eXpress Magazine #20: 25 Years of Progress

EXPRESS Issue #20 — winter 2014/2015

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ERASMUS STUDENT NETWORK

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EDITORIAL

25+ 2014 was ESN’s 25th anniversary. We celebrated all over Europe with parades, events – even birthday cakes! A few days ago, we welcomed the New Year full of hope for one more productive year. This year, we are committed to continuing what we have been doing for a quarter of century – helping students participating in exchange programs, motivating more people to study and travel abroad, and becoming ambassadors for the benefits of mobility. 25 years of experience has shown us how important our role is in integrating the students into local society, how much we affect their lives. We witness that every day. This is the reason why we don’t want to stop offering them this opportunity. This is the motivation that drives us to continue volunteering. This is our goal. #THISisESN

— Maria Samara, eXpress Magazine Coordinatior

eXpress #20 COORDINATOR Maria Samara SUPERVISOR Alexandra Nicorici CONTENT EDITOR Maria Samara EDITORIAL DESIGNER Jacek Rakiej CONTRIBUTORS Charis Fisher Susane Gottlieb Markus Lutter Gaffar Rampage Bojana Zimonjic

Karolis Kiurka Jan Hruby Maria Samara Jesus Escriva y Muñoz Jaume Alonso i Fernadez Ekaterina Matveeva Pawel Pankowicz 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 Picture by PEXEL Edited by Jacek Rakiej

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 25 years of progress

5

The History Book

7

Interview with Désirée Majoor

8-11

Mov’in Europe

12-13

The road to a European Identity

14-15

THISisESN collage

16-17

ESN STORY conference

18

AGM Milano post-interview

19-21

ESNSurvey 2014

22-23

Nature vs. Nurture

24-25

Eduk8 T4T

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26

ESN EVENT

25 years of progress This October, ESN is celebrating 25 years of egzistence in its campaign to promote cultural exchange and mobility. ESN believes that the Erasmus programme has enriched the lives of millions and that, with the help of its volunteers, it can help sustain its success over the next 25 years and beyond.

Text Charis Fisher Based on the premise of students helping students, ESN was founded in 1989 after a meeting between the Erasmus Bureau and 32 former Erasmus students in Gent, Belgium. From these small beginnings, today over 13,500 students make up the volunteering network.

For the last quarter century, volunteers have worked hard to strengthen the network throughout its vast expansion to ensure its vision and goals stay consistent in all member countries. In 1990, ESN’s first AGM took place in Copenhagen. The AGM remains an invaluable event for gathering hundreds of ESN volunteers to vote on changes and improvements for the organisation. The creation of the International Board, National Representatives and Regional Platforms followed in 2004 to guide ESN’s extensive growth, helping each volunteer feel connected to the wider goals of the organisation and giving their ideas recognition. It is this sense of democracy and international cooperation that has made ESN uniquely successful.

As ESN continued to grow, it focused on improving the experience of Erasmus students and ESN volunteers alike. Every ESN project is deeply rooted in the original philosophy of the network – making Erasmus a life-changing experience. 2008 saw the creation of SocialErasmus, which had Erasmus students discussing their exchange in schools as well as participating in fundraising events for charity or for environmental causes. In this way, ESN has encouraged exchange students to give something back to their local community as well as to reap the benefits of living abroad.

The network also truly cares about motivating its volunteers’ success within, but also beyond, ESN. Through the Eduk8 training project, volunteers learn how to enrich exchange students’ experiences in their local ESN sections but they can also acquire numerous transferable skills considered invaluable by employers.

ESN has established itself as a dependable advocate for international exchange and mobility through its work with external organisations.

Recently, this has meant providing extensive promotional support for the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme launch. This year, ESN is revamping its initial vision of unity in diversity with a new project – Mov’in Europe. By promoting international mobility to young people through ESN events and activities, Mov’in Europe embodies everything ESN has achieved in its 25 years. The idea that time spent abroad can transform your life is at the heart of every local event, every national platform and every international gathering. And that is because ESN volunteers know from personal experience how crucial the impact of their exchange was on who they are today. Who wouldn’t want to pass on some of that magic to the next lucky generation?

Charis Fisher, member of the Communication Committee, former member of the ESN Bristol.

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HISTORY BOOK

The histo

Erasmus Student Network can already boast 2 idea of the history book was born – a book that conta of our student organisation. The Communication Com tion for creating the history book. Here, you can get a of 25 years of ESN history.

JAN 1989 Erasmus Bureau invited 32 former Erasmus students for an evaluation meeting in Ghent, Belgium. This meeting was the starting point for the Erasmus Student Network.

The problems that became obvious in the evaluation were the main task for the founding members of ESN International to work on. Behind all this stood the idea of students helping students which is still the maxim of ESN. The idea to establish a student network for ERASMUS students was born in January 1989 after an evaluation of 32 former erasmus students in Gent.

MAY 1993 First of handmade Adressbook with all sections adress is produced.

OCT 16TH, 1989 First ESN Section Utrecht, the Netherlands ESN sections were founded in various European university cities.

08.-10. FEB [Alumni Meeting] How to become a section — one of the first international papers 1991 AGM II Brussels, Belgium

1997 First Nordic Network Meeting (NNM), later North European Plaform (NEP)

1993 Policiy outline

1987

In 1987 a plan to create an extensive mobility scheme for higher education was approved by the European Community (EC). One part of this was the Erasmus programme — about exchange for students in order to provide the opportunity to spend part of their studies abroad.

FEB 09TH-11TH, 1990 Alumni Meeting]

1991-92 First national platform within ESN in Belgium.

FEB 2ND, 1990 ESN becomes a legal association, based in Copenhagen, Denmark. With the financial support of the European Commission, the meeting for the official founding of ESN International was organised in Copenhagen (Denmark) in the year 1990, with 49 participants representing almost all member states of the EC at that time. At that meeting, ESN International became a legal association.

The first President of the organisation was chosen from Utrecht, the Netherlands, and her name was Désirée Majoor.

FEB 1990 First AGM in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1990 Desiree Majoor is winner of erasmus prize

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FEBRUARY 1994 First national meeting Norway [CR 1993-94, Norway]

1994 Erasmus Student Network already consisted of 60 sections in 14 European countries.

Tons of promotional material was produced in the middle of the 90’s. The seat of the International Administration in Utrecht housed some of those materials until 2002, when the archives were finally moved from there.

Every year, ESN continued to grow. Sections were founded in many countries in and outside the EU. On the other hand, some of the sections unfortunately disappeared. Especially in the UK, where the Erasmus Student Network, having established sections in at least five cities, saw all of them fade away in the late 90’s. Only in 2002 has a new section been set up in Leicester.

MAY 1998 1st in com the Erasm ens 1998Katechis, K get by Inte Advertisem first ment

HISTORY BOOK

ory book

25 unforgettable years of history. That is how the ains all the milestones in the 25 years of history mmittee has compiled all the necessary informaa glimpse of some of the most important facts

2000-01 In Administration we (after a break of 3 years) managed to set up again the International Administration of ESN International. The new office will be stationed in Gent and sponsored by university of Gent.

1998-99 First time Regular Board Member

8 mmon Newsletter Magazine of mus Student Network ESN-Ath-99 Pavlina Karasiotou, Stelios Katerina Kouyianou ESN Pins can ernational Administration. ment for www.esn.org, maybe ion.

In External Co-operation the co-operation with the European Commission was finally initiated and implemented officially based on the work of several previous boards.

2002 ESN spans 152 sections and 23 countries. It covers a huge area in Europe, reaching from Portugal to Russia and from Ireland to Greece. Time will tell if the efforts that have been made by all the committed boards in the history of ESN will lead to a successful future for our little Pallomeri project called ESN.

MARCH 2007 ESN Magazine 2007 First South Eastern European Platform (SEEP), Istanbul Turkey.

First South Western Eurpean Platform (SWEP), Iframe, Morocco.

First Western European Platform (WEP), Lausanne, Switzerland.

2007 2005 This year, for the first time, the ESN Alumni meeting took place. We believe that keeping with Alumni is important and that Alumni have a lot they can contribute to ESN.

2001 First South European Platform (SEP) , Siena Italy 2007 divided to SEEP and SWEP

1999 ESN Day was created, October 21st First Cultural Medley (CM) Cephalonia, Greece End July 99

AUG 2005 The first ESN Fun(d)raising Conference, which had been the idea of IB in the beginning, took place together with the international BM in Vienna.

2003 First Central European Platform (CEP), Gent.

WEP On both national (Austria) and international level, Christoph Graf was one of the initiators of the ESN Card Project.

Text Susane Gottlieb, Markus Lutter Design Jacek Rakiej

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INTERVIEW

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INTERVIEW

Students Helping Students It all began in 1987 with a group of pioneer exchange students. The Erasmus programme had been launched, and would later spark what some would call a cultural revolution across the continent. Désirée Majoor was one of the few students who benefited from the programme and afterwards became the founding president of the Erasmus Student Network.

Interview Gaffar Rampage Gaffar Rampage: Can you describe how you became one of the first Erasmus exchange students?

I wasn’t a pioneer, but I benefited from the programme.

In what ways?

Désirée Majoor: I guess you could say we were pioneers in a way. Utrecht University already had a long-standing exchange programme with Bologna before 1987, as did a lot of other universities. The first students that went on Erasmus were mostly from these universities who had bilateral agreements with other universities.

Now they just labelled them as Erasmus.

For example, my housing was organised for me. That was very important. I just took a suitcase, jumped on a train, landed in Bologna and tried to find out myself how things worked. In Italy it was a challenge of course, but at least I was able to communicate a bit with the Italians. Since I knew I was going

to Italy, I took Italian lessons a year before. In those days it was easy to add another subject to your studies. I was doing theatre studies; I simply had to add Italian to my course list. Now it’s not so easy anymore. At that time there was not a lot of organisation, but it didn’t bother me. Part of the fun is to find things out for yourself and see how it goes. You meet people that way; I still have friends from that period. Also, I was studying for my thesis, so I also had a lot of work.

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INTERVIEW

How did you convince your parents that it was a good idea?

So the fact we’re doing this interview in English, could be different?

I didn’t even ask them. That’s not normally how I live. On my eighteenth birthday, I moved out and was very independent.

I just told them I was going and they had no objections, or at least I don’t remember anything like that. I was independent and I made my own choices.

Yes! For example, at one of the early AGMs, I noticed Greek people were speaking English to each other. We had a problem understanding one another, but one of the Greek girls also spoke Italian (so did I), and suddenly there was a connection, and we understood each other better. She found a new dimension in the language and could convey her thoughts better in Italian.

Did that also have to do with the nature of Dutch culture?

Possibly, yes. Dutch families were very open that way and still are. Of course, parents are always a bit anxious, but mine didn’t say no.

That monumental evaluation meeting in Ghent after you all came back from exchange: what was that like?

It was a gathering of like-minded people.

Everyone set up their own sections, and we realised that it was important to stick together. Network organisations are a very strong concept. It was all very random, but that’s how it often goes. It’s not just coincidence of course, it’s a combination of different factors. If it is a good mix then the ideas can really grow.

When you were elected as founding president of ESN, what was your vision for the organisation? What was this vision based on?

What was your biggest challenge during

It was really all just incidental. They just invited random people to Ghent and it

The vision from the beginning was of students helping students. Not to be dependent on universities, or on Brussels, but that we can do it ourselves. In practical issues, we can arrange that easily. AEGEE

your entire exchange?

was a coincidence that I was invited and

and other clubs at that time were also do-

Living in an Italian student flat, because they all live together with many students in one room. In Holland you have your own room, even if it’s small. In the Italian student apartment, we had 4-5 people. I remember once I wanted the windows open because that’s how I always sleep at home, but there were major objections to that. The Italian girls were afraid of catching a cold, even though it was 30 degrees.

Because of that, they complained to the housing office, and I got a single room for myself, which was a luxury! Of course, that’s just an anecdote, I met a lot of Italians, and made a lot of friends! I still try to go there every year.

ESN today has many sections, and an enormous scope. Did I expect that?

No, definitely not.

How did your exchange abroad year change you?

I didn’t have any other obligations at that time. In the evening after the evaluation meetings, the idea to find an organisation spontaneously came up. This came from practical issues that we all discussed during the evaluation. We realised that we could solve these issues ourselves, by coupling locals with exchangers.

One of the things I will never forget is that language is very important. It is much more than just the word or the sentence, you also communicate the impact, the feeling. I found out that when people hear me speaking, when I speak English or Dutch or Italian, it’s all different even though I say the same thing. In English it comes across harsher, in Italian people perceive me as more extroverted and communicative. Language does something to how you are perceived. I am a different person when I speak different languages. Language is much more defining to how you are perceived as a person.

The European Commission at that time found our idea very interesting, and they agreed to support us. We began with 7 people, and I became president partly because I live in Utrecht and was close to Brussels, so it was easy to arrange all the administrative work. Of course, it was not just me, all 7 of us were busy setting up our own sections; in Ghent, Paris, Bologna, Copenhagen. We then set up the founding meeting in Denmark because it was cheap to set up an organisation there, and someone there had the connections to make it happen. We discussed more strategically, in terms of policy, and in 2-3 years we had 27 sections. It happened very quickly.

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ing this, but there was still a niche for an organisation with a more specific focus.

Did you foresee it developing into what it is today?

ESN today has many sections, and an enormous scope. Did I expect that? No, definitely not. The people I was with in Ghent had a perspective of Europe. We saw the potential, but we never thought it would be so big. ESN has gotten a life of its own, and gone into its own development. It now has little to do with me or anyone who started it.

How do you think ESN came to be so successful?

It’s a strong concept, the network organisation. Nowadays everyone’s talking about it, but back then it was quite new. I am not claiming it as a unique idea that we had, but 25 years ago it was not really common. In fact it was quite experimental.

INTERVIEW

Now we know that network organisations are very strong. Also, at that time, there was a political urgency to internationalise.

At that time, many universities saw the chance to diversify and foster international relations, and they went for it.

What’s important now?

ESN was started with the idea of ‘students helping students’. This is still as valid now.

During the 25th anniversary of the Erasmus programme, we had meetings with Erasmus ambassadors in tThe Netherlands. That was when I became aware that ESN is now becoming an influential factor in the political arena.

We took for granted that the value of exchange is to be interested in other cultures, in other countries, and to look for common ground. This was taken for granted in the beginning, and it’s important to stress that this is an essential value.

You will experience that most strongly when you go on exchange yourself. ESN is now, more than ever, a power against euroskepticism, and we need to stress that it’s still important to get to know each other.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t drink, but alcohol shouldn’t be used to stimulate interaction.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge for ESN and/or educational mobility in the next 5 years?

I think the challenge we originally had is still there.

Although Erasmus has been a big success, in terms of exchange in

Archival picture.

general, we still don’t have the figures we wanted to get. The original aims are still as important. In educational institutions, the majority of students still haven’t changed their stance on that. It’s not like the percentage of students who take the opportunity to go on exchange has grown tremendously. It takes a lot more to get people mobile in an educational context.

What does it take then?

Would you say that ESN has too much of a focus on international projects?

I’m not implying that the ESN projects are too much, as long as the core is kept strong. We have to make sure that there is an easy way for people to get to know each other in their local cultures and that students are benefiting from their exchanges. Both are important: the social and the political.

Nowadays, ESN sections often face image issues, with them being linked to excessive drinking and partying. Should ESN (try to) shake off this image?

We should be aware that this image can easily be there, and we should keep a big distance from that. There are enough student organisations like that; those that only exist for partying. I would very much advocate that ESN is not such an organisation. The parties are still an important part of course, but excessive drinking and partying doesn’t have to be linked to getting to know each other’s cultures.

People travel a lot nowadays, and it’s easy, so that cannot be the main factor. What are they going to be studying? What kind of content will they receive? Those are the important questions. Many students still underestimate the value of exchange, as compared to finishing their studies as soon as possible. In that sense, political support for these programmes is essential.

Erasmus and other similar programmes must continue to be pushed on a political level.

Desiree Majoor is now Vice-President of the board of the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Utrecht (Utrecht School of the Arts) and a member of the Topteam Creatieve Industrie (Dutch Creative Council)

Do you have a final word for ESN on its 25th anniversary?

I still think it’s necessary that students solve their own problems, that they stay independent. You have to realise that you have much more power, and that you can do much more than you think. ESN can be a catalyst for this, to stimulate the ideas and let them grow. To do this, the organisation must tap on its network, and its members must help each other to collectively become stronger.

Gaffar Rampage is the Chair of the Communication Committee.

Hailing from the section of ESN INHolland Rotterdam, he is a student of Communication and Media and spends most of his free time in the kitchen.

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FLAGSHIP PROJECT

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FLAGSHIP PROJECT

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STUDY

The road to a European Identity “Erasmus is indeed a vital part of helping feel more European, learn more about each other” Maros Sefkovic, Commissioner for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration during the second Jose Manuel Barroso Commission, 2013.

Text Bojana Zimonjić

Illustrations Jacek Rakiej

Nowadays ‘European’ is not just a geographical determinant for somebody who is from Europe, but it marks affiliation with European identity. European identity can be defined as a supranational identity, a sense of collectiveness with other states and nations on the European continent.

It involves a set of common values and principles shared by all the citizens of the European Union.

European identity, which is in constant development, offers some universal values that young people can identify with regardless of their nationality, religion or gender. Some of these values are developed during our Erasmus experience, for example tolerance, acceptance of diversity, adapting to a multicultural environment, active citizenship and democracy. Erasmus helps us not only with our professional development, but it also affects other important aspects of our life, such as the development of our personality or of our civic values. During our Erasmus experience we meet people from all over Europe who offer us a different perspective on certain issues. Erasmus makes you feel strong about ideas the EU is advocating for, Erasmus creates active

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citizens, citizens who want to be carriers of changes and progressive ideas, ideas of prosperity. It allows us face-to-face interaction, socialisation in international groups, helps us improve our social and debating skills and think outside of the box. It offers us cross-cultural interaction.

On Erasmus, boundaries between

different nationalities are lost. There is no place for I in European identity, there is only a place for we. The European Union does not mean something homogenous, it does not mean that we are all the same nationality or religion. It means one, but different. The European Union is united in diversity. Feeling more European does

No

Yes

37%

62%

Do you feel a citizen of the EU? Poll EU27, 2013

STUDY

What would strenghten your sense of EU identity?

EU27, 2012 37% 24%

Common social welfare system (healthcare, education, pensions)

Free movement of pension

19%

18%

EU EU ID cards emergency response service for natural disasters

18%

17%

EU-wide Directly mobile elected phone President of network at the EU same price

In the near future, I see myself as…

EU27, 2012

not have to mean that one is feeling less of something else. Erasmus is where European identity is created. Erasmus is a sub-culture, a part of European identity.

In the study “Student mobility and European Identity: Erasmus Study as a civic experience?” by Kristine Mitchell, Erasmus students reported studying abroad made them more interested in other European countries (91 per cent) and other European people and cultures (93 per cent), and a solid majority of them became more interested in the EU (66 per cent) and felt more European (73 per cent) as a result of studying abroad. The new Erasmus+ programme for education, training, youth and sport from 2014-2020 has a total budget of about €14.7 billion, 40 per cent more than allocated to existing programmes. We could say that EU has recognised the impact Erasmus has on further development of EU, especially European identity.

The future seems promising, with increasing number of Erasmus students every year. We will see what the newly graduated Erasmus generation has to offer to the European Union, but whatever that is, it is certain that there will be more Europeanism. In the near future I would certainly like to have the option to choose "European" under nationality in my passport.

6%

European and my nationality

38% Only my nationality

3%

Only European

Bojana Zimonjić, member of the International Committee for Education of ESN.

49%

My nationality and European Sources: Eurobarometer, European Commission, September, 2013

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Design Jan HrubĂ˝

ESN EVENT

ESN STORY conference On September 12th, the final STORY (Strengthening the Training Opportunities for International Youth) project conference took place in Brussels to discuss the outcomes of one year‘s worth of research on mobility recognition for studying and training abroad.

Text Karolis Kriuka The STORY project aims to improve the accessibility of quality international traineeship placements for students and graduates. The platform was created following an analysis of mobility programmes and their impact on future career possibilities. During the one-year period of research, various groups were targeted – students, Higher Education Institutions, receiving companies and organisations – who were able to fill in online surveys and questionnaires to collect the most accurate and precise data for quantitative research.

The final conference was held at the European Economic and Social Committee where an engaging panel of speakers and participants discussed the topic. During the day, intense and fruitful sessions were held; Runa Vidgis Gudmarsdottir and Daphne Scherer, representatives of the Erasmus Unit in the DG for Education and Culture, presented the initial results of the Erasmus Impact Study. They

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highlighted its benefits and its importance for the European Union and presented traineeship opportunities offered by the new Erasmus+ programme. Dominique Montagnese, Vice-President of ESN, gave his own testimonial on how participating in an international traineeship helped him develop skills.

A panel discussion took place, which stimulated very productive discussions. Stefan Jahnke, President of the Erasmus Student Network, Allan Pall, Secretary General of the European Youth Forum and Pierre-Julien Bosser, co-founder of InternsGoPro, discussed the quality of internships and how to improve the situation for future interns.

Participants distinguished such problems as the status of the European Credit Transfer System as just one of many grade transfer systems, ambiguities regarding Learning Agreements, youth unemployment, and mobility recognition.

Equally, they devised methods for how to improve such issues.

The outcomes of the STORY project can be viewed at http://storyproject.eu/results.

Karolis Kriuka, President ESN VMU, member of Communication Committee.

INTERVIEW

Where the Network comes together Every year, one delegate from each ESN section all across Europe attends the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of ESN. It is ESN’s main decision-making body and the moment when the whole network is united.

However, at the same time, this is a huge event requiring at least a year of preparation for the 700 participants.

No-one could be better-placed to give us an exclusive insight into the preparations than the Head of the Organising Committee (OC) of the previous AGM, Lorenzo Campini, and Carlo Bitteto, President of ESN Italy, also a member of the last OC.

Interview Maria Samara

Photo Markus Lutter

How did AGM affect the local sections and the members?

CB For local sections organizing AGM was an extreme challenge. Like climbing Mount Everest for the first time as a mountaineer. Around 100 OC members were involved from 6 sections and, in the last months in particular, this project took up all their time. Indeed, AGM changed the history of the 6 Milanese sections forever. From being an association that takes care of international students, they became, with local institutions, a reliable partner to discuss the internationaliza-

tion of the city. I am still thankful to all the members for what they did. Lorenzo Campini, the head of the OC, and Veronica Zuccarella, the secretary of AGM, were great at motivating them and in believing in us for second year after we had lost out on hosting the AGM in 2012.

LC AGM has been a big deal for everybody at the beginning in a good way. Was a huge deal for everybody being the center of our Network for one week.

Everybody felt the attention of ESN International and we basically were always super exited the whole year.

At the same time we had an incredible extra work that have absorbed a lot of energy of everybody stealing the attention from our exchange students.

Somebody in Milan didn't like it a lot, but doing an AGM was necessary for the creation of new cycle.

Was it hard to make the AGM Milano come to life? What difficulties did you have to face?

The main difficulty was fundraising. We didn't want to organize just any AGM. We wanted to organize the AGM. I will always remember a meeting that we had and we realised that our next 3 months would be based on this sentence: "Ok, guys, to mantain the ambitious programme we presented, we need 60.000 more euros ".

In fact, bureaucracy in asking for public funds in Italy is so slow and you have to fill in many sheets to present to different offices. On the other hand, private partners always wait for last minute decisions when evaluating proposals. I remember an OC discussion deciding whether or not to spend money on the balloons that each country would let into the air after the flag parade in Piazza Duomo. We decided that it was time to have a great AGM, not time to save money. This was our winning attitude that grew stronger and stronger.

Yes, we made the candidacy two times

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INTERVIEW

and it was incredibly hard. We had to create from nothing an entire OC made by volunteers and not professionals.

Creating the OC was something that took much time, it was supposed to be a perfect machine that would have been able to work even if somebody would give up during the 15 months of work. And this happened several times.

Does such a conference like AGM affect the local community? If yes in which way?

Milano is a city full of events for international people: currently, preparation for EXPO 2015 is going on. But the AGM was something unique and local Institutions were literally filled with the enthusiasm of all the people that presented it to them.

The City Hall, The Region, Local Entrepreneurs (in particular Assolombarda) and many others supported us financially and this is not really common in our country.

We had the attention of everybody for those 10 days, which included the PRE and POST CNR. Well for sure economically yes. Try to estimate how much money arrives on Milano

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economy because of AGM. 800 people coming from all over Europe that spend 5 days in our city. For sure has a positive impact.

From a cultural point of view, in order to affect the local community we would generally need more awareness of what is ESN and the values of the Annual General Meeting. Only in this way can work.

I would only add that the parade made in the city center hugging the Duomo had been a great action that increased the attention of our local community.

Are the citizens of Milano and Italians in general aware of the accomplishment of this event?

Definitely yes, we had a lot of attention from the Italian media and we realized that when we had a lot of national televisions at our opening conference.

ESN in Italy it's well known by international students and Italian outgoing students but it's not very popular amongst students that haven't been on exchange. Although it's slowly gaining more popularity, there's a lot of work to do in this area. That's why,

for us, having AGM in our home country was fundamental. The massive media campaign we had, coordinated by Martina Moretti, showed everybody that ESN Italy is ready to lead this process of Internationalisation of the country.

Did you tried to involve the local community in the preparations of the conference and the actual event?

Of course we did, the six universities of Milano were involved (Politecnico Milano, Università degli studi di Milano, IUL, Bocconi, Bicocca, Cattolica e Bicocca) and supported us financially, with their network and their structures.

Bicocca university hosted us during the conferences, Bocconi for the gala dinner and Università degli studi for the opening dinner.

Did you have the support of the local authorities?

All the public partners of Milano accepted the challenge in supporting us and participating in the conference. We organised a strong communication plan on both the

INTERVIEW

institutional and media side, which made their participation possible. Comune di Milano and Regione Lombardia provided financial support as well. We also had the pleasure of having the Italian Minister of Education with us. The 6 Universities of Milano really surprised us with their involvement and capacity in being reliable in helping us, starting from Bicocca University.

In your opinion, do you think AGM creates more awareness of the Network to the local community?

We, as both Italian people and youngsters, need to be more aware of the opportunities that Europe gives to us. Southern Europe and Italy in particular, are living in crisis because of youth unemployment, which is about to increase to over 50%. It means that students are less likely to find a job after their degree. Having the AGM in Italy meant that we could communicate to young people that Europe is ready to give job opportunities to all of us. The results of our huge media campaign were astonishing, beyond any possible expectations: 144 articles were published, 10 which were broadcast on radio and TV stations of national relevance. The greatest point of the campaign was a service on Evening News at RAI 1, which was unique for a students' association. All of a sudden people became aware of ESN. For sure has a big impact on ESN in terms of awareness. After AGM a lot of doors were opened for us that before were closed.

Institutions realised that ESN is an important actor of our European society and should be taken in consideration talking about integration, education and tolerance.

AGM is an internal ESN conference , do you believe that more people (apart from ESNers) could be interested? And if so, why?

One of the great values of the AGM is democracy. If you were to take part in our conferences even for a few minutes, you would see that there are no discriminations related to countries, gender or opinions. There is a proposal; afterwards countries and sections vote. And every-

body has the right to express his/her opinion. I see AGM as a Parliament. A Parliament where things work, better than in many Parliaments I have ever read about.

For some reasons having a public session of AGM would be a boost for our popularity. If we start to talk about topics that are not related to the association itself (as we are already doing) with for example the International Committee for Education and Exachangiability people will get interest more in ESN. Discussing about problems of citizenship is not only a business of ESN but it involves all European citizens.

As far as I know you approached the Minister of Education, how did that happen? Was she interested in mobility, ESN, Erasmus? What was the outcome of this meeting?

One of the goals was to establish a cooperation with the Minister of Education.

From a political point of view, Italy is a strange country, where instability is high and elections are called very often, consequently Ministers can change every year or every year and a half. Because of this, after we received confirmation that the previous Minister Maria Chiara Carrozza would be participating in the AGM, we got news that Stefania Giannini had been appointed as the new Minister, in late February 2014, a month and a half before our event. We had to start over again. It was thanks to the efforts of our volunteers and of the Dean of Milano Bicocca, that we got directly in touch with her. Now ESN Italy has opened a cooperation with the Minister in order to promote the values that qualify Italy as an ESN country.

More awareness of their capacity and skills. More doors were opened after AGM. Now after months I started to see the fruits of this event of the new generations that at that time were newbies in ESN. AGM definitely boost motivations in young ESNers.

What did organising the AGM mean for ESN Italy?

A lot. ESN Italy, in its 20th year, dreamt that the AGM could again be in our country. Our Network has been developing a lot in the last years and really wanted to show everybody that we are not only big, but we are good volunteers of our Network. In the past two years we have been focusing a lot more on projects than on events: Erasmus in Schools, SocialErasmus, ExchangeAbility, in addition to other national projects, such as the Grant for Italian outgoing students, or the Right to Vote for Italian Exchange. AGM is not an event, but we can define it a project, for sure. The most difficult one, and we are proud of having hosted the 25th edition.

Would you suggest sections to attempt to organise AGM? Totally...but..remember that is going to be hard, sometimes you won't get what you had in your mind, and you will have to solve last minute problems.

Doing AGM is going to change your life for yourself and the people next to you.

Unique experience.

AGM pushes you to reach new goals and exceed your limits.

If you want you can. You only need to find the way.

After this you are ready to start!

How does the AGM benefit a section/sections and a city in your opinion?

Sections need to be able to get the advantages that an event such as the AGM favors. Opportunities are limitless, after an AGM, simply because all the partners, public and private already know what you are capable of doing and they trust you. But it's also super complicated, since you need to maintain a high level in your association in regards to external relations and projects to propose.

Maria Samara, PR manager of ESN Greece, Press and Publications team Coordinator, Communication Committee member.

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ESNSURVEY

ESNSurvey 2014: International Experience and Language Learning Text Jaume Alonso I Fernández, Jesús Escrivá Muñoz The Erasmus Student Network it is mainly supporting and developing student mobility in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). Not only do we support students at the local level in host institutions and advise outgoing students in their HEI of origin, but we also advocate for the general improvement of exchange programmes in Europe. The validity of our advocacy lays within the fact that it is always based on the opinions of more than 180,000 exchange students that we assist every year in our more than 450 HEIs where we are present and whose opinion is collected in the ESNSurvey project, amongst other studies.

Every year ESN launches a questionnaire that explores the current issues connected to academic mobility.

Throughout the last years the ESNSur-

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vey became the biggest European wide research project conducted solely by volunteers. In total more than 109,000 students have responded to our online questionnaires. Through the gathered opinions of students, ESN obtains a better insight into problems and added values in mobility and is able to represent the real of students. We believe that our work fosters mobility and improves the quality of exchange for young people in Europe and beyond.

The ESNSurvey 2014 is titled “International Experience and Language Learning”. The focus of this year’s edition is on investigating the attitudes of mobile and non-mobile students towards language learning and to show how international experiences help fostering the interest in learning different languag-

es. Since the Erasmus programme is not the only opportunity that provides this international experience, we have also analysed the full degree mobility and its associated obstacles, among other topics.

Erasmus is one of the most wellknown and successful programmes in the European Union. However, students’ satisfaction with their studies abroad continues to steadily rate 3.9. This indicates that the experience abroad offers an important added value to the studies and that the quality of the studies can still be improved.

Nonetheless, the opportunity to take part in mobility programmes is not yet available to everyone. Financial issues and personal ties are rated as the major obstacles for students to become mobile.

Other factors that play a role are the

ESNSURVEY

lack of information, fear of recognition problems, long bureaucratic procedures, doubts about the quality of studies abroad and the fear of prolonging studies.

This suggests the need to improve students’ mobility grants in terms of quantity and quality as well as to explore new schemes that combine both a study exchange and a traineeship abroad. Indeed, amongst the non-mobile students, 76% would consider studying abroad if they were guaranteed a part-time job or a paid internship in the host country.

Experiences abroad increase the employability and the willingness of students to work in other countries, as shown in the ESNSurvey 2013, and therefore improve the current youth unemployment situation. For employers, one of the most interesting aspects of student mobility is the improvement of language skills. ESNSurvey 2014 shows that students who take a part of their higher education abroad generally improve their knowledge of the tuition language. On top of that, independently of the language of tuition, 83% of students are willing to learn the local language of their host country.

However, even though a previous language preparation would be desirable, only one third of the mobile students have attended a language course in their home countries. This suggests the need to implement and foster on-line courses before the start of the mobility, so that mobile students can take more advantage of their stay. This is especially relevant for minor languages, where students’ interest clearly exceeds the availability of courses.

Once abroad, 43% of respondents have attended free language courses and 14% had to pay for them during their stay. And most importantly, the interest for learning languages does not vanish after the stay, as 61% of students continue practising their Erasmus languages after their period abroad.

Another form of having an international experience is to do full-degree mobility. Students who take part in it claim to seek a personal challenge, an international environment or learning a new language. Nonetheless, there are still a lot of students who are reluctant to participate in full degree mobility. Their reasons for not taking a full degree abroad include the fear of losing personal ties, lack of

information and the fear of not obtaining recognition.

Regarding this last point, 9% of students that have taken a full degree abroad claim to have encountered problems regarding recognition of their degree. These issues occur particularly in connection with pursuing further education, state employment or regulated professions and often involve long and occasionally costly administrative recog-

Erasmus is one of the most successful programmes in the European Union. nition procedures.

Last but not least, all of our ESNSurvey editions also study the satisfaction of exchange students with the services provided by student organisations. Awareness and satisfaction with ESN continues to rise. In our survey, 60% of participants state that there was an ESN section in their host city and rate their overall satisfaction 4.1, in line with previous years’ results. Orientation and informal meetings, as well as SocialErasmus activities and trips are the best rated initiatives. The ESNSurvey 2014 also shows that satisfaction with studying abroad is higher for those students who were in contact with an ESN section or with other student associations.

Jaume Alonso I Fernández, National Representative of ESN Spain, member of the International Committee of Education.

Jesus Escriva y Muñoz, Chair of International Committee of Education, ESN AISBL

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CULTURE & LANGUAGE

Nature vs. Nurture You are either born with a language-learning gift, or you are not. At least, this is what most people on Earth believe.

Text Ekaterina Matveeva

Illustration Jacek Rakiej

I think you can become a polyglot by nurture. Years ago, I was a language learning student. The worst experience was in my German class at pre-primary school when I was four, as I hated German and since then had a very bouncing love-hate relationship with this language.

I actually never fancied learning languages at school, I was good at English but it could be called “Russian English” and the very idea to enter Moscow State Linguistic University made me frown a lot.

But this is about the moment when I had an epiphany, changed my approach, and then succeeded not only in learning English, but in working with the EU and USA ambassadors, NASA scientists, and discovered a secondary linguistic personality. Since then, I moved on to other languages, and I can now speak seven languages to varying degrees between conversational and mastery and understand another dozen…

It turns out that if you have a language-learning gift, you can always cherish it, and if you often have memory holes, do not worry! There are tools and tricks for faster learning which are constantly tested on my own memory and dozens of my students. I will disclose

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CULTURE & LANGUAGE

Since you may be starting from a similar position to where I was, I am going to present you a few aspects from my methodology that worked best for me as I went from zero to polyglot.

1. them in a couple of paragraphs.

As a “polyglot”—someone who speaks multiple languages — my world has become “home” in all the senses of this word as I can understand and be understood almost everywhere. I have gained access to people and places that I never otherwise could have reached. I have made friends with Indians when I got stuck at Paris airport on my way to Saudi Arabia, I have gained an Argentinian poetry award in the Italian language, I have met the best Polish fencer in Spain and later on worked with the Polish ambassador on RNC Assembly, I have discovered that counting in Hindi and Russian is very similar, I have worked at EU Commission with the Heads of National Educational Agencies in their native languages and interpreted from Italian, Russian and Portuguese at G20 Summit… and well, had a fabulous time travelling the world.

2.

3.

Ekaterina Matveevae, polyglot

Before starting a new language make sure you have the right attitude towards it; an optimistic viewpoint is essential and half of the fight to progress in your language learning. Also, you should clearly define your motivation to learn that language and keep it in mind throughout the learning process.

Get an inexpensive phrasebook to keep in your pocket/purse to take out and study in little 2-minute windows during the day whenever you have a spare minute. Use fun memory techniques in order not to forget all of those new words you are learning. Grammar is important, but I believe that it should be taken in very light way in the early stages. In my opinion, focusing on grammar too much in the early stages is a huge mistake in the academic approach. The priority is to speak as much as possible and you need words and phrases for this, not rules, thus use a communicative approach – speak, speak, speak. You will study more grammar after you can communicate a little and it will be much more interesting to “tidy up” what you have already got.

Do not wait until you are ready, because you may never consider yourself ready.

Just start online lessons with us and speak! From a psychological point of view, you will feel more comfortable and relaxed studying from anywhere in the world, but you can get too relaxed. Thus as you are trying to make progress in the language, to help with your longer-term goal, try to have mini-goals that you can achieve in a very short time. This improves your motivation to study and helps you progress in measurable amounts.

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ESN EVENT

Endless possibilities If you thought that there are no International ESN events during the summer — you're wrong! On the 25th August about 60 super-motivated ESNers invaded a picturesque Italian town — Carbonare for Eduk8 Training for Trainers (T4T). The event was hosted by the amazing Organizing Committee from ESN Trento, Italy.

Text Paweł Pankowicz

Photo Patrick Doodt

Eduk8 in general, is an international training project, which aims to empower ESN members to allow them to perform better in their ESN daily tasks. Eduk8 T4T aims to create a pool of trainers granted with the tools and knowledge needed to educate and develop fellow members in the network.

In Trento, the participants were divided into basic and advanced track. During 10 days they had an opportunity to take part in different workshops delivered by external trainers. They acquired knowledge on topics such as non-formal education, group dynamics, role of a trainer, feedbacking, facilitation methods, training and session design, debriefing and evaluation methods, self-reflection, motivation and dealing with multicultural groups. Eduk8 is not only about non-formal education, but also about meeting great people and sharing experiences!

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“Eduk8 T4T by far has been my favourite international event, because of the people, the opportunities, the skills that I gained during this adventure. The only question I keep asking myself: why didn’t I do that earlier? So please, be smarter than me and take the first step to discover what ESN really has to offer” – says Karoli from Estonia.

After the bunch of trainings, the participants had a chance to try their newly-learned skills and design their own workshops in pairs. For some of the participants it was a very emotional and personal challenge. A challenge that forces to push the limits and in the same time leads to a personal development.

“For me, Eduk8 was a great opportunity to meet new people, learn in a supportive environment, but also to push myself out of my comfort zone. Eduk8 is the best experience I had in ESN so far” – says

Nives from Croatia.

The whole event was a great success both for the OC from ESN Trento and the international Eduk8 team. Besides Training for trainers you can experience the non-formal education during ESN Trainings, which are lead by Eduk8 Facilitators. The upcoming Spring Training will take place in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Paweł Pankowicz PR manager of Eduk8.

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