My internship at Erciyes University
For my Erasmus+ internship, I worked at the International Office of Erciyes University in Kayseri. My main experience was supporting the international environment of the university and getting an inside look at how an international office works.
My tasks included administrative support, communicating with students and staff, and helping with activities related to international students and Erasmus+. Working in the International Office gave me the opportunity to communicate with people from different backgrounds and see how international mobility is managed from the university’s side.
What made this experience especially interesting for me was that Türkiye was not a completely unfamiliar country. I was born and raised in the Netherlands, while my parents are Turkish. I also lived in Kayseri during high school, so I already knew the city and had visited Erciyes University before.
However, working at Erciyes University was completely different from visiting it as a student or living in Kayseri as a teenager. I could now look at the university and the city from a professional perspective. It made me notice things about communication, workplace culture and university life that I had not paid as much attention to before.
My connection with Ankara and Kayseri
Before my internship, I also spent time in Ankara as an exchange student last year. Experiencing both Ankara and Kayseri in Türkiye gave me the chance to see different sides of the country and the change to see different student lives.
Outside my internship, I enjoyed spending time with friends, explorin
g places around Kayseri and reconnecting with a city that had already been an important part of my life. Of course, Erciyes Mountain was also a familiar landmark for me from my time in Kayseri.
Being in Türkiye again also gave me the opportunity to connect more with my Turkish background while at the same time seeing the country through the perspective I developed from growing up in the Netherlands and studying in Finland.
Türkiye and Finland: different but also similar
One of the most interesting parts of my internship was comparing the working culture in Türkiye with what I have experienced in Finland.
In Finland, I have experienced a working and studying environment where independence, direct communication and taking responsibility are strongly encouraged. At TAMK and especially through Proakatemia, students are given a lot of freedom and responsibility for their own learning and work.
During my internship in Türkiye, I experienced a more relationship-oriented environment. Communication and personal relationships felt very important, and I found interactions between people to be generally warm and welcoming.
At the same time, I realized that the differences are not always as simple as “Finland is like this and Türkiye is like that.” My own background probably also influenced how I experienced both environments. Having lived in the Netherlands, Türkiye and Finland has taught me that the same situation can look very different depending on the cultural perspective you bring with you.
Looking back
My internship at Erciyes University gave me much more than professional experience. It allowed me to return to a place that I already knew and see it through completely new eyes.
I started the experience with knowledge of Türkiye from my family, my childhood and my previous time in Kayseri and Ankara. I left with a better understanding of Türkiye’s professional and international university environment.
For me, that is one of the most valuable parts of studying and working abroad: you don’t only discover a new country, sometimes you rediscover a familiar place from a completely different perspective.
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