The city of Auckland is a beautifuel
harbour city with white strands located on small islands just in 10 minutes
distance. Auckland is the biggest city of New Zealand with more than one
million inhabitants. Furthermore it is one of the biggest cities of the world
concerning to its geographic expansion. This is what makes transport very
important. I bought a car and can only recommend to do so as the public
transport is not very comfortable.
New Zealand is one of the most
beautiful countries I have ever seen.
I guess everyone has already heard a
lot about New Zealand and I promise everything is true. People in New Zealand
are very open minded and they love their country and the sea. Travelling is
quite easy with a wide range of different types of accomodation. Especially
many cheap and good backpackers and hostels.
6. Language skills
First of all it took me about two
weeks to get used to the speed people are talking with. Afterwards it was quite
easy to understand nearly everything as the New Zealand slang is not that bad.
I didn`t do a language course to improve my language skills before I left. By
reading English newspapers, watching English movies and tv and going out with
New Zealanders you will improve your language skills considerably!!!
7.Result
I can only recommend to do an
internship in a foreign country. Especially in New Zealand. I would say it was
the best decision I ever made in my life and I learned a lot and now have some
good friends abroad.
If you don`t expect to get paid and
only want to gain some experiences I can recommend an internship at Sport North
Harbour. You can find their website at www.harbour.sports.org.nz.