Since her exchange year in Mexico in 2008/9, Miri is a very active volunteer at YFU, teaming and organising many, especially inbound, student seminars in our region as well as on a national and international level for years. She was the head of Germany's inbound programme for 6 years. On a national level, Miri worked on concepts for inbound student seminars and her latest focus is helping the students learning their host language.
Volunteer of the Month: Mirjam Hippchen
Bringing the carnival culture closer to inbound students
As Miri is based in and around Cologne, the "epicenter of german carnival culture", she has spent years of work bringing german carnival culture closer to our inbound students.
The cologne carnival parade is one of the most known annual parades in Germany. Miri managed, that YFU can partake in it for 10 years and more to come. This is one the one hand a huge PR stunt for YFU, as many many people are watching the parade from the curb, or from their living room as the parade is televised on local and national, and more than 10.000 YFU carnival branded postcards are distributed during the parade each year. On the other hand, Miris engagement only allows us to show our local culture to the inbound students and let them, their hostfamilies and other YFU volunteers participate in the cologne carnival parade which for many people in the region is a once in a lifetime dream. Each year, Miri creates a unique theme which highlights or alludes to YFU core values and designes a costume that fits this motto. As the cologne carnival is notoriously rich in trash, from candy wrappers to cheap costumes, Miri tries to make our part of the parade more environmentally friendly. In the last years, we started giving out carrots, regional apples and reduced the amount of plastic-wrapped candy. In this year's parade, all we gave away were YFU postcards, apples, carrots and self-packed, bee friendly, flower seeds. For her efforts, Miri got awarded from the parade organisers. The participating inbound students are so thankful for experiencing cologne carnival culture, which always is a bit of a culture shock, and many call it a highlight of their exchange year.
Thank you, Mirjam!