eXpress Magazine #21: The Network at its Best

EXPRESS Issue #21 — Spring 2015

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ERASMUS STUDENT NETWORK

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EDITORIAL

Editorial Feeling European in addition to whatever our actual nationality might be, is something our generation has grown up with. It is something we take advantage of every day, something that has opened many doors for us and participating in the Erasmus programme or being a part of ESN are only a few things it might entail. However, many ESNers feel that there is much to be done for more people to benefit from what being European is all about: we can affect policies on the European or on our national level but we can also start with our own communities, to help raise Europeans in our home towns or more than anything: we can make the Erasmus experience something that defines a large part of millions of people’s lives and brings the countries on our continent that much closer. This is something we CAN do but what’s even better: it is something we ARE already DOING. — Karoli Koiv, Press and Publications Team

eXpress #20 COORDINATOR Maria Samara SUPERVISOR Alexandra Nicorici CONTENT EDITOR Maria Samara EDITORIAL DESIGNER Jacek Rakiej CONTRIBUTORS Charis Fisher Marco Joza Cazzola Karoli Koiv Wilmer Mustacciuolo Ioana Petrescu

Ana Bitanga Antonio Del Sole Tomasz Kura Raquel Teixeira PROOFREADERS Aleksandra Miezin Andrea Busuttil Charis Fisher Fionnuala Shakespeare Marisol Perez O’Connor Matt Clemo Oana Georgiana Dumitrescu Sara Širnik Brigitte Eugster Karólína Vigdís Ásgeirsdóttir

COVER PHOTO Raquel Teixeira

Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced in whole or in parts without the written permission of the publisher. The publisher cannot be held responsible for the views and opinions expressed in this magazine by contributors. The publisher is neither responsible for nor endorses the content of published advertisements, nor can the magazine be held responsible for any errors or inaccuracies in the same.

Erasmus Student Network AISBL Rue Hydraulique 15 B-1210 Brussels Belgium +32 22 567 427 express-coordinator@esn.org www.esn.org

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Contents Great minds think alike

5

Section Cooperation done right

6

The Network at its best

8

Uniting the whole continet

10

Impacting politics — the ESN way

11

Students Helping Universities

12

Halloween in Transylvania

14

Europe moves in many ways

15

Education and Mobility

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ESN PARTNER

Great minds think alike Over 25 years of supporting international student mobility and over a century of experience in hostelling. How will this cooperation of the two networks benefit young travellers?

With the growing demand of the young generation to move both abroad and within their own countries, the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) and Hostelling International (HI) have decided to join forces, helping young travellers discover new places, learn about new cultures and gain experience through affordable and quality travel opportunities.

“I am very pleased with this new partnership. We share similar values.” says Angela Braasch-Eggert, President of HI. “Hostelling International stands for inclusivity, learning and understanding other people and their cultures, and is concerned with a sustainable future for young people. We look forward to working together.”

Both HI and ESN believe that mobility is the key to personal development. “The partnership between ESN and HI can be called a ‘perfect match’. The vision of Hostelling International as a membership organisation with a network of accommodation providers for mobile young people matches 100% with ours.

Going abroad is about meeting other people and experiencing different cultures. I am extremely happy that we start this part-

nership and give all ESNcard holders the possibility to be part of the HI community.” says Stefan Jahnke, President of ESN. What’s in it for international students? All 130,000 ESNcard holders from the next academic year will be able to benefit from a free year-long HI membership and discounts in nearly 4,000 quality HI hostels in 91 countries around the globe. Furthermore, with the ESNcard students can access thousands of discounted hostel beds in 38 European countries and the opportunity to participate in cultural events, trips and parties organised

by ESN all year-round. The ESNcard can be purchased at any of the local ESN associations around Europe.

With the European Commission’s ambition of 20% of higher education students having had a study or training period abroad by 2020 the first step to be taken is allowing young people to move, explore the world and feel confident doing it. From today, HI and ESN together make travelling easier and more affordable than ever before.

ESN says HI to the World! Will you?

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ESN EVENT

Section Cooperation done right Most of us have tried section cooperation and have either succeeded, failed or are still thinking: how does it work exactly?

How to cooperate with a section that is not in your country or even your region?

ESN Lisbon and ESN Zagreb did it their own way and succeeded in gifting their sections with an unforgettable experience and a bond that will last between their members for a long time.

Text Ana Bitanga Section cooperation is well-known in our Network, but our project was not just another cooperation, it was a lot more.

This is a story of how two sister sections, ESN Zagreb and ESN Lisboa, became the first sections in the Network to apply for this kind of project.

It took a lot of time, devotion, strong will and faith to finally succeed in what the two most important people in this project call “the project of their lives”. It was the vision of Sofia Vistas and Lea Ban that brought these two sections together. And for that, we will be forever grateful.

Firstly, they applied to the National Agency in Portugal, and even though we prayed for the best, our project did not get accepted. Nevertheless, the girls strongly believed in it, so they translated everything into Croatian, changed what needed to be changed, and applied for the second time to the Agency in Croatia. That is how it all started...

The project entitled Twinning Up 4 Start Up! took place in both Lisbon and Zagreb and was split into two parts. The first part was carried out in Lisbon from 16th - 20th October 2014, and

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after that the second part of the project followed in Zagreb from 17th - 21st December 2014.

What is it all about? The youth exchange Twinning Up 4 Start Up! emerged as an opportunity to spread mobility programmes serving entrepreneurship, employability, and European citizenship as tools in terms of employability for young Europeans; and finally a wider field of action in intergenerational dialogue between Youth and European Twin Cities. In this sense, the project relates to the sharing of knowledge between generations and local community participation. The main objectives governing the project are to: enhance a multicultural atmosphere of social innovation; undertake the promotion of youth mobility within the European framework while in charge of entrepreneurial initiatives; understand common ground while tracing and merging problems and solutions within the perspective of social entrepreneurship in the local community. The project will also include debates on people with fewer opportunities and how to better use Erasmus+ in this specific framework.

In October, it was time for the Croats to hit the road and fly to Lisbon for the first part of the project. We were very excited and could not wait to finally arrive. We spent 7 of the most beautiful, fulfilling and best days of our lives in Lisbon. The first part of the project was more focused on getting to know each other, so we had a lot of bonding workshops, energizers, topics to discuss and think about. We started out as 30 strangers in one room, but that changed in the blink of an eye. It did not take long before we became as close as family. Young, smart and sharing similar ideas, we lived those days in union with each other. As it usually goes we had some time to work, and time to relax. Sun, sandy beaches, warm weather, big waves, surfing... Sounds perfect, doesn’t it?

That is exactly what we thought when we found out that that was what we are going to do in Lisbon as one part of the activity "What can Portugal offer Croatia?", and we saw that they truly have many amazing things to offer.

On the last day, it was time to say goodbye to our new, already close friends. However, it was not too hard because we knew that we would be seeing them again in only 2 months!

ESN EVENT

December came faster than we realised, and meanwhile ESN Zagreb was getting ready for the second part of the project. This part was more focused on start-ups, social entrepreneurships and starting companies. We had lectures from various people (young and old) who shared their experience and knowledge with us. We also had lectures on how to write a CV and what important things we should pay attention to when writing one. It was a more serious part of the project where everyone got the chance to think about their future.

Following this short summary of the programme, we heard from two participants who wanted to share their experience with the whole network: Filip, ESN Zagreb: “Lisbon, the city of soul. Street music echoes softly in the background while an early autumn breeze washes over the tables at an outdoor cafe, a reminder that even in the middle of October, Portugal's capital is still hot and sunny.

It was our last day in the city; we had just spent the past week attending workshops by day and eating bacalhau (dried cod) by night (with an occasional Fado interlude).

This was the first part of the project, and it was designed to introduce two groups of eager and ambitious young students to one another. For me, being in a new city was exciting, a breath of fresh air from the same streets as back home. I was looking forward to meeting our Portuguese counterparts, and after a day of activities that helped facilitate introductions, I (along with the rest of the Croatian delegation) jumped right into the excitement of Portuguese life. We held our drinks in our left hands, ate cod fish for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and most importantly shared our stories about the thing that brought us together in the first place – ESN. When I first arrived in Lisbon I was unsure of what to expect from this part of the project. Yet, as the days went by it became apparent that the Portuguese students were as animated and enthusiastic as we were about our organisation and this project. We discussed common issues faced every semester, things I'm sure anyone reading this will be familiar with, and also the different ways we manage our sections. It was great to hear each other’s insights on these topics because it brought new perspectives to problems we may not have been able to solve ourselves as easily.

Ultimately, we came away with a fresh outlook on things, and are now starting to implement the new strategies back home.

Of course, as satisfying as some of these new ideas may be, it is the new people we met that we have to thank for them. The Portuguese were a pleasure to be with, to dine with, and to laugh with; it is the relationships that were formed that matter the most.”

Barbara, ESN Lisboa: “From all the experiences I have had there is one thing that I have learned: "to stop is to die" (as a known Portuguese adage says). With that saying in mind, I started my journey in ESN, believing that I had to move, to achieve knowledge about the world, about myself and realise how I could be better, what I can do better.

The Twin Section Project was just one more piece of evidence that allows me to confidently say that travelling and learning are two independent events. Most of us travel to experiment boundaries which is how we grow. The theory of the project is that mobility, entrepreneurship, employability are topics of interest in young Europeans lives. In a practical way, the project

was based on an exchange of knowledge between Zagreb and Lisbon, giving us, the participants, the opportunity to attend one week of workshops and lectures in both cities.

My experience in Zagreb exceeded my expectations.

Besides the soft skills acquired and the practical knowledge I brought back and still apply to my work in Portugal, I could adapt myself to a completely different culture yet with a common purpose: learning. Getting together with such proactive and interested people willing to share skills, new perspectives and new ideas enabled us to have a new “wake up call” to what the world is, how we can improve it and more importantly, how we can make our ideas work in the real world.

That is how I returned to Portugal, with my heart full of wonderful memories and with my mind revolutionised, filled with ideas for new projects and dreams that starting from that moment I knew would be possible to accomplish.”

Ana Bitanga, ESN Croatia

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BACKSTAGE

The Network at its best ESNers tend to get comfortable with organising events and experiences for international students which, of course, is what we do and what our network’s main activities should focus on. However, every now and then we might think: could we do more? Here is an example how your every day work can be combined with your passion for ESN and introducing Europe to young people before they even start thinking about studying abroad.

Text & Picture Marco Joza Cazzola

Since the autumn of 2011, I have been working as a Guidance Counsellor in a vocational high school near my hometown, Trento. The school, Opera Armida Barelli, is a historical institution which, since the end of World War II , has been focusing on training girls and young women in various professions, to empower them to enter the labour market. In the years the training has changed from housekeeper to seamstress, from home cooking to child rearing, and now covers the fields of hairdressing, beauty therapy and nursing.

Vocational training is highly appreciated by the EU and is sometimes seen as a good way to promote an early entrance in the labour market and lower youth unemployment. Unfortunately, the general concept in everybody’s mind when they talk about vocational schools is that the quality is very low, thereby initiating a vicious cycle in which middle school teachers only direct less motivated students or those who are not performing well to these schools. This is a very subtle form of segregation, in which a lot of disoriented or demotivated kids mix with very motivated students who see this training as a way to establish their future career. What I’ve noticed though is that, whether motivated or not, almost all of these students don’t see language-learning as a priority. However, nothing is further from the truth, since this region is full of vacation spots where tourists and sports lovers from all over Europe come all year round, to ski, to climb or to go to the lakes.

My job as counsellor is to mentor some of these students, to stimulate some self-reflection, motivating them to do better

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and orienting them towards another school if needed. However, since the beginning I also felt the need to start spreading a message that the world outside of their town was not as far as they thought, that Europe was just around the corner.

In the last three years that I have worked in Opera Armida Barelli, I have tried to find as many ways as possible to integrate my passion for ESN into my daily work. With my home section, ESN Trento, we organised several occasions in which international students could come to my school and get free haircuts, hair colouring, massages, make up, manicures, etc. In exchange, they would have to speak with the students only in English or German (the two mandatory languages). The activity was highly appreciated by students, teachers and staff, and of course by the ESN volunteers and international students who came. I also started promoting summer schools with partners of ESN (EF at that time), and looking for opportunities to do internships abroad after they had gotten their diplomas.

However, something was still missing. Seeing some international students at schools was nice, but not enough. I realised that they had no idea that there were other students doing the exact same things in other parts of Europe. Having a little bit of a budget allocated to my project, I started looking for some opportunities to take a group of motivated students abroad for a few days.

After considering a few options about the destination, I immediately thought that it would make no sense to take them to big Western European cities since many Italians tend to see Lon-

BACKSTAGE

don, Barcelona or Paris anyways in their twenties as they are already very popular destinations. Looking at a map I thought: “look how close Ljubljana is… we can basically get there faster than we can get to Rome”. The same year there was a lot of excitement about the AGM in Maribor as well and so it was decided: Trieste, Ljubljana and Maribor. Those were going to be our destinations.

I immediately started contacting the ESN sections in those cities. ESN volunteers helped us by giving guided tours for free, showing us the best places to eat, gave us tips on which hostels to book and helped us get a good price as well as proposed some activities for the free time. In Trieste we visited a concentration camp, in Ljubljana the castle and city centre, in Maribor the section helped us contact two different schools, one for hairdressing and one for beauty therapy and nursing. We also experienced the famous Slovenian river raft!

The trip in 2013 went incredibly well and in 2014 we decided to repeat it. In this occasion, our second school also asked us to organise the same kind of trip for them and we decided to also involve ESN Zagreb. The two schools left on the very same day from different cities, meeting together in Trieste and then splitting for our final destinations. The experience in both cities was extremely positive. In the second edition we were able to not only go into the schools for a visit, but also to organise a whole morning of workshops together with Slovenian and Croatian students. The first year, one of the professors who came on the trip was the principal of the school, and he was really impressed by the work we could do as a network.

I really believe these kinds of activities help us show our true potential, to get out of the ESN bubble and into civil society, sparking the feeling of being European where it has to start, in the youth of each one of our countries.

Marco Joza Cazzola, ESN Italy

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STUDY

Uniting the whole continet While most ESN volunteers identify as European to some extent, there are people the numerous opportunities of the European Union have not yet reached and who might not even be interested in them. However, the EU has proven successful in bringing our countries closer together and we, the Erasmus generation, are a great example of it.

Text Tomasz Kura Several years after the end of the Second World War, it was still possible to come across islands in the Pacific Ocean where Japanese soldiers remained hidden, convinced that the war was still in progress.

Living in their shelters, isolated from the world, they knew nothing of the actual situation.

I can easily imagine hundreds of places all across Europe where some people are absolutely unaware of what it means to live in the European Union. To some, comparing them to those soldiers may seem to be an overstatement, yet to me, it is not. Both groups continue to live/ have lived their lives while somehow ignoring the great perspectives offered by the present.

Thus, in my personal opinion, the differences between European citizenship and European Identity are obvious. We can call ourselves citizens of Europe even in the absence of the European Union. It is basically just a fact resulting from geographical placement. The people mentioned above hold this title as well. On the other hand, there is the concept of identity. That simple word covers, in my opinion, all the ground-breaking ideas that drove the founders of the EU to establish it. And now it is, uniting 28 countries and many different cultures, the brightest and almost ideal example of a transnational community.

Its precursors – The European Coal and Steel Community, The European Economic Community and The European Atomic Energy Community, all founded in the 60s – might have seemed to be mere economic unions. The main idea, though, was to prevent another war in Europe by making countries’ industries dependent on each other. As it soon turned out, the benefits of cooperation over borders became so clear that more and more countries decided to join. Eventually, the Maastricht Treaty, signed in 1992, included and defined most of the issues that serve as a basis for the creation of an integrated society, for

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example: the improvement of living and working conditions, adequate social protection, the right to circulate and reside freely in the Community, the implementation of a monetary union, etc.

It is impossible to find other examples of entities such as the European Union. The United States of America consists of independent States, but we must remember that its citizens perceive themselves as one nation. The Association of South-East Asian Nations tries to affect cooperation between some Asian countries, but does not reach full integration. The African Union’s main mission is to make African countries more democratic. Only the EU has such complex and diverse establishments.

Of course, today we can complain about some laws or regulations that are being enforced by the EU. However, we should understand that it is impossible to reach a consensus over everything, especially when it comes to such complex topics as energy or the economy. It takes time to develop something ideal. Our parents and grandparents, especially in Eastern Europe, generally did not have such wide possibilities when it comes to staying in touch with other cultures. They have not experienced all the benefits of open borders. For their generations, this European Identity is just less meaningful, and some might not see the necessity of cooperation across borders.

That is where the the role of ESN becomes so crucial. We are all open-minded and tolerant, we all travel as often as possible, and yet sometimes we forget that, with almost 14,000 members, we still constitute less than 0.001% of all Europeans. Our generation is not homogenic.

Our neighbours, friends and family members might be unaware of the endless possibilities that modern Europe has to offer.

As members of ESN, we must work as hard as possible to change this attitude and to become an even more credible example of what it means to identify with Europe. For the first time in history, we may witness the unification of nearly the entire continent. Now, it is up to us to decide how big of a role ESN will play in making it happen. Time to prove to previous generations that we are ready!

Tomasz Kura, ESN Poland

STUDY

Impacting politics — the ESN way It might happen that while you are abroad, there are elections in your home country. In some cases, you can still vote, but in Italy, this has not been the case. With large numbers of Italian students going to study in another country every year, ESN Italy saw this as a problem and decided to do something about it.

Interview Wilmer Mostacciuolo The right to vote is the basis of every democracy. What happens, then, if you’re studying abroad during elections? What is your country really doing to guarantee that your vote will reach the ballot box? We interviewed Italian politicians about this very current issue before the elections of the new Parliament in 2013; lawyer Antonio Del Sole gave us the following information. Many promises and legislative proposals followed the request, but politics failed to meet it. Afterwards, ESN Italy started a serious debate on the issue by creating a specific workgroup. Antonio was appointed to formulate a draft of the legal text, which was later on presented during the Italian NPs. What about the right to vote for exchange students in other EU countries?

The situation is quite varied. The election process for national governments and the European Parliament is not regulated by the EU, but every member state is entitled to choose their preferred legislative system. Let’s analyse the EU parliamentary elections UK citizens living abroad can only vote in specific cases. Belgian and Greek citizens can only vote abroad if they are resident in an EU country. Denmark and Italy restrict the vote to citizens resident in a third country in a few rare cases. Germany only lets its citizens vote if they are registered in German electoral lists. In Bulgaria, Ireland and Slovakia, the right to vote is restricted to EU citizens living in the national territory.

What is the goal of ESN Italy’s campaign for 2015?

ESN Italy’s proposal is restricted to Italian citizens moving for study or work to another EU member State for a period of 1 year or less (from 1 to 12 months). The goal is to reach 50,000 signatures, as requested by the Italian Constitution (art.71 §2), in order to allow citizens to directly submit a law to Parliament. We would like to obtain more than 50,000 signatures to involve not only students,

but also the whole population, as everybody would benefit from an expansion of the current exercise of the right to vote for Erasmus students.

What is the position of the Institutions in Italy towards the campaign?

The Institutions, at different levels, seem to be very interested in the project. Many mayors and City Councils are helping us, facilitating the circulation of information on the campaign. Many members of Parliament have also given their support, which will be very crucial after the completion of signatures collection.

Which main difficulties are you coping with?

ESN is an NGO, in which only volunteers are involved, and most of them are students. Therefore, budgetary issues including the costs of writing materials, postal fees, travel expenses, however low, greatly affect the campaign. ESN does not have the status of an association of patrons or workers, nor a political party. We are not receiving any grants from private sponsors or any State funding for the campaign. Despite the limited treasury, we are full of enthusiasm and, if democracy means participation, we want to make a serious commitment to empowering Erasmus electoral rights!

Wilmer Mostacciuolo ESN ComCom / ESN Italy.

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INTERVIEW

Students Helping Universities Most of our sections cooperate with universities in one way or another. We sat down with Ragne Kougija, an International Relations Office (IRO) representative of Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) who simply loves ESN and cannot believe how hard-working the volunteers in her section ESN TUT IC are.

Interview Karoli Koiv First things first, how did you end up working here?

I was studying public administration and decided to go to Malta for my Erasmus. When I came back, the outgoing students’ coordinator invited me to work for the IRO as an intern. Ever since then, I have been dealing with incoming exchange students and different projects; including the EILC (Erasmus Intensive Language Course).

Are there many international students at your university?

Yes. This fall, we accepted around 280 exchange students but in addition to that, we have many international degree students, so the total number is around 1,000. Internationalisation is a key goal in most Estonian universities since the number of Estonian students keeps decreasing.

How is ESN TUT IC coping with the big numbers?

For a really long time, ESN TUT IC only dealt with exchange students, providing buddies and mentors only for the exchange students; but since autumn 2013, they also take care of degree students, so their workload has increased a lot. It is impressive how well they are coping with the increase.

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Is there anything they are struggling with?

I would say if anything, it’s marketing. However, this year, we allocated extra funding for marketing purposes which I hope will help. To be honest, it is surprising how few people want to join ESN. When I got back from my Erasmus, all I wanted was to talk about my Erasmus and to be around international people. I’m sure that there are more people like that who do not end up in an ESN section for some reason or another, so the information just needs to reach them.

What do you think, is there something specific ESN could do to attract more people to join?

They could try to include degree students more. Degree students come here without family or friends, so they don’t have many other commitments besides their studies. Fortunately, our section is very welcoming of members from other countries and currently, a large percentage of the section members are international students (for example: their current communication manager is an MA student from France - KK). Erasmus students come here for a semester or a year and they leave, but degree students are a sustainable source of members especially since attracting Estonian HR is quite tricky. This approach could be tried in all universities.

INTERVIEW

Could you tell me more about the cooperation between the IRO and ESN TUT IC? The funding for the section comes from the IRO and I also attend their section meetings every now and then, helping them with booking rooms, etc. In return, we require feedback and reports on what the section has been doing.

When it comes to events, we definitely do not tell them what to do as we can see that organising a successful event is what motivates them the most. However, we do keep an eye on where the money goes, i.e. that they do not spend more money on organising parties than on actually helping students. Fortunately, at the moment, the section has a very strong leader, Sandra, and the IRO completely trusts her.

Degree students come here without family or friends, so they don’t have many other commitments besides their studies.

If you could put it into words, what is the best thing about having ESN TUT IC at your university?

They are simply a great help and they ease up our workload a lot.

I have also noticed that students would rather turn to their peers for help than to a coordinator, it is just easier and faster and they connect more easily. They also make sure the international students get adjusted to their new surroundings and help them alleviate feelings of homesickness. When I was in Malta, we did not have buddies who would introduce us to the Maltese way of life and this is in my opinion is partially the reason why one student felt so homesick they left after only three days. ESN TUT IC makes sure that every student has at least one person they can always talk to, plus their events are a superb way to meet new people at the beginning of the semester and also make Estonian friends. I think by now it is quite difficult to assess how much they have helped us because we cannot imagine not having them around. Sometimes I go to their office to hang out when I have a free moment and trust me, there is never a dull moment in that office, there are always students coming and going. When looking at it from the outside, it looks like a lot of work, but the ESN TUT IC members seem to love it!

I don’t know if you’ve heard but ESN’s flagship project for this past year has been Mov’in Europe, which is a campaign promoting mobility. How do you think we could get more students to go abroad?

Well this is the million dollar question, isn’t it? I think we’ve tried everything in TUT. We have the Study Abroad fair where we have materials from different universities; Estonian students who have been abroad and international students currently studying in TUT are available to answer students’ questions. Then we have a Facebook group for everyone interested in studying abroad, they can ask questions there, and then there are also banners on our website as well as information meetings, though getting the students to the meetings is not very easy. What worked best for us was going directly to the students five minutes before the beginning of a lecture, shortly telling them about the information meeting and getting their attention like that. This is a very good and direct approach; since they are there and cannot go anywhere, they kind of have to listen. Of course doing this takes time but I think it’s worth it.

But then the information gets to them and they still don’t go...

I understand that there can always be excuses, but I can tell you from my experience that everything is possible. You come back and okay, maybe you graduate half a year or a year later than planned but the experience you gain is priceless. There are definitely a few jobs after my exchange I have only been offered because I had that international experience, I had studied in English and so on.

Last but not least, is there something you would like to wish all the ESNers all over Europe?

I wish you all success, strength, and joy because the number of international students are only going to grow, and there is so much work to be done, but ESN is an absolutely irreplaceable source of help for both universities and students. What counts is that you always stay positive and keep going at it!

This autumn, Ragne Kougija left TUT to pursue new career opportunities. Theoverall attitude that Ragne represents is something that can be felt in the rest of the IRO.It’s a feeling of support and understanding.

Karoli Koiv.

ESN Estonia

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ESN EVENT

Halloween in Transylvania There are some things that simply go together. Romania and Transylvania.

Transylvania and Count Dracula. Count Dracula and blood. Blood and Halloween. So it only makes sense that one of ESN Romania’s national events is held in Transylvania during Halloween during which students get to befriend the Count himself.

Text Ioana Petrescu

Picture Radu Vasile

For most people, Halloween is the holiday on which they can dress up like their favorite heroes and spend some quality time with their friends. ESN sections and Erasmus students in Romania also celebrate Halloween, but in a different way. They travel to the mysterious land of Dracula, meet the Count in his castle, and discover the region of Transylvania.

‘Halloween in Transylvania’ is the biggest national event organised by ESN Romania and the local sections, and this year was its 3rd edition. It took place between 30th October and 2nd November in Bran, Brasov and Rasnov. Bran is known as the town where the Castle of Dracula lies and the other two cities are some of the important landmarks in the area. The event gathered around 630 students from all over the country.

Given that we wanted our Erasmus students to know more about our history, customs and traditions, we planned different activities covering each of those aspects. We also added something extra to the trip, because ESN Romania just had its tenth birthday this year.

The trip started with a traditional dinner where people could taste Romanian cuisine. We also presented local dances; some students learned the steps and joined our ‘hora’ (group dance). Afterwards, we started the celebrations ‘Erasmus style’, with the 10th Anniversary of ESN Romania. With all seven local sections as well as the two candidates, we reminded ourselves

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about the moment when ESN Cluj Napoca joined the international network.

The trip had just begun with the first celebration. The second day was dedicated to the discovery of Transylvania. After visiting an old medieval fortress (Râșnov citadel), we arrived at the place ‘to be’ for Halloween: the Castle of Dracula, originally known as the Bran Castle. Knights and fair ladies welcomed our students with a fighting show and medieval dances, and the Dark Count was our guide through his palace. Most students expected a cruel vampire to suck their blood the moment they stepped in the castle, but they discovered a prince from the old ages, Vlad the Impaler, the original Dracula. He even allowed us to celebrate the entire Halloween night in his domains.

The last full day was dedicated to visiting the main city of the area, Brașov. Our volunteers became tour guides through the medieval palace. During these days we didn’t forget about the people around us, and that’s why we planned to make them a little bit happier by giving them nice messages written on fallen leaves. Designed as a SocialErasmus project, we gathered fallen leaves in the city and wrote nice quotes on them. Thus, we managed to make some people’s day a bit merrier. The day was concluded by throwing another amazing party, this time a Responsible Party.

All in all, the event was a good opportunity for Erasmus students from the most important university centers of Romania to get to know each other and to create new friendship bonds.

Halloween in Transylvania also had a cultural impact in Brașov and the surrounding areas because it allowed foreigners to get to know the area better and discover its specialties.

After spending a couple of days here, Erasmus students now know that if they pass through Transylvania, they can survive without problems and they even made a new friend, the Count.

Ioana Petrescu, ESN Romania.

STUDY

Europe moves in many ways We have all heard thousands of stories about the Erasmus programme and the extraordinary things it does to people who get to experience it, but Europe never ceases to amaze; its youth moves in many different ways.

Text Raquel Teixeira

Pictures ESN Bulgaria

The European Commission has recently launched a new programme: Erasmus+. Essentially, it combines a series of different projects concerning education, training and improvement of Europe’s new way of being: a single movement for one big country, that, in fact, is not. When we think about Erasmus +, we, instinctively, think about the Erasmus programme and all its forms. But it deserves a better look. The European Commission has developed various projects that fit the Europe in movement criteria, but serve different goals: education, traineeship, volunteering, among others. It is all about stimulating the active side of citizenship, cooperation and tolerance among young Europeans, ensuring that more than one profile adapts.

Youth in Action was, not long ago, an autonomous programme of the European Commission and now it is combined in the huge package that is Erasmus +. José Batista, a member of the Portuguese department taking care of the project in the country, explains: “in the last community framework it was decided that all different projects should be linked to the same main programme and then, locally, managed by different organisations, when necessary”. “It’s all a big hat, and all European Commission’s programmes are under it”, he illustrates, “different goals, but the same package”. So, what is the main difference between Erasmus and these other European programmes?

While the Erasmus programme guarantees formal education and traineeships concerning the direct improvement of employment, through the ministry of education, Youth in Action is the non-formal and informal version. It is set under the line “learn by doing”. The projects under Youth in Action’s wing are available for youngsters from 14 to 30 years old. The programme has three kinds of actions and is open to all countries of the

European Union, as well as candidate countries. Every year, hundreds of projects are approved throughout the European Union.

The idea is to put the participants in the field, as passive-active observers and get them to learn something with it. “We want them to get involved in the reality in case, and be able to take part of it, without ever taking someone’s job”, explains José. The main purpose of the programme is to enhance competencies.

It seeks to provide opportunities to everyone, despite financial, geographical, social or physiological difficulties that may occur.

It encompasses three main key actions: mobility, entrepreneurship and political reform. The three actions cover distinct areas, in a way that the core of this European movement is fully reached.

The entrepreneurship is a key action that aims to create new job opportunities through organisations from different countries, trying to promote a connected European world of work. As for the political reform key action, it works to get in touch with political decision makers, hoping to make a difference in the political issues concerning youth in Europe and all the programmes and themes around it. It is undeniable that those two actions are of major importance and allow the growth of Europe as we know it. However, the true crown jewel of Youth in Action’s programme is the mobility key. It is set under three main projects: exchange programmes, European Voluntary Service (EVS) and training and networking.

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CULTURE & LANGUAGE

The European Voluntary Service consists of developing projects in host organisations, for periods of up to one year long, with the advantage of having food and accommodation expenses assured as well as some pocket money for extra expenses.

José says that this project is the golden face of the programme and that it is all because of the personal relationships that are created between volunteers, “the feeling and connections that grow there are just amazing”. We found a volunteer, and asked the question: what is the best thing you are taking out of your experience? Her answer leaves no doubts: “I have to say that are the friendships that I made with so many different people from so many different places”, she confesses. “Sometimes, I find myself looking around and thinking about how our paths had everything to diverge and, still, we are all here together in this lovely island in the middle of the Mediterranean, living the experience of a lifetime”.

Isadora Freitas is a Portuguese girl who has just graduated from a Communication Sciences degree, in Porto. She is 21 and now lives in Sardinia, Italy, in an EVS Project. “EVS Imprinting:

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365 days of Community Life” sets itself to promote solidarity and cultural diversity. Isadora didn’t know what to expect. “Integration was much easier than I expected it to be”, she remembers, “I was lucky enough to arrive at the same time as eight other volunteers and find people that welcomed us like family”. The city helps. “Sardinia is, by itself, a welcoming land, where people are not afraid to open the doors to strangers that come from really distant countries. Literally.” Isadora is in love. Everyday she gets to do something different. Her group has training courses with youngsters from several countries, as well as local actions in schools and universities. “My job here is, mostly, to learn”, she says, “I feel that the host organisation - TDM 200 - is widely receptive in that matter”. Frequently, the group is faced with the question “what do you want to learn?” and the work goes from there. “Obviously, there is also the key point of all the experience, the community sense”, she explains, “and most of the work comes from there: getting to know the language, the costumes, the gastronomy...”.

As for the project itself, her role is backstage promoting

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it, for example, their in curse projects. In February though, she will have a more active part to play: “Project School will start and I’ll be able to share a bit about Portuguese culture with children from different ages”. Isadora first arrived in Sardinia in November 2014. For a year, her life revolved around that small Italian island, in a community where her major challenge was to learn how to deal with all those different cultures. “It was my biggest fight, but it is also the best thing I take from this experience”, she concludes.

exchange are able to reinforce personal and professional skills of those involved. This youth exchange is based on a transnational partnership, allowing the participants to share experiences in a non-formal way of learning, acquitting soft skills for personal development and pursuing insertion in the labour market.

Carolina Vaz-Pires, a member of ESN Porto, participated in one of those projects. It took place between the 5th and 13th of September, in Uzana, Bulgaria and “it as a major step to understand better ESN network, globally”, she says. “BEST IV – Bulgarian Education Summer Training” was a training course that aimed to encourage cooperation, exchange of experiences, skills and good practices between people working with youth and youth organisations in the ESN network. This was a training organised

by ESNers to ESNers. ESN Bulgaria hosted 48 participants from 22 countries - all ESN members. For 8 days, they followed a schedule full of workshops and social experiences. “I’ve participated in workshops for Active Leadership, Formal and Non-Formal Education, Global ESN Structure and Erasmus +”, she remembers. “I had the chance not only to participate in all these workshops but also to create a team project in two days, called

Apart from “saudade”, the Portuguese feeling of missing someone or someplace, she never ceases to feel, this has been a life-changing experience.

“EVS was an awakening for an extensive world of opportunities”, she declares.

“I have met people and got in touch with realities that, undoubtedly, have inspired me to rethink about the future”. When Isadora thinks about her future, she knows that the obvious path would be to return to Portugal and take a Master degree, but she doesn’t feel like doing it anymore. “After three months of getting to know, day after day, people that always have their backpack ready and keep travelling and leaving a bit of themselves wherever they go, I guess I lost the courage to stop”, she wondered. She has some things in mind, though: “I am really enthusiastic and sometimes I let myself be fascinated by stories of realities distant from my own...”.

There’s nothing wrong with that. She has already promised to visit her roommate in Aditi, Nepal, and “who knows, if I don’t stick around for a couple of months, volunteering”. This experience has shaped her life. “I believe I entered a world that once you are in, if you love it, there’s no way you’ll ever be able to get out it: the world of NGO’s - Non Governmental Organisations”.

Exchange actions fit a different range of projects. It involves gathering groups of 16 to 60 youngsters, from 13 to 30 years old and giving them the chance to face several themes where they learn about each others countries and cultures. The projects last for 5 to 21 days and unite young people from two or more countries. The projects can focus on a series of different themes. It is hoped that the set of activities during the period of

The BEST of Gabrovo”, explains Carolina, “it involved walking around the streets of Gabrovo, collecting opinions about several themes, taking photos and then creating a Facebook page with all that information”.

There was also time for a social experience called “Home for Children Deprived of Parental Care”. For Carolina, this was a very important part of her training. She shared that “to visit the orphanage and to get in touch with those Bulgarian children was a very powerful experience”. “There was one day that we spent developing games with them and we got so connected that later they came to visit us at the hotel”, Carolina remembers, “and the magic thing about it is that we didn’t know their language and they didn’t know ours, so we communicated as we could, with gestures and drawings”.

This is the skin of Erasmus +. It is the action of sensations, feelings, experiences, touch and sensibility. It is under those projects that thousands of students travel around Europe and get to experience non-formal ways of education and get to learn with what they do, see and with all the people they meet. José believes it is under the most important resolution for Europe’s future: “Ever again we want Europe to incur in a situations of war between poles, and this connections that are constantly being made, are a way to preserve it”.

Raquel Teixeira

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Education and Mobility ESN – The Voice of Quality Education and Inclusive Mobility

Represented by Stefan Jahnke (President of ESN) and Oana Dumitrescu (ESN ICE), ESN impressed its peers with innovative contributions to discussions on mobility and non-formal education at the European Youth Forum’s Education Week conference held in Brussels last November.

Text Charis Fisher In November last year, Erasmus Student Network (ESN) attended a crucial conference about mobility and education: the 2014 Education Week organised by the European Youth Forum. The President of ESN International, Stefan Jahnke and the Vice-Chair of ESN’s International Committee for Education (ICE), Oana Dumitrescu, were strong representatives, emphasising ESN’s contribution to education and gathering information to help improve the network’s activities.

The conference discussions, Oana states, focused on “non-formal learning” and how youth volunteer networks like ESN can “better advocate for inclusive and fair access to mobility for everyone”. As she pointed out, ESN is a large-scale organisation – an ideal basis for non-formal learning.

However, Oana claims that this form of learning is often “incidental” within ESN. ESN’s “spirit of cooperation and understanding” fosters an organic process of education, providing “endless opportunities to learn from each other”. ESNers do not notice they are learning because they enjoy the work so much, using their personal skills to contribute to key network research projects or training events.

They are unknowingly acquiring ‘transversal skills’ – attributes which Johan Cloet, Secretary General of EURASHE (European Association of Institutions in Higher Education), described as “very difficult to acquire in a formal setting”, but which can be taught through youth volunteer work. These skills make ESNers highly employable – they express themselves clearly and confidently, and are enthusiastic about informing, representing and managing their peers.

International exchanges also increase employability, according to the Erasmus Impact Study. It is fair to demand, then, that disadvantaged groups of society should also be allowed to acquire transversal skills through a mobility programme. Current obstacles to inclusive mobility were highlighted at the 2014 Education Week; they include the lack of funding and not speaking the language of the host country. It was felt that youth networks were effective

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at increasing students’ mobility, but that other social groups were being ignored.

The thoughts and ideas that ESN has gathered from the 2014 Education Week hold much promise for the future. Stefan explained that ESN will continue their partnership with the European Commission: further statistical research, such as the ESNSurvey, will be conducted “to support the European Commission in their policy making” and ESN will be receiving funding to “improve the services it offers”.

Collaboration will also be key: ESN will join an umbrella organisation – the “Erasmus+ Student & Alumni Association”. Oana suggested that perhaps the “valuable” resource of ESN’s talented alumni could be better utilised to inspire and motivate current ESNers. She added that ICE will create new e-learning platforms to distribute “learning resources to [the] entire network”, and that the STORY project (Strengthening the Training Opportunities for inteRnational Youth) has recently developed training workshops for ESNers, such as the “ESN CV” workshop, increasing educational and employability prospects within the network.

The 2014 Education Week has shown how committed ESN is to providing its members with a quality education while facilitating international mobility. The network can be proud of its achievements – it is offering a learning experience that is truly unique.

Charis Fisher ESN UK.

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