Meet Kim Oswell

When Kim Oswell, 27, got the chance to work for a company focused on sports, she jumped at the chance. Oswell, who played softball in high school and is an avid sports fan, started three and half years ago at action sport magazine publisher TransWorld Media, a part of Bonnier Corporation. There she works as a copy editor for three magazines: Motocross, Ride BMX and Business. But two weeks ago, she arrived in Sweden as a GROW participant, exchanging sunny California for the snows of Stockholm.

"I wanted to unleash my adventurous side," Oswell says. "I'm pretty independent but I haven't travelled so much. And change is good, even if it isn't always easy. It's important to put yourself outside your usual comfort zone."

Oswell will be spending the next few months at Bonnier Media University, helping organize several big events, including the Bonnier Sales Awards and the annual internal GRID conference. "I was actually more worried about doing my job well than about living by myself in another country," she says. But the hardest part has turned out to be the weather, not the job: She's already faced a blizzard. "I made it to work though," she says.

One thing that Oswell recognizes at her new workplace is a sense of passion. "TransWorld is full of very passionate people, it's like a family, and it's the same feeling at BMU," she says. "It really makes me feel at home. But I do miss the skaters and surfers out doing what they love. It's a different kind of passion."

Oswell recommends that anyone thinking about applying to GROW should just take the step and do it. It's too good an opportunity to pass up, she says. "It's an opportunity to experience life somewhere else in a deeper way," she says. Something she's already managed in her two weeks in Stockholm. "I went on Sunday and saw a hockey game at Globen arena, it turned out to be Sweden-Finland. It was so much fun to be watching the game here, sitting with some of my fellow GROW people from Finland for the big match."