Penguin a p e r s
Issue I
Editorial
Dear “Tallinners”, we are welcoming you in this beautiful city which we The Media Team of the 3rd University Forum of EYP have no doubts is going to be a place where you are Estonia will follow your progresses in getting to the top of this unique wave and learn how young students can going to live some of the best memories of your life. actually become young European leaders. We hope you had a safe trip until the Baltic Sea and that you are no looking forward to live these days with Elisa Martinelli and Oleksandra Gipsh, us. We hope that Tallinn will be an inspiration, an Editors of 3rd University Forum of EYP Estonia achievement, a true learning experience for you as it was for us three years ago. We are truly confident that as this past experience was our wave, this session will be yours; grasp it and make it yours. This is also your wave.
Brought to you by Adelaide Di Maggio (IT/PL) Natali Khenkina (BY) Rasmus Kriest (DE) Liza Skorobreshchuk (UA) Kryštof Stupka (CZ) Karl-Joosep Volmerson (EE) Marjan Mir Spinola (ES) Anna Hagarová (CZ) Oleksandra Gipsh (UA) Elisa Martinelli (IT)
Table of Contents When students become masters - literally Is democrasy inclusive? Creating an energy independent Europe #WhyNotFreeTrade and other hashtags Holes in the crumbling wall Enjoy yourself Implementing the innovation union How politicians affect human rights Don’t you worry child The philosophy of pretty pictures Seven ways to prove that you are outstanding How to be the prefect EYPer
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When Students Become Masters – Literally.
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How American students “became the masters”? by Adelaide Di Maggio (IT/PL)
The first university in the world was established in Bologna almost a thousand years ago, and European students started receiving their degrees, long before the United States were born. However after higher education reached the “New World”, university rankings started favouring North American Colleges. Oxford, Salamanca, Cambridge, Padua, Sorbonne; they are Universities with centuries of history and experience, archives with billions of names of pupils, as well as professors. Oxford and Cambridge invented the idea of residential university, creating an environment where students were living together and becoming some of the oldest higher education centres in the world. Being still providers of high quality education, some of them appear in top positions in academic rankings. On the other hand, many other universities seem to have lost their old splendor, the one that for years has attracted great minds from all over Europe. In the XVI century colonists brought the European knowledge and ideals to the newly discovered continent, which was enriched with a fresh, different perspective. By the end of World War II, North American colleges have surpassed European universities in terms of educational outcome, research facilities, investments and reputation. According to the Times university ranking, almost 60% of World’s Top 100 Universities come from the USA, whereas 30% of those are universities settled in the EU Member States. Therefore, in which aspects do the faults of the “old” methodology lay, giving space and prestige to the innovation of the “new” measures, which have
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become examples to follow for Asian and other developing countries? American universities currently employ 70% of the world’s Nobel prize winners, 30% of the world’s output of articles on science and engineering, and 44% of the most frequently cited articles. According to the Leiden University Ranking, only 11 non-American universities ranked among the top 50 in the “proportion of the publications of a university belonging to the top 10% of their field” and 14 in the top 50 “average number of citations of the publications of a university”. Moreover, research expenditure per student in higher education in the USA is much larger than any other European country. For example, statistics released in 2002, proved that research and development expenditure per student in the USA amounted to 20.545, whereas on an average of 15 EU countries, amounted to 10.249. Nevertheless, the decisive factor, as in the majority of cases, is money. Private American universities receive enormous endowments, amounting even 27 billion, as for Harvard, which are the predominant source of income, apart from fees. It is different for EU establishments that are mostly state-founded, therefore state-dependent, with professors not enough motivated to push their students and themselves further up and susceptible to deterioration of teaching and research quality. More and more Europeans are pursuing university degrees just in order to receive a certificate proving that they are expert in a field they are not entirely sure of knowing. America spends twice as much of its GDP on higher education as Europe does, with the conviction that investing in education will prosper in the future.
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Is Democracy Inclusive? The story of our political system by Rasmus Kriest (DE)
According to the Oxford Online Dictionary a democracy is a state governed under “a system by the whole population”. The book version expands on this term by stating that democracy is “a system in which all the people of a state are involved in making decisions about its affairs”. Digging deeper and looking at the historic origin of the word, the Greek “δημοκρατία” Now, 70 years later, 28 of the 50 European countries, is created out of the people (δῆμος) and their power are Member States of the European Union, a politico-economic union that as such is often criticized for (κράτος). not being democratic enough even though it based But while the Greek “rule of the people” may sound that same system. Thus, while keeping in mind that like modern democracy, it was not – the democratic according to American political scientist Larry Diacitizenship was open only for an élite class of free men mond democracy enables the active participation of while both women and slaves were excluded from po- all citizens in politics and civic life and protects the litical participation. This is a motif which stretched human rights of all citizens. To underline this, Article throughout the whole history of Western democra- 2 of the Treaty of the European Union and Article 21 cy: Afro-Americans were not allowed to vote in the of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU state United States of America until the middle of the 19th respect for the rights of persons belonging to minoricentury, women were even prohibited until 1920. ties and prohibits the discrimination of those. Eight years later the United Kingdom followed while France, the so-called birthplace of “modern democra- National minorities should be fully included in a demcy” included women only after the end of the Second ocratic system without forcing them to integrate themWorld War in 1945. selves and thus losing their cultural identity to enable intercultural dialogue, inculcate the spirit of toleration and enable the making of worthwhile projects. According to Neera Chandhoke, professor at the University of Delhi, those are some of the advantages plural societies bear.
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Creating an Energy Independent Europe
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The long way to go towards the Energy Union
by Kryštof Stupka (CZ)
It has been slightly over a year since Donald Tusk, at that time Prime Minister of Poland, has written an article for the “Financial Times” calling for further development of the European energy cooperation in order to ensure safer and more accessible energy for citizens and businesses. It is there that he is proposing an Energy Union.
something similar to the Euratom: an agency through which the 28 Member States are jointly buying uranium. Thus, this would make it impossible for Russia to hold unjustifiably high prizes for one state, while selling cheap gas to another, as it happened in 2012 when gas prices where 15% higher for Lithuania than Germany. The reason why Russia was doing it was also pretty obvious; Lithuania does not have any other possibility other than obtaining Russian gas, while Germany can simply buy energy from its neighbours. Therefore, the Energy union will let the EU act as a global player and, with newly built energy infrastructure, this project will lead to the creation of a European Single Energy Market.
During this year, Tusk has become the president of the European Council and together with Juncker, the President of the European Commission , he set up the creation of the European Energy Union as the European Commission Priority. Juncker’s team is currently working intensively, but it still has to face several issues, However, the main obstacle is clear: the Member which even the European Commission cannot easily States’ sovereignty. As lousy as it may seem compared overstep. to all the problems it would solve, it is still undoubtedly the worst barrier for the Energy Union to become More than 50% of the energy used in the EU comes reality. Countries like Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slofrom imports, making its Member States highly de- vakia or even Finland, which depend on Russia for all pendent on countries possessing oil, gas or solid fuels. of their gas consumption, have clearly stated that the The issue is not just that the EU imports most of the Energy Union is what they need. However, Germany, energy it consumes, but also that a bit over 30% of Denmark, Sweden or the Netherlands have no reason imported gas, oil and solid fuels comes from Russia. for pushing towards this project since they import just Now, when the world is facing Russian turnover, it is some or even no gas from Russia, and if so, for a good definitely comprehensible that the European Com- price. mission is trying to decrease the dependency on Russia to a minimum. The Commission provided EU cit- Facing these discrepancies among the EU Member izens with three main reasons why the Energy Union States, the Energy Union has a long haul ahead of itis needed: security, affordability and sustainability of self, but it’s not a target impossible to reach. If nothing climate friendly energy. else, it will bring the attention to one of the most crucial strategic problems: the growing dependency from The Energy Union does not strive for the absolute cut powerful neighbouring states. off from the Russian imports, but it aims at making
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#WhyNotFreeTrade and other hashtags
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The advantages of the TTIP by Natali Khenkina (BY)
Free trade negotiations between the US and EU has started in June 2013, being highly desired by both sides and scheduled to finish by the end of 2014. “We have received a clear instruction to intensify our talks and to make as much progress as possible this year,” says Mr Ignacio Garcia Bercero, chief EU negotiator. “As much progress as possible” definitely does sound more reassuring, but, perhaps, not reassuring enough, as the recent world-wide manifestations have shown. They were particularly outrageous in Europe, and the question in place is – why? What made thousands of Europeans to march around with obscene gestures on giant banners? What are the origins of #stopTTIP hashtag and why was it used so widely? What is the consumers’ stance in this story and how did it happen to be so? Well, let’s have a look. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations have started and kept going for quite a while behind completely closed doors. After some of the negotiation’s texts got leaked, the public reaction made the authorities publish some – not all – of the documents in a manner that shows just a bit more of the information on the subject than peering through the keyhole would. The chapters of TTIP, however, touch some pretty delicate subjects, whose level differs quite a lot on both sides of Atlantics, – including products’ safety, environment protection, usage of GMO’s and numerous others.
The promises of the EU’s strong stand on the matters of safety and consumers’ protection keeps representing itself since Cecilia Malmström’s first public speeches as a Trade Commissioner in 2014. Among other things, she passionately pointed out that “caution means this agreement must not undermine governments’ ability to protect people from safety, environmental or financial risks” and ”caution also means that we must not change our laws in areas where they are just too different – like genetically modified food or hormone beef ”. However, with the amount of time it takes for the two sides to agree on the delicate issues of hormone beef, concerns are rising; the side of the TTIP on the other coast of the Atlantic seems to worry if Europeans are interested in the agreement at all. The EU is balancing on the threshold between compromising its values and risking losing its biggest free-trade deal ever. In that very speech by Cecilia Malmström that has been quoted above, she extensively talked about the benefits TTIP is capable of bringing. TTIP is a whole new world of opportunities for the EU, which deserves to be anticipated way more than it is right now. So, now that the “why” question is more or less clear – there is still “how”. And this question is all yours.
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Holes In The Crumbling Wall
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The roots of radicalism by Karl-Joosep Volmerson (EE)
Another related topic to misery is how people can be affected by others’ behaviours and ideas. Just to mention a clear and common example, this can also happen when anyone is criticised or insulted by other people or media surrounding them as hungry wolves. This time we are talking about minorities and religious groups, especially Islamic religion, which has been on the spotlight throughout the last year. Freedom of expression is indeed a Human Right, which must not be violated, but the awareness of publishers and public speakers on extremist movements is not enough according to the latest events.
EU Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová told “Le Figaro” in an interview that approximately 6.000 individuals from Europe have left for Syria in order to fight in the rank of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). This number is estimated and could get even higher due to the difficulty of tracking foreign fighters in the conflict. The number is extremely high and shows us that even the borders and citizens of Europe are not safe, both physically and psychologically, leading to possible radicalism of its residents. The European Union’s and the Member States’ aim is to protect its citizens and to tackle the issues which lead towards Moreover, the attractiveness of the Islamic State in the radicalism and joining the Islamic State. What are, Middle East seems very inviting amongst youngsters all over Europe. Geographically quickly expanding therefore, the main holes in the crumbling wall? and also having a big growth in recruitment, joining According to former justice minister of Belgium, the Islamic State seems a real adventure; a replaceLaurette Onkelinx, despair is definitely one of the key ment for the dissatisfaction in their lives. Last but not playing roles and explanations in becoming the victim least, the members of the Islamic State are confident of radicalism. For instance, imagine yourself living in that when fighting for the Islamic ’chaliphate’, all your the part of a city with low living conditions and with sins will be forgotten and the entrance to the paradise little money, having the seeds of anger and disenfran- will be fully opened, increasing the number of wealthy chisement inside you. The feeling of being let down family who are financiating the rise of ISIS. and having no future makes you a more vulnerable prey to preachers of hatred. This can be the point where a single citizen could be manipulated and easily change his or her ideology.
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Enjoy Yourself The reasons of brain drain
by Liza Skorobreshchuk (UA)
Free movement of workers is a fundamental principle stated in Article 45 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and it is developed in EU secondary legislations and in the Case law of the Court of Justice. Every EU citizen has the right to look for a job in another EU country, to work there without needing a work permit, to reside in the employment country for that purpose and stay there even after the contract has expired. Equal treatment with natives in the access to employment, working conditions and all other social and tax advantages are also provided. A EU survey suggests that the free movement is seen as the EU’s most positive achievement, ahead of peace in Europe, the Euro. It is also the most interesting feature for young people and students’ exchanges.
may have too many places and a low demand for it and they are not academically and potentially attractive for future specialists. It seems these problems may be easily solved if local governments realise it is better to have a lower quantity of students, but a higher quality of professionals in the future. With a shortening of study places, but better funding in those left locals may attract exceptional minds and prevent them from flowing away. Brain drain is also caused by possible future unemployment of students in their country, especially if the future economic and political perspective is not good enough to make them stay.
We now see that freedom of movement allow EU citiHowever, positive changes may provoke an over de- zens to challenge themselves in studies or work in any mand; what if freedom of movement turns into a Member State they want. The aim is to make them try problem which will cause even more and theoretical- to become a professional – beginning with education ly bigger problems? How to make a citizen to stay in and finishing with the job – and maybe come back to his homeland and look for a job there? Most students their home countries. prefer other countries’ universities because of better opportunities or prestige without giving a chance to their State’s universities. Nevertheless not all the glitter is gold and the image cannot correspond to reality. Universities are going above and beyond to stay competitive. Many of the incentives on offer are financial aid, taking the form of scholarships or tuition fees waivers, which promise to save students thousands of pounds in loans, or simply provide them with some extra cash. On the other hand, unpopular universities
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Implementing the Innovation Union Turning ideas into concrete plans
by Marjan Mir Spinola (ES) remote regions and ensuring they are better integrated in the European Research Area (ERA). To achieve this, the FP7 Research Potential programme supports partnering arrangements between research institutions, either public or private, located in the EU’s conThe Innovation Union is the European Union’s strat- vergence and outermost regions with advanced instiegy to create an innovation-friendly environment that tutions elsewhere in Europe. Such partnering activities makes it easier for great ideas to be turned into prod- include staff exchanges, hiring personnel, networking ucts and services that will bring our economy growth or advice and knowledge transfer. and jobs. The programme’s ultimate goal is to unlock the full The EU wishes to strengthen its internal network in research potential of the EU by reinforcing and develResearch and Development (R&D) and enhance co- oping emerging capabilities in Europe’s remote and operation between Member States to foster develop- less-developed regions. These so-called ‘convergence’ ment and promote smart growth. To do so, a Joint Re- regions often face significant problems, such as a brain search Centre foresight study suggests the European drain of top talent and a lack of appropriate access to standardisation system should accelerate and rely on finance. As a result, they are frequently excluded from an integrated strategy. The study argues this is the only mainstream European research networks and thus way the standardisation will be able to keep pace with have fewer chances to compete properly for project technological developments and societal challenges, funding at the European level. stimulating innovation and fostering competition. The creation of two programmes by the European Union The programme also funds the acquisition and develhas helped bridging the gap and unlocking Europe’s opment of small-scale research equipment and the organisation of workshops and conferences to facilitate potential in research and innovation. knowledge transfer. Research Potential offers signifiThe first is “Research Potential”. This includes realis- cant scope, with 20 of the 27 Member States and six ing the potential of Europe’s less-advanced and often Associated Countries involved.
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By strengthening the research capacities of Europe’s convergence and outermost regions, researchers are better equipped to successfully participate in research activities at EU level and thus are more likely to compete in the global market place. The second programme is “Regions of Knowledge”. With a total budget of €126 million over seven years (2007-2013), encourages cross-border co-operation among research-driven clusters. Although it is not a ‘cohesion’ activity, it plays a vital role in bringing some of Europe’s poorest and most isolated regions into the ERA. Supported activities are not research projects, but coordination actions that target the mutual research agendas and knowledge exchange. Actions cover a wide range of subjects, but the objective is always to promote European competitiveness by stimulating the use of regional assets. Regions of Knowledge initiatives often begin with an analysis of the economic and research situation of the regions involved. Research agendas are then integrated through the formulation of Joint Action Plans. The emergence of new research-driven clusters is often supported through mentoring by more mature clus
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ters. Strategies for internationalisation are drawn up, and conclusions, best practice and experiences are shared via conferences, workshops, publications and web-based initiatives. Other purposes of the European Union include “Horizon 2020” which is the biggest EU research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) and the ERA, which plans to unify the area broadening it to the world. In this way scientific knowledge, technology and researchers circulate freely and boosting investment and promoting national competition, with the aim to guarantee access to an uptake of knowledge by all with common research agendas on grand challenges and infrastructures.
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How Politicians affect Human Rights
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The mainstream parties adapt the right wing rhetoric. by Kryštof Stupka (CZ) During the last few people are disturbed by the situation of the EU and that they want a change. Some politicians used this atmosphere to stir up radical rhetoric, invoking Euroscepticism, racism and fear of minorities. Due to this fact, their own nationalistic rightwing parties, all around Europe, found a way towards elections.
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many other nationalistic parties with higher number of votes and less controversial policies as it is in Belgium (N-VA, 20.3%), Estonia (IRL, 20.1% & EESTI, 8.1%), Finland (True Finns, 19.1%) and Latvia (National Alliance, 16.6%).
Since the boom of nationalistic and anti-immigrant parties was evident throughout the whole EU, the big national parties started revising their programs to reNowadays, the political situation among the Members gain popularity. This seems to be working. Many right States is alarming. Austrian Freedom Party (AFP) is wing parties have begun experiencing problems conprobably the most influential nationalistic - right wing cerning their existence. For instance, only a few days party, having approximately 22% of the country’s ago, the UKIP leader Nigel Farage has resigned when electoral seats. The founder of this party was a former he was not elected and his party gained only one MP Nazi Minister and SS officer and the AFP has never in the UK General Elections 2015. Which was a vicaltered from his ideas. A part of their programme in- tory for the whole EU and its citizens. volves ways to face the increasing number of Muslims and immigrants in Austria. On the other hand, the fact that people were voting for the original big parties again does not mean that Some parties are overstepping the right wing popu- the situation amongst the society is different. However, lism with their Eurosceptic and anti-immigration en- Euroscepticism, nationalism, anti-Islamism and anforcement, labelling themselves as even more extreme ti-immigrant rhetoric still persist and it seems that big and far right in their ideas. The Sweden Democrat parties are adapting to the ideology of small populists Party, which has scored 12.9% in the last elections, is parties. For example, this happened in France, where now one of the biggest parties in the country. Another the government is deporting Roma people, or worse example can be found in Jobbik, a Hungarian party in the UK, where the Prime Minister promised a refreaching the 16.7% of votes, which is having a strong erendum on either staying in the EU or not to match anti-Semitic programme. In 2012, the leader of this Nigel Farage and his notion of the country’s exit from party said that all people of Jewish descendance are the EU. Even though some parts of the civic society “a national security risk” and he even suggested the are trying to change everything back to normal, it government to put all their names on a list. A more fa- has become true that yesterday’s far right parties are miliar example could be Geert Wilders, the leader of nowadays the most widespread and with the same anthe PVV in Netherlands (8%), calling for the stop of ti-Muslim recurring theme. all immigrants from Muslim countries. There are also
Don’t you worry child Everyone has being a pug once by Liza Skorobreshchuk (UA)
We have all heard about midlife crisis; those feelings of disillusion and dissatisfaction that some people experience when they reach their fifties and have roots in what they have, or most probably have not, achieved in their lives. Likewise, the quarter-life crisis occurs between eighteen and thirty-five years old, when there is a major change in our lives, the most common being the transitions from childhood to adulthood and from the “academic” world to the “real” world of work. Confusion, anxiety and helplessness all arise from the overwhelming range of choices available, turning into a spectrum of different decisions that need to be made and responsibilities that inevitably ought to be assumed. “Which career should I choose? When should I start thinking about settling and having my own family? Should I continue to live with my parents or become more independent and move out? How can I economically afford all of this?” The moments of amusement may cover the depressive ones, but sooner or later everyone will realise the “real life” is really knocking at their door. The period of uncertainty and instability is also accompanied by a sense of bittersweet delusion; adult life is not living up the expectations and maybe growing up is really a trap.
passed this life period, it does not last forever and everyone should take it as a challenge, a game to play with fervor. If we take these moments as a new step to be made, if we search a solution with interest or passion, then it is easier to overcome all the difficulties more lightly. We should scratch unmet expectations out and put real aims in our lists instead; not expecting anything, but do things ourselves. Success is not made in years but in decades – we should stop being in a hurry all the time, we should pave our path to satisfaction slowly but full of confidence and put the wood pieces in a fire one by one to keep it burning. It is important to move and not just to sit and struggle, to open windows, let in some fresh air. It is vital to read some books, volunteer and if we still have no idea on what we are doing with our life, we should just pick something that we like and we know that cannot be bad; we need to just run with it. Sometimes the best answers come when we stop sitting around obsessing over finding them.
We need to have faith in future. If we lost it, maybe it is a time to bring it back to avoid personal decline and become subjected to mental and physical decay. If we do not believe in ourselves, then no one will ever do it. Being in our twenties can look like a pug trying to The moments of amusement may cover the depres- climb a mountain. It is slow, noisy, and un-pretty but sive ones, but sooner or later everyone will realise the putting one tiny step after another is what makes us “real life” is really knocking at their door. However, reach the very top. crisis is normal, we all are human and there is no one that is 100% unique with their failures. Not every adult wants to confess his youth failures, but everyone
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The Philosophy of Pretty Pictures Logotypes, Penguins, Tallinn, and All the Things in Between by Natali Khenkina (BY)
Ever wondered about that penguin from the session’s official Facebook page? Welcome to the world of logotypes – pictures that have long outgrown being just pictures, and instead encompass our life choices, while still being important parts of corporate policies. Sounds complicated and not at all like something a penguin can be, but wait and see.
quite accidently created a very core of modern logotypes philosophy by defining three main classes of signs: icons, indexes and symbols.
There are icons that look just like their objects, indices connect to their objects through some background associations and symbols have nothing to do with the things they represent and are perceived through the Logotypes are emerging out of the universe of sym- previously adapted agreements. In other words, if an bols we have created through centuries of self-expres- apple appears on the bottle of an apple juice – it’s sion. Where there is a category, there is also a science an icon; apple from a Christian-themed painting can that focuses on it, and in case of signs, symbols and be perceived as an index of sin through a Bible backtheir interpretation is called semiotics. Among others, ground; an apple on our editors’ iPhone, however, is Charles Sanders Peirce contributed to this discipline a symbol that we know as belonging to Apple Inc. beand his role can be defined as outstanding. He had cause of the societal convention.
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Numerous approaches to the design of logotypes make identifying common rules of the process as a quite complicated task. However, some trends persist. Firstly, as various aspects of our lives complicate, the logos tend to simplify: disproportionately immense ideas are compressed into simple and catchy logotypes – like the famous Swoosh by Nike or mermaid of Starbucks that keeps losing unnecessary details in her appearance. Secondly, logos are no more static; they adapt to the changing environment and social backgrounds. One does not need to look further for an example than turning on the TV and finding an MTV channel; its logo doesn’t have a regular colouring and instead behaves quite spontaneously, changing shapes, colours and its very spirit just as often as its background does. Finally, the logotypes industry is all about innovations and it’s not just their looks. The changes and opportunities are overwhelming. The logo of the EYP is an expressive example of logotypes’ tendencies itself. Not later than the last week the Board of the National Committees of the EYP has voted in favour of the changes in this logotype and the policies concerning its use. While the logo still represents parliamentary
seating being combined with the three stars from the logo of Schwarzkopf foundation, the umbrella organisation of the EYP, it got simplified. At last, here is the question: why the penguin? What’s with the bow ties, Antarctica and Tallinn? When asked it to the Head Organiser of the Forum, Triin Kaup, who admitted her adoration for penguins – simple as that. After the concept has been decided upon, it’s all about designing, choosing the best sketch, and the logo is here. It is an index, and a good one, symbolising the soul and spirit of the session through a background of the person who put her very heart into it. There are still things to argue about. Do we have to produce brands instead of products in order to be successful? Is having a good logo more important than having a quality product? Can we all have bow ties in our logotypes? All in all, these questions are still opened for the ever-developing logotypes industry, but one thing is for sure: 3rd University Forum of EYP Estonia definitely has it all.
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Seven ways to prove that you are outstanding
Do you know how a mouse can scare an elephant?
by Adelaide Di Maggio (IT/PL) Lack of confidence usually transforms us into grey mice, ready to sneak back into our burrow, from which may be difficult to get out of, as difficult as reclaiming our self-confidence. We all experienced that, and here there are some suggestions for overcome this situation.
it took even 8 lost elections, before becoming one of the greatest presidents of the United States.
3. “Yes, you can!” Those are words that many of us have heard many times. Even though it seems that only Americans really believe in this sentence, they 1. Repetition is definitely the most technical way of know very well that no one else should tell us what we achieving self-confidence. By constantly practising to are able to do, except ourselves. We need “self affirimprove your weaknesses, you may be sure that you mation” to go on and succeed in our goals. We should are well prepared for the future challenges. Also, it is avoid making “self-talks” on, for example, how fat do proved that one extra hour per day spent studying a we look in those new jeans or how our nose seems big given subject for five years, will turn you into a na- compared to our friend’s. If we do not believe we are tional expert in the subject that you chose to have a beautiful, perfect and absolutely capable of whatever better insight on. The best way to do it is to draft a “to we want to achieve, who will? conquer” list, and go ahead with it. 4. By saying so, there is also a need for people around 2. Persistence, even though hard to keep, may lead you you are able to understand you and accept you. Stay to success. “Believe in yourself ”- it is easy to say. How- away from negative and jealous people; filling your ever, if you do not accept “no” for an answer you will life with positivity and choosing optimistic friends prove to yourself that you can succeed. Remember, who will not try to tear you down, will help you gain there’s always a chance! J.K. Rowling received 12 re- self-confidence. jections before publishing Harry Potter and to Lincoln
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portant to you any more after some time and will only be a thing that happened in the past and has no importance right now; something better happened that might have been caused by that failure. Furthermore, try to predict other scenarios and be prepared. Finally, when doing a speech, do not think negatively about people – they have their own problems and. If they 5. On the other hand, when you are alone, try to re- judge you, it means that they are at least as much unmember why you are so incredible and unique. Write sure about themselves as you are at the moment. a letter about the things you are proud of, which you will read in moments of weakness and delusion. Cov- 7. Last but not least, try to be the person you aspire to er your room, bathroom, living room, maybe the be; be your hero, your mentor. Find your values and whole flat, in inspirational quotes or examples of your follow them. Listen to the music that makes you feel achievements and strong sides. However, be careful invincible and take care about your body and your mind. Use your body language to boost your confinot to fall into self-adoration. dence, keeping an open and relaxed posture. 6. If you are afraid of doing something, think about how would you react thinking about that in a week, a month or a year. If you fail, it will not seem imMoreover, it is important to try and be supportive and build self-confidence in them, by appreciating what they do well, instead of what they are doing wrong. If you believe in others, you will soon learn to believe in yourself, mostly because you are able to convince others to do the same.
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How to Become the Perfect EYPer
The fundamental steps to become one of them by Marjan Mir Spinola (ES)
It was a bright cold day in February, and the clocks were striking nine. Little did I know that the most amazing experience I would have as a teenager was about to start. Right at this point I was doubtful, meaning that I was surrounded by many other students of my same age, which I was convinced, had much more capacity than me to deal with the well-known “EYP Spirit”. Until then, the only thing I knew about this term was that it included the interest in issues that affect the society we live in combined with loads of fun. Honestly
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thinking about it, are those the qualities that make a good EYPer? The answer is yes, to become the ideal candidate there are 10 points you need to mentally tick before you can consider yourself the perfect EYPer. First of all, passion, positivity and excitement are fundamental. How often do you get up in the morning feeling excited about the day ahead? Not a once-off good morning, but actually feeling that way most days in a week? It’s not easy finding things to be passionate about, but once you do, keep tremendously interested in. This leads us to point number two and three, never stop learning and approach everyday things with curiosity.
As you already know, the delegates go through committee work, where they analyse the topic of their committee, identify the problems surrounding it and discuss solutions to these issues. The key to succeed at this stage is to follow four simple points. Think outside the box, think imaginatively using new ideas instead of traditional or expected ideas. Try more than what is asked of you, keeping in mind to be open to criticism.
Finally, never forget why you are here. Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing. Give 110% of yourself, go at it at full speed, embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. That is what I did almost four years ago, at the beginning of this unforgettable journey. I realised in that bright cold day in February that if there was ever a moment to follow my passion and do something that mattered to me, that was it.
If you have all of that down, I’ll go ahead and note the very last three points that will make you the perfect EYPER. Recharge your batteries with a good night sleep or don’t, make as many friends as possible, take some time off of your beauty sleep and get to meet your roommates, your friend’s roommates and the officials’ team. EYP is all about the experience and what you take home with you after every session.
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