Team
Our team consists of engineers and scientists at universities and companies, as well as students of technical sciences across Serbia and the world. We aspire to introduce high school students into the world of science and technology, sharing our knowledge and experience via lectures, workshops and mentoring them in their first steps in science and engineering.
We have three categories of associates:
Though we have different categories, all team members are equally important, and they are all contributing to the activities of PFE.
The diversity of our team is one of its’ main attributes, and something of which we are proud. You can see it on the map below.
Why and how is PFE important to me as associate?
For me as an associate PFE is important for professional development - it’s the place where I’m getting an opportunity to work with students and other associates where I grow and get new knowledge. At the same time, it’s important for making new friends, spending time in a healthy work environment and with people of similar interests and passion.
PFE is an opportunity to gain experience, because I think one of the best ways to learn is to share knowledge. Also, it is an opportunity to gain experience about fields of science and engineering that I haven’t been working on.
For me, as a junior associate, it’s so important to have the opportunity to work with senior associates and leverage their knowledge and hands-on experience while working with students on their projects. Later on, as senior associate, I enjoy working with young people, and the feeling of bringing value back to the PFE organization (PFE was important to me, so I love creating same opportunities for others).
While hanging out with people and working together with motivated and talented kids from Serbia and region, I feel recharged and return back to everyday work with more enthusiasm - just like active vacation.
For me this is an opportunity to create an environment for kids where they can get quality knowledge on the topics of interest that they cannot get at home or their schools. It’s a place where I spend time and share experiences with people of similar interest and various career paths. An opportunity to create value for the community. An opportunity to learn and develop my technical and social skills.
Junior associates are middle ground between participants and senior associates. While participants and senior associates grow linearly, junior associates need to grow exponentially. In my humble opinion, the key element is to create an environment that helps junior associates, and that it is a focus point. For my development, it was critical to have a strong associate crew with good cohesion and we have been spending a lot of time outside of camps. We also had different activities, making robots, having startups, and parties that defined our bonding. At camps, the atmosphere is like being on an extremely specific vacation, without stress. While working with participants I’ve enjoyed the challenge to find a project that unlocks their unique next level. Sometimes projects were hard for me as junior associate, and this was exceptionally important for my own development. Finally, I enjoy developing my own social skills that were necessary to understand adolescents.
This is not necessarily an answer to the question, but as a program manager, I enjoyed working with associates more than working with participants as a junior associate.