{"id":21051,"date":"2025-10-12T11:06:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/?p=21051"},"modified":"2025-10-12T11:06:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:06:16","slug":"human-of-univie-ivelina-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Human of #univie Ivelina: People are life – Community is my greatest achievement"},"content":{"rendered":"

My first winter in Austria was lonely and harsh. I had just moved from Plovdiv, Bulgaria to Vienna at 18, and suddenly I was in a city where I knew no one, where the language around me felt foreign despite speaking it, and where the days turned gray and cold very quickly. Back in 2019, Vienna didn\u2019t yet have as many organized spaces for international students to connect. That silence \u2013 that gap \u2013 became impossible for my heart to ignore. And it cracked something open in me: If there were no opportunities for international students to make friends, then I would create them myself.<\/p>\n

The University of Vienna became the stage where that mission took shape. I joined The International Society UniVie<\/a> and met incredible human beings, like my fellow core committee members Shefali, Kristin, Sanjida, Anna and Gizem. Together, we organized powerful events where international students could gather, laugh, and exchange their life experiences and how they feel in a new city. For someone arriving in a foreign country, those evenings often meant everything. They were proof you didn\u2019t have to face the challenge alone.<\/p>\n

From there, it grew. I joined numerous expat platforms, hosted travelers and fellow internationals in my student apartment, and opened my door to people who, like me, were searching for connection. I organized meet-ups for expats and eventually became Partnerships Manager for the Erasmus Student Network. Through these roles, I wasn\u2019t just networking, I was fulfilling my soul\u2019s goal \u2013 I was creating circles where people felt that they belonged.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I watched strangers shake hands at one of our events and later become best friends. I saw students who once felt isolated, suddenly feel at home in a city that can be overwhelming at first. And every time I witnessed that transformation, I felt the same quiet truth: this was my real work.<\/p>\n

That, to me, is my greatest achievement. Not graduating with Distinction in B.A. Mass Media and Communication Sciences. Not representing the University of Vienna all the way in Australia. Not even working for the marketing team at Erste Bank, or finishing my Master\u2019s degree. My biggest accomplishment is the community I\u2019ve built along the way\u00a0\u2013 being the reason people met, fell into conversation, and found the friendships that sustained them and brought them a sense of belonging.<\/p>\n

Universities are often measured by their rankings, their programs, their research output. But behind all of that, a university is also the people who pass through it. For me, the University of Vienna became more than a place to study; it became the place where I learned the most essential lesson of all: people are life. And creating spaces where people can find each other is what gives me the deepest sense of fulfillment. \u2013 Ivelina Mitreva<\/p>\n

Ivelina studied Mass Media and Communication Sciences<\/a> at the University of Vienna.<\/p>\n

Do you want to be part of an #univie community? Take a look here<\/a> and find yours! An overview of community events is also regularly published on our blog<\/a>. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first winter in Austria was lonely and harsh. I had just moved from Plovdiv, Bulgaria to Vienna at 18, and suddenly I was in a city where I knew no one, where the language around me felt foreign despite speaking it, and where the days turned gray and cold very quickly. Back in 2019, … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":21059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[817],"tags":[1156,1157,853],"class_list":["post-21051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humans-of-university-of-vienna-en","tag-communities","tag-human-en","tag-international-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHuman of #univie Ivelina: Community is my greatest achievement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Human of #univie Ivelina found herself alone in a new city but quickly realized she's not the only one: she joined a Community!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Human of #univie Ivelina: Community is my greatest achievement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Human of #univie Ivelina found herself alone in a new city but quickly realized she's not the only one: she joined a Community!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The univie Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/univienna\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-12T09:06:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/relaunch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/HumansofVienna_Portrait_115_Ivelina_04_1x1_instagramm_with_circle_and_logo_-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kathrin Schoenfelder\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@univienna\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@univienna\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kathrin Schoenfelder\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/\",\"name\":\"Human of #univie Ivelina: Community is my greatest achievement\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-12T09:06:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-12T09:06:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/#\/schema\/person\/84156510e04566a32857826eb71eeae7\"},\"description\":\"Human of #univie Ivelina found herself alone in a new city but quickly realized she's not the only one: she joined a Community!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Startseite\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Human of #univie Ivelina: People are life – Community is my greatest achievement\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/\",\"name\":\"The univie Blog\",\"description\":\"Blog of the University of Vienna\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/#\/schema\/person\/84156510e04566a32857826eb71eeae7\",\"name\":\"Kathrin Schoenfelder\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80e071c8d642f4fa392f22b1e0b257ad4fdf455980cfa5d4331caeee495c95e3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80e071c8d642f4fa392f22b1e0b257ad4fdf455980cfa5d4331caeee495c95e3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kathrin Schoenfelder\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Human of #univie Ivelina: Community is my greatest achievement","description":"Human of #univie Ivelina found herself alone in a new city but quickly realized she's not the only one: she joined a Community!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Human of #univie Ivelina: Community is my greatest achievement","og_description":"Human of #univie Ivelina found herself alone in a new city but quickly realized she's not the only one: she joined a Community!","og_url":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/","og_site_name":"The univie Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/univienna","article_published_time":"2025-10-12T09:06:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1920,"url":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/relaunch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/HumansofVienna_Portrait_115_Ivelina_04_1x1_instagramm_with_circle_and_logo_-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kathrin Schoenfelder","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@univienna","twitter_site":"@univienna","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kathrin Schoenfelder","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/","name":"Human of #univie Ivelina: Community is my greatest achievement","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-10-12T09:06:16+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-12T09:06:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/#\/schema\/person\/84156510e04566a32857826eb71eeae7"},"description":"Human of #univie Ivelina found herself alone in a new city but quickly realized she's not the only one: she joined a Community!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/humans-of-university-of-vienna-en\/human-of-univie-ivelina-community\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Startseite","item":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Human of #univie Ivelina: People are life – Community is my greatest achievement"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/","name":"The univie Blog","description":"Blog of the University of Vienna","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/#\/schema\/person\/84156510e04566a32857826eb71eeae7","name":"Kathrin Schoenfelder","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80e071c8d642f4fa392f22b1e0b257ad4fdf455980cfa5d4331caeee495c95e3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80e071c8d642f4fa392f22b1e0b257ad4fdf455980cfa5d4331caeee495c95e3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kathrin Schoenfelder"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21051"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21064,"href":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21051\/revisions\/21064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.univie.ac.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}