A Time for Transformation

Germany, Hannover: Nick Krichevsky, 36, Expert for transformative education at Educational Greenhouse

When the Shutdown arrived in Germany, I was a teacher doing a lot of normal teacher stuff. As they say, I was ‘in the grind’, focused on my work-life balance and juggling around my various hobbies, activities, and duties. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, came several intense months of personal and professional development, although I tend not to even separate the two ideas anymore. …

… During those first few weeks of Corona, everything slowed down. I spent hours just thinking and relaxing, listened to my first podcast, and enjoyed time with my family. I signed up for a 21-day meditation challenge, started making my own soap and put together a raised bed in the yard. I started to adopt the idea of truly embracing and relishing every moment of time, whether spent watching my youngest son try to catch ants or filling out a grant application for funding a school project. Corona was and still is an intense time for personal development.
Exactly one week before the shutdown I had a meeting with Corinna Michal-Gabriel, co-founder of Educational Greenhouse. We talked about the future of education, the importance of transformative experiences and the role of digitalization. Just a few days later I joined the non-profit organization. And a few days after that, it became even more apparent just how quickly education was going to have to ‘go digital’. At the end of May, we hosted our first two-day digital conference with the UNESCO schools in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The conference was a success – a co-collaborative transformative experience for everyone involved. Corona was and still is an intense time for professional development.

Corona meant and still means fewer freedoms, fewer choices, and less time with my friends and loved ones. It meant and still means unseen dangers and uncertain futures. But I will be honest, it was and still is a time for transformation and I loved and still love every moment of it. Of course, I do not mean Corona, I mean life. And this attitude was and still is new to me, and something I intend on keeping close, regardless of what the future has in store.