PROJECT PROPOSAL

A Day as an Adult

Presented by:

Carolina García Provencio, Tim van Lagen & Rosa van Rienen First-year students in International Management and Development Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences

Who didn’t dream of being an adult as a child? Wearing a uniform, making decisions, doing something real. In many rural Romanian communities like Răucești and Săvești, children grow up imagining their futures far from home. Local jobs seem boring, opportunities feel invisible, and the adults around them appear disconnected from their dreams.

“A Day as an Adult” is a monthly educational program that invites children aged 8 to 13 to step into the shoes of local working adults. Once a month, during school hours, each class visits a workplace: farms, clinics, shops, police stations, the mayor’s office, etc. and becomes active participants rather than passive observers. Children make cheese at a dairy, run pretend shops, roleplay town council meetings, wear police uniforms to solve mock crimes, and much more, discovering through play and action the real value and creativity in rural work.

This is more than a day out of school. It is a joyful, hands-on way to reconnect learning with life. Children begin to see local roles, from farmers to nurses to shopkeepers, not as fallback options but as meaningful, skilled, and inspiring careers.

At the same time, the program fosters pride and recognition among local workers, strengthens intergenerational ties, and turns the town into a space of shared imagination, where adults lead by example and children learn by doing.

The need is clear. In places like Răucești and Săvești, the gap between school and real life is widening. Traditional professions are fading, local businesses struggle to find successors, and children rarely see their hometowns as places to grow. “A Day as an Adult” works to change that by making the familiar feel full of possibility.

We are a small development team of three first-year students at Van Hall Larenstein University. During our fieldwork in Răucești–Săvești, we co-designed this pilot project in partnership with the local school and City Hall. The result is a simple but powerful program that builds pride, imagination, and connection right where it is most needed.

Our vision? Rural towns where children do not have to leave their home to dream big. 

For more information:
+34 670088911 Carolina