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How was volunteering at ChangeNOW in Paris an opening door to opportunities and networking for me as a first-year student?

As a first-year student at the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ College Utrecht, interested in sustainability, environmental sciences and entrepreneurship, I decided to volunteer at ChangeNOW during spring break 2024. It is an international summit of innovative solutions for the planet, organized by three remarkable co-founders—, , and .

I could write about this event like many others did on their LinkedIn posts how amazing and inspirating it was to meet new people and hear the conferences. And that would be true. I truly felt inspired and connected to people. Even though we had very different backgrounds, we were linked by the desire to protect the environment at our own scale. Instead of writing a summary of my three days of volunteering, I thought that I could reflect on what volunteering at ChangeNOW has brought me.

I got incredible opportunities and connections from those three days of volunteering

During the 3 days of the event, I was volunteering at the welcome desk of the pitching scene, welcoming the startupers and the jury members before their pitch. They would have three minutes to pitch their company to investors on topics like circular economy, innovative fashion materials or biology. One remarkable example was the Dutch company working on water reutilization who won the . Winning this price gave them more visibility and possible future fundings or investments. Overall, I would say that those the three days were interesting, dynamic, diverse, and challenging, especially when a jury member would be missing five minutes before the beginning of the session.

Among all the discussions that I had with general attendees, visitors, guests, speakers, or jury members one discussion caught my attention. What struck me from this discussion is that one person told me that I should be paid for what I was doing. In my mind, what I was doing had no value in terms of money. I was just making sure that all the speakers would be there on time, answering their questions, guiding VIP guests thought the event and helping here and there when other volunteer teams would need my help. Doing that was giving me so much energy and inspiration and it was also a way for me to have access to this event, as a first-year student, with no working experience and no higher education degree diploma yet. Not only could it give me access to this event but also to the conferences and to the network of guests, volunteers, companies, and exhibitors.

Rewards in opportunities, in human connections, in skills and in experiences

Thanks to this event I met so many new people. Some of them offered me internships, others offered me to visit their office, to become a student ambassador of their company or to be part of a group for women’s empowerment in sustainability. I got incredible opportunities and connections from those three days of volunteering that no money would be able to compensate. With this article, I wish to make you reflect on the reasons why you would be willing to give your time and your energy to contribute to a project without monetary compensation but with rewards in opportunities, in human connections, in skills and in experiences. 

Finally, I hope to inspire other people to volunteer next year at the as I did this year by inspiring five other students of Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ to join me in this experience. I am always open to talk about it, if you have any questions or would be interested in volunteering at Change NOW next year, do not hesitate to reach out to me on .

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