“My name is Damir Vucicevic and I am a volunteer at the Excellence Center in Hebron, Palestine. The program I am involved in is TESA (Teach English, Speak Arabic). The reason why I chose Palestine as a destination country to do my volunteer work is because it has been, for a long time, one of the places I wanted to visit. My graduate studies are focused on the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa), more specifically the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Therefore, visiting and volunteering in Palestine provides me with a great opportunity to better understand the conflict and learn about the people living here.

Thus far, my experience in Hebron has been a positive one. The locals are very friendly and welcoming. The people at the Excellence Center are exceptionally friendly and accommodating. For the remainder of my time in Hebron, I hope to teach as much as I would like to learn. My hope is that I will be able to help the students at the Excellence Center in their English language studies and make them interested in furthering their studies. The training manual provided by the Excellence Center offers many great ideas on how to contribute to the Center’s goals. I certainly hope to employ many of these ideas and innovate my own in order to help the students.

As previously mentioned, my studies closely focus on Palestine and its people. This experience of living in Palestine and working here with the locals will certainly help me get a better understanding of the problems facing everyday Palestinians. Furthermore, my experience at the Excellence Center will help me develop my language skills in Arabic. I hope that learning Arabic and living in Palestine for the two months will give me a solid foundation in conceptualizing the Arabic language. For my studies and future aspirations, this will be of great benefit.

I certainly hope that my short stay here will make a positive impact for everyone involved – including me, the Excellence Center staff, and most importantly the students who come here to study.”