Dear ESNer, Have you ever heard of ESNshowcase? ESNshowcase is a project of the Network committee of ESN AISBL that aims to highlight and promote the best original and easily-transferrable practices developed by the ESN sections, in order to assist the development, knowledge and experience transfer among the sections in our network. What are the best practices? Each section may apply with their unique best practice in order to highlight it at their respective Regional Platform in front of the other sections from their region. Proposed practices should fulfil one or more of the following requirements:
The practice supports and enhances the work of the section. The practice improves the reputation of ESN internally and/or externally. The practice develops section members or supports recruitment. The practice enhances the experience of exchange students.
How does it work? Three best practices from each region are showcased at their respective Regional Platform, in the form of a presentation by the section representatives. During the Regional Platform sections vote to decide which one is the best practice of their region. The best practice of each region is then competing with the best practice of each other region for an overall best practice – the ESNshowcaseSTAR at the AGM. What is the situation in 2016/2017? The 2016/2017 edition was the 2nd edition of ESNshowcase project. We have received altogether 22 applications with the best practices from 4 regions of ESN. Unfortunately, there was no application from the NEP region, so this region has no winner with its best practice. The winners of ESN regions are:
SEEP region – YADYOK project by ESN Bogazici (ESN Turkey) CEP region – My Section by ESN CULS Prague (ESN Czech Republic) SWEP region – Erasmus Account by ESN Porto (ESN Portugal) WEP region – Bedding Kitts by ESN Louvain-la-Neuve (ESN Belgium)
What is the practice about? ESN Bogazici came up with a practice called YADYOK project. They used to go to buildings of school of Foreign Languages (YADYOK) at their university and introduce their section to the local students. This project has a mutual benefit both for incoming and local students – they provide their local students with a chance to talk to Exchange students. At the same time they also create a chance for their incoming students to meet the locals and get help from them during their stay in a new city. What are the achievements & improvements? ESN Bogazici used to recruit their members only during the orientation weeks either personally or online by social media. But by using this practice they can now recruit people throughout the whole year What are the benefits of the practice for the network? If other sections start to use this practice as a manner of getting members from the prep year, they can increase the commitment of members and find better candidates for both their section and the network. It is a lot easier to find people who are actually interested in helping incoming students by this project. How can it be implemented? The practice does not need any special financial tools or IT. However, PR process of the project is crucial since it helps the ESN section to promote the project and reach as many students as possible. Other than that, it is very easy to implement. All you need are active section representatives and a targeted group of students. It is more useful for bigger sections as a way of bringing local and incoming students together. However, any section, whether less developed or advanced, can use this practice. Contact Mail – esnbogazici@esnturkey.org
Website – http://www.esnbogazici.com
What is the practice about? How to cook is an activity for international students to learn about the culture by discovering the local food, which is one of the key elements of their national identity. With the help of expert chefs and in a professional kitchen, they show and explain step by step the most traditional recipes of their country to the students, starting from an appetizer to main dishes and dessert, pasta and pizza. With the help of young ESN members they prepare the meal in order to have lunch or dinner all together in the same location. Several shifts are provided in order to get the students involved as much as possible and provide everybody the opportunity to cook the dishes by themselves with the help of the ESN members and chefs. Contact Mail – milano_politecnico@esn.it
Website – http://www.esnpolimi.it/
What is the practice about? It's a weekly male futsal tournament. Each semester about ten teams of students from many different countries compete with each other. The aim of the tournament is the integration of international students, which is not always so simple in a big city like Rome. It is the opportunity for exchange students to meet other incoming students who study at different universities. The tournament is usually concluded by an event with food and beverage offered by the section. The participants of the tournament meet there and talk to the players after the matches. Contact Mail – roma_3@esn.it
Website – http://www.esnroma3.com/
What is the practice about? My Section is a section management tool. It is a pretty complex IT system that facilitates the interaction between international and local students, the management of the section and the work of Erasmus coordinators on the buddy program. One of the most important features is Buddy pairing – My Section enables local students to connect easily with incoming international students, just by reading their anonymised profile. International students can then easily register to section events. It also helps the relations between the IRO and the section as it provides an overview of statistics – countries, faculties, programmes etc. What are the achievements & improvements? Thanks to My Section, ESN CULS Prague was able to pair more students and their buddies than before. They started to develop this system while trying to find better way on how to pair buddies with their international students, as an Excel sheet wasn't efficient enough. What are the benefits for the Network? The main benefit for the network is to facilitate the integration of exchange students. This system also has an efficient use for international students, buddies, IROs and also an ESN section. How can it be implemented? The practice does not require any special knowledge. As it is a Cloud-based information system for universities, the only necessary thing is to contact the developers and they’ll provide the section with everything, including the support of the system for your section.
Contact Mail – info@esnculs.cz
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Website – http://esnculs.cz/
What is the practice about? ESN Debrecen remodelled the well-known “Tandem Programme” to fit the expectations of today’s world by building it into their section’s website. Their System includes the following steps: user registration, tandem partner search and tandem pairing. Over the semester, after the tandems are matched, it is required for them to register at least 10 of their mutual meetings with a brief report. The programme is considered to be accomplished after 10 registered meetings, the partners get a certificate and local students earn extra points for their Erasmus+ applications. In order to support the meetings, the section is also planning to introduce an event series called “Tandem evening”. Contact Mail – esn.unideb@gmail.com
Website – http://debrecen.esn.hu/
What is the practice about? The Freshmen camp is a 2 day trip happening outside the city. It is organised right after the recruitment process, for both the new as well as more experienced section members. The main purposes of the event are introduction of their members to ESN, transfer of knowledge through trainings and integration. Freshmen are trained by the board members of ESN UEK, while more experienced members participate in workshops conducted by external trainers. Contact Mail – uek@esn.pl
Website – http://uek.esn.pl/
What is the practice about? The Erasmus account is a fairly new project of ESN Porto. It started in August 2016 when the section representatives realised there was a disconnection between ESN Porto with its Exchange students. Searching for an improvement in that sense, they developed Erasmus Account based on the Satellite ESN website-type. The practice makes the exchange students able to register for any type of activity (social, sports, cultural, among others), trips organized by ESN Porto or check the card balance through their website. They can also charge their ESNcard at their office. What are the achievements & improvements? The practice is a whole new base to communication channels, reaching more and more exchange students. Since the use of the practice they have been receiving more exchange students visiting, and also, getting registered in sports with the highest number of students ever. Activities are crammed quickly after the registrations are open. They are also able to track the usage of an ESNcard by their students. What are the benefits of the practice for the network? The main benefit is that all the platforms are able to interact with each other and get past different obstacles based on information they get for local advocacy, including the institutional partnerships and visibility of what is shared to the exchange students. How can it be implemented? It is possible that some sections don't have yet the potential use for this tool, and they can still gain a lot through the bound with exchange students in general. However, if a section would like to use this tool, it is advised to have a proper WPA Manager that knows how to work and create something like this. In terms of implementation, since they have already done it, it would be easy on the international level just to update the Satellite to incorporate this practice. Contact Mail – porto@esnportugal.org
Website – http://esnporto.org
What is the practice about? The Amiens' Ambassador Diploma ceremony is an event that brings together international and local students that will soon go abroad. This event takes place in a prestigious patrimonial place in Amiens. Its aim is to promote Amiens and the University to the international students so that they give a positive image of their experience there - moreover it is a good way to increase the amount of exchange students coming to Amiens. The ceremony is also a good way to make local students understand the importance of promoting their city and University once abroad. Contact Mail – esn.amiens@gmail.com
Website – http://amiens.ixesn.fr
What is the practice about? The practice by ESN en UV is an Inclusion of the topic "LR Update" at every assembly or local ESN meeting. The Local Representative wraps up all relevant inputs from the national and international level of ESN, bringing those levels closer to the local members, motivating them to be more involved in all levels of ESN, as well as asking them for their opinions and collecting feedback to be sent to the National Representative through the reports. LR Update includes a presentation, a question round and a discussion. Contact Mail – info@uv.esnvlc.es
Website – http://esnuv.es
What is the practice about? ESN Louvain-la-Neuve offers to lend Bedding Kits to their incoming exchange students. The kit consists of a pillow, a pillow case, a duvet, a duvet cover and a mattress cover. The exchange students have the possibility to rent either the whole kit, or separated items. The price is relatively low and includes a deposit that the students receive back after they bring the items washed at the end of their stay in Belgium. The washing costs are otherwise covered by the deposit. The students can rent the Kitts either for one semester, or for the whole academic year, the price is always the same. What are the achievements & improvements? Before using this system, the students had very limited options to find those items (there is no big store with home equipment in Louvain-la-Neuve). They had to pay a rather expensive price and it used to take the students a few days to buy everything. The section used to have lots of questions about where to find those items. What are the benefits of the practice for the network? The benefits for the network are more notoriety and visibility. The universities don't often provide bedding items, so it could be a way of strengthening the relationships with them – the sections can make themselves known by the universities through this project, and ask them to promote it to their incoming exchange students. It is a “good” project that can provide a good image of the sections. How can it be implemented? It is not so difficult to handle! It can take few semesters to have a good system (with a decent amount of kits) but this kind of service will find its public very quickly. The students really appreciate this offer and always say that it's very cheap and convenient for them. This project requires a bit of logistics but is really worth the trouble! Contact Mail – esn.lln@gmail.com
Website – http://esnlln.org/
What is the practice about? The section organised a Teambuilding Weekend for their members. They rented a house in a small town around one hour away from Bochum for 20 participants. During the day they had various get-to-knowgames and workshops about ESN topics and the evenings were used for games and teambuilding. Especially the new members of the section got more information about ESN and got to know the section and its members better. Contact Mail – bochum@esn-germany.de
Website
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http://bochum.esn-germany.de/
What is the practice about? Carpe Noctem is an international meeting-point in the city of Tilburg. The section organises there all the activities for exchange and internationally minded students during the semester. At Carpe Noctem they do not organise only parties, but also international dinner, pub quizzes and other small activities like men’s and ladies nights. Carpe Noctem has a bar, a boardroom, where the section members work every day, a kitchen and a committee room, where they have meetings with their committees or external partners. Contact Mail – info@iesntilburg.nl
Website – http://www.iesntilburg.nl
What is the practice about? The practice of ESN Vilnius University is a blog for international students containing articles written by international students. Any student can sign up on their website and write a blog post. These posts are then moderated by the sections’ webmaster, who decides whether the articles are relevant or not. The main theme of the blog is for international students to talk about their experience abroad and share some different activities and places to visit for others, while the local members are also allowed to post relevant articles. Contact Mail – vu@esnlithuania.org
Website – http://vu.esnlithuania.org
What is the practice about? ESN KTU came up with a practice called Gapsas Database. It’s a place where every single piece of section information is not lost and can easily be found. You can find there the most important information about the section, such as Event calendar, TODO list, PR TODO list, Office hours, Registration forms for section events, ESNcard database, Contact information of the section members, mentors and alumni, board task list and suggestions by section members for the section events. Contact Mail – ktu@esnlithuania.org
Website – http://ktu.esnlithuania.org/
What is the practice about? ESN Pisa’s best practice a full-day event focused on a specific topic. Their first edition was a day of full immersion in the Latin American culture through a set of workshops, especially focused on the musical-artistic side of the culture. The event is open not only for Exchange students, it is also available for anyone who wants to join. Its main aim is to integrate the international students within the local communities while getting to know different cultures. Contact Mail – pisa@esn.it
Website – http://www.esnpisa.it