who is mauro?
Hi everybody! I am Mauro Carta and this is my website. Here you can find information about myself, my education background, my working and voluntary experience, my hobbies and, of course, my contacts, in case you wish to cooperate with me.
I was born in 1976 in Italy, in Sardinia island, the place where I currently live and where I prepare my activities (well, I admit it: an island where the sun shines 300 days a year is a place worth living, isn't it?). I spent a carefree childhood going to school and playing with my sister and friends in the neighborhood. On weekends we used to travel all around the island with our parents (my mom was a primary school teacher, my father worked as building surveyor). It was a time when I found out how fascinating nature can be, and how important it is to respect and protect our land.
After my graduation, I lived in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France and I visited many European (and not European) countries. My first intercultural experience was a workcamp in Norway in 1999. The place, people and work had such an impact on me, that I could not stop looking for similar experiences. So, very shortly, this is the reason why I decided to turn my passion into a job, that would have brought me all around the world like a magic carpet!
However, working as intercultural trainer is not that simple: it's a job that requires language skills, historic knowledge, self-organisation, a special care for group dynamics and many other skills. Not to mention the moral dimension: for sure you cannot become a millionaire following this path, but the contribution you can give to the community and the satisfaction and feedback you get back are priceless.
What else can be said about me? I like classic black-and-white movies (Hitchcock thrillers, sci-fi genre among my favorite), I am a would-be long-distant runner, I like drawing cartoons and I played guitar and keyboards in several blues and rock band. If you wish to know more about me, please visit the other sessions of this website.
I was born in 1976 in Italy, in Sardinia island, the place where I currently live and where I prepare my activities (well, I admit it: an island where the sun shines 300 days a year is a place worth living, isn't it?). I spent a carefree childhood going to school and playing with my sister and friends in the neighborhood. On weekends we used to travel all around the island with our parents (my mom was a primary school teacher, my father worked as building surveyor). It was a time when I found out how fascinating nature can be, and how important it is to respect and protect our land.
After my graduation, I lived in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France and I visited many European (and not European) countries. My first intercultural experience was a workcamp in Norway in 1999. The place, people and work had such an impact on me, that I could not stop looking for similar experiences. So, very shortly, this is the reason why I decided to turn my passion into a job, that would have brought me all around the world like a magic carpet!
However, working as intercultural trainer is not that simple: it's a job that requires language skills, historic knowledge, self-organisation, a special care for group dynamics and many other skills. Not to mention the moral dimension: for sure you cannot become a millionaire following this path, but the contribution you can give to the community and the satisfaction and feedback you get back are priceless.
What else can be said about me? I like classic black-and-white movies (Hitchcock thrillers, sci-fi genre among my favorite), I am a would-be long-distant runner, I like drawing cartoons and I played guitar and keyboards in several blues and rock band. If you wish to know more about me, please visit the other sessions of this website.
mauro's background
According to my opinion, there is no university or school that can prepare to the job of intercultural trainer better than the participation to intercultural seminars, training courses or workcamps. However, it is essential to keep in mind that trainers willing to commit themselves in this field work with special groups of people. This means: a trainer needs to have knowledge on how to deal with group dynamics (and s/he has to be sensitive to people's needs). Furthermore, such groups are “special”, because their members come from different cultural backgrounds. This means: a trainer needs to possess language skills (English is a must, but the more language one speaks, the better), intercultural understanding, knowledge about geography, history and political system of world countries. Some people, looking at my academic background or at my CV, are puzzled about their heterogeneity and call it a “minestrone” (typical Italian soup featuring all possible vegetables). Nevertheless, looking at the big picture, it is easy to find four main “pillars” in my education:
1. Pedagogy: in 1999 I concluded my 4-year university course in Education Science in Sardinia. I learned about psychology, sociology and anthropology, and of course about education techniques. I also learned how to design and submit social researches through practical exercises, which was really interested. I set up a research team made up of 7 friends (including my sister) to create a provocative survey in our faculty: among the questions we asked to imagine exams without marks!
2. Political Sciences: in 2008 I obtained a scholarship to study abroad. I was accepted by the Vienna University for a master in European Studies. It was a great international learning experience since our class was made up of students coming from 14 different countries! Besides learning everything about the EU institutions, we had the chance to visit Brussels, Luxembourg, Cracow and Auschwitz. My time in Vienna was extremely stimulating, and the skills and knowledge I learned there has improved the quality of my training.
3. Intercultural experiences: dozens of courses, workcamps, seminars all over the world. Shortly, the real “intercultural” life, with its joys, challenges and misunderstandings! I had the chance to put into practice instruments of non-formal education and to share and improve them by working with motivated trainers, who have always been a valuable source of inspiration. My "school" was the Service Civil International (S.C.I.), one of the oldest NGO working for peace and intercultural understanding in the world.
4. Art: although I have never had the chance to attend a specific school or course in the art field, since I was able to hold a pencil in my hand I produced artworks in the forms of comics and drawings, and of course I read plenty of strips, too (my favorite are Carl Barks's Donald Duck). Working both with kids and as a trainer with young people, I slowly realized that I could apply my skills to my training courses and seminars. After all, in every project we create materials, flip-charts, visualization tools and so on. Not to mention about final reports, promotion and educational material!
It is hard to say which one of these four pillars is the most important. I think that each offers a different contributions to my profile: the educational one is my inspiration for theory (methodology, approaches, working style); the political one helps me fill the theory with contents; whereas the third one provides me with practical solutions, experience and tools; finally, the fourth one contributes to make my work esthetically more appealing.
Yes, it is without any doubt a big “minestrone”, but it doesn't taste so bad, after all!
Do you wish to work with me? Click here and contact me!
1. Pedagogy: in 1999 I concluded my 4-year university course in Education Science in Sardinia. I learned about psychology, sociology and anthropology, and of course about education techniques. I also learned how to design and submit social researches through practical exercises, which was really interested. I set up a research team made up of 7 friends (including my sister) to create a provocative survey in our faculty: among the questions we asked to imagine exams without marks!
2. Political Sciences: in 2008 I obtained a scholarship to study abroad. I was accepted by the Vienna University for a master in European Studies. It was a great international learning experience since our class was made up of students coming from 14 different countries! Besides learning everything about the EU institutions, we had the chance to visit Brussels, Luxembourg, Cracow and Auschwitz. My time in Vienna was extremely stimulating, and the skills and knowledge I learned there has improved the quality of my training.
3. Intercultural experiences: dozens of courses, workcamps, seminars all over the world. Shortly, the real “intercultural” life, with its joys, challenges and misunderstandings! I had the chance to put into practice instruments of non-formal education and to share and improve them by working with motivated trainers, who have always been a valuable source of inspiration. My "school" was the Service Civil International (S.C.I.), one of the oldest NGO working for peace and intercultural understanding in the world.
4. Art: although I have never had the chance to attend a specific school or course in the art field, since I was able to hold a pencil in my hand I produced artworks in the forms of comics and drawings, and of course I read plenty of strips, too (my favorite are Carl Barks's Donald Duck). Working both with kids and as a trainer with young people, I slowly realized that I could apply my skills to my training courses and seminars. After all, in every project we create materials, flip-charts, visualization tools and so on. Not to mention about final reports, promotion and educational material!
It is hard to say which one of these four pillars is the most important. I think that each offers a different contributions to my profile: the educational one is my inspiration for theory (methodology, approaches, working style); the political one helps me fill the theory with contents; whereas the third one provides me with practical solutions, experience and tools; finally, the fourth one contributes to make my work esthetically more appealing.
Yes, it is without any doubt a big “minestrone”, but it doesn't taste so bad, after all!
Do you wish to work with me? Click here and contact me!