The CSR in Practice course has turned into an eye-opening journey. It always does! What have the students learned this time?
Every semester, students participate in the compulsory CSR in Practice course. Its purpose is to encourage them to step out of their comfort zones and raise awareness in various areas of social responsibility by delivering CSR projects of their choice. Each time, for many students, the course offers much more than just a check mark in their study program.
During the summer semester of 2025, students engaged in the following projects:
- Workshop for Pupils in Košice: “The Internet Is Not a Playground”
- Together We Care: Volunteering at a cat shelter and helping homeless people
- Finding Heroes for Bone Marrow Donation Initiative
- Engaging Kids at the Klokánek Child Center
- Cultivating Food at a Community Farm
Workshop for Pupils in Košice: “The Internet Is Not a Playground”
Adam Palivec, Adam Pastorek, and Sofia Kulikova, went to a Slovakian elementary school in Košice, where they organized and delivered an interactive workshop titled “The Internet Is Not a Playground: How They Try to Trick Us”. The workshop addressed the growing risks of AI-driven online fraud, phishing, and impersonation scams, using real-life examples and encouraging open discussion. The team also led physical education sessions to promote movement and healthy habits among students. They reached around 220 students over two days and provided materials for future use.
“What surprised me the most was how many of the kids – some as young as nine – had already run into serious digital threats,” says Sofia.
Czech and Slovak schools, though rich in tradition and strong in core academic subjects, often lack the agility to respond to the fast-changing realities young people face. Projects like ours, although small in scale, show that student-led initiatives can bring missing topics into classrooms, raise awareness, and support the broader educational mission,” thinks Adam Palivec.
“What we need more than anything is to normalize talking about it, even if someone clicked something they shouldn’t have. Creating that kind of open, blame-free environment is probably the best protection we can offer. Because the tech is only going to keep evolving. What really matters is whether kids feel safe enough to speak up when something doesn’t feel right,” sums Adam Pastorek.
Together We Care: Volunteering at a cat shelter and helping homeless people
Veronika Plačková, Lenka Rajňáková, Miroslava Bičanovská and Samuel Ninaj, participated in a CSR project focused on helping vulnerable groups, namely abandoned animals and homeless people. They volunteered at a cat shelter in Bohnice, where they cleaned, fed, and cared for over 80 cats, and at FriendShip Prague, where they helped prepare and sort food packages for people experiencing homelessness.
“One of the highlights was meeting a volunteer from Great Britain. He told us he is doing a kind of social experiment or personal challenge, where he voluntarily becomes homeless in different cities in multiple countries. That really stayed with me, it showed me what real empathy looks like, and how hard it is to truly put yourself in someone else’s shoes,” recounts Samuel.
“What started as a simple opportunity to help turned into a deep and eye-opening journey. It gave us perspective—not just on the problems we were trying to solve, but on how easily we underestimate the impact of small, honest actions,” claims Lenka.
“I learned that everyone deserves dignity—whether it’s a cat in a shelter, a person without a home, or an elderly woman running a charity. Each of them has a story, a reason for where they are, and a right to be treated with kindness,” thinks Veronika.
“Volunteering is not about adding your body where it is needed—it’s about hearing, watching, and leaving with a better sense of the way the problems fit together, or maybe even the way the problems can be solved upstream,” realises Miroslava.
Finding Heroes for Bone Marrow Donation Initiative
Another team helped the non-profit organization Nábor Hrdinů, which focuses on recruiting new bone marrow donors. Inspired by a social media post about a young girl named Madlenka in urgent need of a donor, the team organized and participated in two donor registration events—one at DAMU and another during VŠEFest. Their goal was to raise awareness, debunk myths about the donation process, and register at least 120 new potential donors. Through direct conversations, storytelling, and clear explanations, they successfully registered 138 people, statistically equating to potentially saving one life.
A particularly emotional moment came when a woman approached them to share that she herself was searching for a donor, making the issue deeply personal. “She looked at me and said: ‘You know… I’m one of the 40 people in the Czech Republic who is currently searching for a donor.’ Suddenly, the statistics I had read and the slides we had presented turned into a face, a voice, a person standing right in front of me,” shares Filip Kolář.
“The contrast between the emotional impact of the cause and the practical difficulties in mobilizing support became one of the key lessons for me. Solving problems like donor shortages isn’t just a matter of raising awareness, it also requires clear communication, logistical coordination, and a system that can support and scale efforts,” thinks one of the team members William Doehring.
“This project taught me that simply creating that first step for them — showing up with a registration booth, giving them a few minutes of your time, answering a few questions — is sometimes all it takes. That’s a big takeaway I want to apply not just in future CSR activities, but also in any team or leadership role: give people a clear way to get involved, and they usually will,” adds Jakub Vaďura.
For Simon Peterka, a big lesson came at VŠE Fest. “A man in his mid-thirties listened intently, only to discover he was two years over the registry’s upper age limit. I realised that even when we cannot sign someone up on the spot, a well-informed conversation can still widen the donor pool.”
Engaging Kids at the Klokánek Child Center
Michal Chlumecký’s, Leo Zatkalík’s and Max Zatkalík’s CSR project involved volunteering at the Klokánek Children’s Centre Láskova, which provides temporary care for children in crisis situations.
“Imagine a child who has been moved from one place to another from early childhood, a child a court removed from its parents, a child that was beaten often at home. How can that child form friendships or romantic relationships when it carries this history?” Shares Michal one of his key takeaways.
The team supported the staff during weekends and holidays, when the center is especially understaffed. They engaged with the children through games and conversations, offering attention and emotional support that regular staff often cannot provide due to workload. They also brought essential supplies and attempted to help with minor repairs.
Michal was struck by the contrast between the center’s generous facilities and the lack of maintenance due to limited funding. “One of the core problems in the system is chronic under-funding of staff, which means that no top-level professional will take the job because the salary is too low to live in Prague.”
Cultivating Food at a Community Farm
One of the projects focused on sustainable farming. Matěj Čermák, Antonie Motyčková, Daniela Orlická, and Vojtěch Pittermann volunteered at Farma Jednorožec, a community-run farm in the Czech Republic that promotes environmentally friendly agricultural practices. Their main goal was to support the farm through manual labor, helping with tasks like plowing, planting kelp, lettuce, and cabbage, and removing weeds. The team aimed to learn about sustainable farming methods and understand the economic challenges such farms face, especially in a globalized market. They also intended to raise awareness among peers about sustainable agriculture. The project highlighted the tension between sustainability and competitiveness in farming, exacerbated by globalization and reliance on chemical fertilizers.
“We got to know more about the current situation in the agricultural industry and its environmental impact. Farming, like other industries, has developed drastically over the years, minimizing the costs and increasing profits at the expense of our planet,” says Matěj.
“I began to understand the systemic challenges small farms face – from distribution and logistics to competing with artificially low prices in supermarkets. It made me realize that food justice and environmental justice are two sides of the same coin,” explains Vojtěch.
“This project didn’t just teach me about farming, but it taught me about responsibility, connection, and meaning of community. And those are lessons I will carry with me into the future,” highlights Daniela.
“Overall, I learned a lot. Yes, we didn’t save lives or rescue children or cats, but we gained knowledge that we can share with others and promote sustainable practices,” thinks Antonie.
