Maria Krause

Maria Krause – in Krzyżowa from september to december 2010 as a scholar of the european Leonardo da Vinci program. Originally from Aachen/ Germany, she studied social works and pedagogics in Freiburg and Berlin.

What made you come to Krzyżowa?

After my volontary servicein preservation of monuments in Lidzbark Warmiński (former Heilsberg im Ermland) with BORUSSIA Olsztyn I wanted to live and  work again in Poland.

What are you doing in Krzyżowa?

During my time at school, I did a lot of youth work, for example with the St. Georges Girl Scouts. Now I am glad to be here in the International Youth Meeting Centre and to attend such different youth meetings –such as a german-polish school exchange or the project „Building Bridges“ for people with and without diabilities from Czech, Slovakia, Poland and Germany. Besides that, I like to acompany differnet tourist groups through the grounds, always trying to bring Krzyżowa closer to them in a way that suits the individual group. If there is no work to be done, Frieda, my co-trainee and Bazyl, our favorite parttime-dog wander throught the fields.

What would you like to organize in Krzyżowa?

Next to my studies of social works and pedagogics in Freiburg and Berlin I have worked a lot with university politics, art therapy and theatre – i would like to try out these different fields in an international context. I am especially interested in the aspect of political education, on which from my point of view, german school miss out very often. Moreover, one of my study focuses was community work with the principle of participation: enabling people that they start working on their topics to change them in the way they want to. This approach of encouraging (young) people to think and act independant is very important for me and I believe, Krzyżowa is a good place for this.