I. Show us an activity you enjoy doing. Tell us how you think it contributes to your personal and professional development

1. HOW TRAVELING AFFECTED MY
CAREER AND LIFE ASPIRATIONS
Daniel Bröcker
daniel@broecker.org
IE University
Application

2. INTRODUCTION
A HOBBY THAT I ENJOY…
Especially during the past 5 years, I decided to use the opportunity to travel to different parts of the world in order to engage both
in different intercultural projects and also simply in the joy of a long journey itself. These were the most important stations: After
finishing High School (2012), I started a road trip in Australia for three months together with my father and sister. Then, I worked
as an English teacher in a poor rural area of Peru, staying with a local family and learning a lot about the country’s values,
customs and political state. During that time I also visited other places in South America.
Later, in 2014, I worked for SAP in Quebec, Canada for two months, also a very enriching experience. In 2015, a one-month trip
to Indonesia last year was the most recent further located part of the world I have been to so far, during which I learned about a
country-wide economic transformation due to one industry.
The following slide show is intended to highlight the cultural experiences I made during those trips and to what extent these have
shaped my open-mindedness and professional motivations in order to become part of a multicultural learning process. All of the
following photos are self-made.

3. AUSTRALIA 2012
ROADTRIP FROM BRISBANE TO CAIRNS/SIDNEY
During my Australia trip, the contrast between nature
and modern, urban culture was very extreme… Cities
like Sydney, characterized by the Angloamerican
modern lifesytsle…

4. AUSTRALIA 2012
ROADTRIP FROM BRISBANE TO CAIRNS/SIDNEY
...as opposed to the Frazer Island, the largest sand
island in the world
...or the Great Barrier Reef, a massive and impressive
ecosystem, which may not be present for many more
years...

5. AUSTRALIA 2012
ROADTRIP FROM BRISBANE TO CAIRNS/SIDNEY
...shed light on the current debates on ecology
preservation and how close, yet far away impressive
natural habitats and metropolitan areas can be to
each other.
Furthermore, this was the first time I could use my
English proficiency, having just finished High School,
in order to get most out of the conversations held with
locals and other international visitors.

6. PERU 2012
ENGLISH TEACHER FOR 5TH TO 12TH GRADERS AND MARKET
SELLERS
Working with less priviledged children as a bilingually
raised person (Spanish/German) was one of the most
fulfilling experiences. In the Andes region of Cuzco, I
not only taught in the local school...

7. PERU 2012
ENGLISH TEACHER FOR 5TH TO 12TH GRADERS AND MARKET
SELLERS
...but also initiated an own project for local artisan
sellers who needed some basic English in order to
sell and advertise their products more effectively to
the tourists that frequently visited the village, Pisaq.
Together with three German and Danish friends from
the non-profit organization we worked for, we booked
rooms in a museum and offered free 4-week courses
people (aged 6 to 72 joined in the end).

8. PERU 2012
ENGLISH TEACHER FOR 5TH TO 12TH GRADERS AND MARKET
SELLERS
The places I visited after the social projects were unforgettably
beautiful (Machu Pichu, Titikaka Lake, Colca Canyon, Buenos
Aires, Uruguay, etc).
What I took out of this time was definitely how important
internationality and languages are as keys to new cultures and
sharing skills others can simply not obtain that easily. Without
my Spanish proficiency, I would never have been able to engage
in such interesting conversations. Teaching would obviously
have been much more difficult, too. Also, I lost 25 kilos of weight
during this time, something I also count towards my personal
development.

9. MONTREAL 2014
INTERNSHIP AT SAP AG
My time in Quebec was especially interesting
because the mixture between French and US-
American influences could be identified in all parts of
the city and region.
Montreal looks like an American city, but its culture is
highly francophone. Thanks to my French language
education in school, I was able to communicate rather
well. At SAP, the working language was a mixture of
French and English as well. It was interesting to see
how Quebec inhabitants are all able to speak two of
the most ‘important’ languages in the world.

10. INDONESIA 2015
ISLAMIC & HINDU CULTURE FROM JAVA TO BALI
Indonesia is one of the greatest examples of how
tourism shaped an entire economy, infrastructure and
educational system. I travelled there with my mother
who had been there around thirty years ago. She
knew some locals who agreed and elaborated on her
impression of how the islands, especially Bali and
Java have completely changed due to intense
tourism. The economy is growing because of it, but
the beautiful landscape is being replaced by hotels,
young people are studying mainly tourism, and the
streets are overloaded with taxi drivers.

11. INDONESIA 2015
ISLAMIC & HINDU CULTURE FROM JAVA TO BALI
This trip helped me understand how globalisation has
created opportunities for formerly poor and
underdeveloped countries to pave the road towards
more economic growth. The countriy’s beauty is the
catalyst for such economic rise, but one should still
see the compromises that need to be made in terms
of culture and preservation in order to keep the
unilateral motor of growth going – tourism and
sightseeing.

12. WHAT I LEARNED FROM TRAVELING
A BROADER VIEW TOWARDS THE WORLD…
Especially after the first two trips after high school, my decision to become an international person was
crystalized. Although being rooted in Germany so far, I knew that I wanted to be enriched by people from
different nations, telling different stories and living different lives. Traveling as a hobby definitely opened
a very important door for me – I not only wanted to be taught internationally, but also wanted to become
part of an international environment.
Furthermore, I learned a lot about tradeoffs and how resources need to be used in order to get the most
out of sometimes very limited situations, like in Peru, for instance. Combining interpersonal together with
technical skills is the way to see and understand the world. Traveling privately and professionally is a
great motivation I have for the rest of my life – it is the best way not to get bored or too static in terms of
ones perspectives.