Everything has a new beginning

Hi, everyone! I am a first-year participant, ex media and marketing team lead, and now an ambassador of Future Heroes based in the UK. My journey at Future Heroes, started four years ago when I applied to the program. I decided to try and apply to Future Heroes just out of curiosity. I didn't know much about the program, and to be honest, I thought that I wouldn't get in anyway. But as usual, when you think that they won't pick you, they end up picking you.

My journey at FH has been long but what it has never been, is boring. I started with being a participant with a team, whose members showed up 10% of the time. Even though our team dynamic wasn't the best, we still managed to organize one fun day for a family with four children and a single mother. So keep in mind that everything is possible, even impossible.

After being a participant for four months, I became a volunteer. You may wonder why I have stayed. Well, I genuinely believe in this program and the values it represents: a sisterhood, sustainability, and creating a positive impact. The team of volunteers grew steadily, and after some time we started calling each other Big Sisters because our main goal was to provide a support system for participants. Eva, the founder of FH, saw the potential in us. She trusted us and gave us a chance to do things that are far beyond what volunteers normally do. Slowly I started doing more and more for FH and its social media. My hard work paid off, and last year I became a media and marketing team lead with a team of 7 people. I was doing things that I have never done before as running a campaign, doing collaborations with partners, writing scripts for videos, etc.

Future Heroes has helped me to reach my potential. Without this program, I wouldn't know what my purpose is and what I want to do in life. Without Future Heroes, I wouldn't believe in girl power and sisterhood, and I wouldn't feel comfortable in meeting new people.

Hi! My name is Emili Järv. I am a first-year participant and an ex program coordinator. My journey in FH started four years ago, when I was a participant in the first season. In the middle of the season our team pulled itself together, we came up with a proper plan and despite having our struggles we were one of the winning teams that season. Participating in the program and winning it gave me a piece of clarity and a big confidence boost, so I knew right away that I have to continue as a Big Sister. There were two reasons for it. The first was that before participating in the program I had swored to myself that I never want to do anything related to the field business in my future. Both of my parents studied business and while they are both happy with what they do, their office jobs had never interested me. But already during the program I realised that the field I had dismissed as boring already in my early childhood is actually filled with many amazing people and creative techniques. I knew that I needed to learn more about everything that it entails. The second reason was that the topic of education has always been close to my heart. I think that I will always remember how powered I felt after finishing the program, not because of the win, but the fact that I had grown so much during these four months. I wanted to be there for the future participants, so they could feel empowered as well.

Looking back at these three years as a Big Sister I know that I made the right decision to stay, because being a Big Sister gave me even more than I could have hoped for. I made friends, met awesome people, went to wonderful places, had incredible opportunities, gained priceless experience, the list goes on and on. For example I even got to meet the person who played my favorite teletubbie Laa Laa growing up! I am grateful that I had the chance to see how the program evolved over time and how us as volunteers grew as a team. I think the topics FH tacles are very important. So, seeing joyous participants every year and brainstorming with the whole Big Sister team on how to make the program even better - thinking back it still makes me happy and excited! I am certain that without the program in my life, I wouldn't be the person who I am today. Right now the field I am studying in university is - you guessed it - Business and I am specializing in Leadership and Entrepreneurship (basically just going on an extended version of the program here) and so far it is what I hoped it would be.