Letter of motivation

Hey there! I'm Tobi from Germany. I'm currently preparing my application the European Volunteer Service programme. I just finished my letter of motivation and wonder if somebody could have a look at it correcting some language/grammar/spelling mistakes.

Thanks a lot in advance!


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Dear Ms ****,

I am Tobi<name removed> , a 19-year-old student from Germany. I will graduate from Grammar School in June this year. Before going to university I am eager to gain experience in a way completely different from school lessons. Beyond that I am curious about foreign cultures since my first school exchange (which was follewed by two other exchange programmes) in 2006. As I have furthermore enjoyed being engaged in social work for the last couple of years I very much like the idea of the EVS programme. To my mind it gives me the chance to learn a lot about a different culture, to improve my language skills and to broaden my mind by providing me with a huge opportunity of having international exposure and multicultural perspective which I consider valuable for my future development.

Browsing the EVS database I preferably focused on projects located in Ireland because I am fascinated by the country and the Irish culture since I gave a paper about the history of Ireland at school a few years ago. Moreover the fact that the description of your organisation fits best with my idea of doing social work induced me to apply for *****

I have been engaged in our school run company which concentrates on working with younger fellow students for five years now. At the beginning we mainly offered private tuition to children but gradually expended our programme by offering different clubs like the football club, the dancing club or the drama club. The company also organizes some special events like reading nights or sports tournaments. I very much like these different ways of working with kids. I am glad to be able to give some private tuition as I recognized quickly that it can be a lot of fun teaching smaller kids. But I consider it important not only to teach them the stuff written down in school books but I also enjoy passing on my personal experience in terms of growing up and becoming a mature and responsible person. [...] Apart from that I noticed that working with kids helped me a lot in terms of developing my own character, too. Organizing three sport tournaments for example not only gave me a lot of pleasure but helped me to improve my organization skills, my sense of responsibility and also provided me with the idea of how to act as a team leader.

Due to our commitment to youth work three fellow students and me were asked to accompany a school trip to Eastbourne, UK in May 2009. Acting as a mediator between the 13-year-old students and their host families was an intercultural experience I enjoyed much. Into the bargain it also improved my sense of responsibility.

As a reward for our commitment two friends of mine and me were nominated for the Global Young Leaders Conference 2009 in Washington/New York where we convened with approximately 350 young persons from all over the world. The two-weeks stay in the USA gave me great pleasure. I enjoyed interacting with people from all over the world sharing their culture. In addition it was great fun to discuss global issues and to work out different resolutions for a United Nations security council simulation. During the time in Washington/New York I experienced the importance of global cooperation and confirmed my decision to go abroad after graduating from school. Hence I currently consider to study European Studies after serving as a European Volunteer and aim to work for the European Union.

I am particularly interested in serving as a volunteer since I consider it important to support children and teenager during the process of growing up. Due to my own experiences I regard it as normal that young people preferably confide problems to people at their age. And that is where I see a task I am well-fitted for because of the youth work I have done for the last years. I am a communicative guy who likes to share his own culture and knowledge. Hence I think the kids as well as me could benefit from interacting with each other. Apart from that I like to play soccer and to play the guitar and would be glad to bring my experience and skills into your youth work. For example I could imagine to offer my help for your homework club as I ran several homework clubs at my school as well. Furthermore I propose to organize some own projects like a sports tournament, giving some guitar lessons or establishing some kind of club dealing with intercultural exchange.

Having taken part in three exchange programmes I improved my language skills and simultaneously developed the ability to adjust quickly to a different culture and living environment. Besides I like to work in a team and consider communication skills as a key competence. Nevertheless I can also work individually by taking the initiative and the responsibility to accomplish tasks on my own. I enjoy challanges and like to discuss solutions with different people because I reckon this is the best way to learn from each other.

I am eager to face new challanges which can help me broaden my horizon. I am open-minded and ready to learn as well as to share my knowledge with who ever wants to. I am ready to learn and I would be very grateful if you give me a chance to contribute to your project.

I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,