eXpress11

Social & Green ESN COUNTRIES

:

ESN FRANCE ESN HUNGARY

IN THIS ISSUE:

ITY - EXCHANGEABIL - YOUTH FORUM N E E R G S E O G N S E -

11th edition

May 2011

PROJECTS & PARTNERS

Colofon

TITEL

Editors in Chief Marco La Rosa Leo Smith

Editorial Team: Ana Frangova Galina Krysteva Alexandros Vigkos Bjorn Lemmens Marco La Rosa Julie Lindskov Jensen Kate Wright Sarah CheminCreux Tania Berman John Hustaix ESN Compiègne ESN Besançon François Oger Al Moletta Slawek Babicz Monika Lapenaite Orinta Movsesjan Leo Smith Patrik Polonec European Youth Forum (YFJ) Peter Matjašic Andra Mardare Nanduri Raghuveer Kenny Ho Joanna Wakuluk Lea Granados Vincent Janiak Damien Lamy Preto Barbora Pavlícková Ilias Konstantinidis Merlin Püss Mercedes Llorente Katalina Kossuth Vasco Gamboni Maxence Viallon Emre Emirlioglu Laura Bovolenta

EDITORIAL

To Marvel!

A Board perspective

by: Marco La Rosa

My happiness when I got elected as Board Member was beyond description.

With my experience of 7 years in ESN, at different levels, I thought I knew quite a lot about ESN: I was mistaken.

During this year I never stop to marvel about our organization; from Portugal to Azerbaijan passing by Iceland and Cyprus we cover all of Europe and beyond, we are so different but there is always something that we have in common.

No, don’t worry, I’ll not write something obvious such as “Europe”, “Volunteering” or something similar, I actually will not write anything.

Why? Because I would ruin the surprise! I was myself surprised by how many things I could discover during this year in the Board, how many amazing activities are happening in our network, the wonderful initiatives connected to SocialErasmus and ExchangeAbility, the green activities of our sections!

Let’s take a nice example, the cover of the magazine! Did you notice the colors on the bike? Yes, it’s our lovely ESN Star! The section is EYE Lodz and they have many ESN bikes for the incoming exchange students.

However, you don’t need too much effort to be a “greener” section, take a look at our article “ESN International goes green”, you can take some ideas from there and make your section an example to follow.

I’ve been dealing with our project ExchangeAbility all the year in the Board, the project is amazing, the idea beyond fantastic, but sometimes the implementation can be challenging, take a look at the pages about the project in these magazine and take some ideas: let’s make ESN accessible!

I’ll close this editorial with two things, the first one is: Share! Let us know what you do, ask us questions, the Board, the Project Coordinators, the Committees are here for you, don’t be shy and contact us!

The second one is... did you think about ESN, what makes our members amazing? What do we have in common all over the network? :) Let me know your ideas and opinion or... at least let me know if you liked the magazine!

Marco communication@esn.org

Language editors: Leo Smith Marco La Rosa Julia Trawinska Design and Illustrations: Marco La Rosa Photo Katja Krohn Marco La Rosa ESN Lithuania

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If you want to write an article, please send it to:

express@esn.org

ESN International Rue Hydraulique 15 B-1210 Brussels, Belgium

The theme of the next issue:

Volunteering

TABLE OF CONTENTS EXCHANGEABILITY PROJECT

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RESPONSIBLE PARTY

15

EXCHANGEABILITY: STORIES

24

SHOW YOUR COUNTRY! 8 ESN FRANCE 10 10 11 12

27 ESN HUNGARY 29 30

SPECIAL EUROPEAN YOUTH FORUM

23

RECIPE

TOWARDS A RIGHTS BASED APPROACH ON VOLUNTEERING A TALE OF THE NEW BOARD OF THE EUROPEAN YOUTH FORUM

7 13 13 14 18 18 19 24 31

EXCHANGE YOUR LANGUAGE! ESN OLYMPICS POLISH ENGLISH INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF FORESTRY ITALIAN ENGLISH

20 21 32 33

SECTIONS IN THE SPOTLIGHT 16 17

ESN ODENSE ESN AUTOUR DU MONDE, NANTES ESN UAX, MADRID

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6 22 22

35

QUIZ

ESN DEBRECHEN & ESN EGER ESN MISKOLC, ESN SZEGED & ESN BME

ESN SHEFFIELD EXPLORES THE PEAK DISTRICT ESN ROMA3: TIME FOR RESPONSIBILITY? INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE BE SOCIAL! GO PUBLIC! EUROPEAN FLAVOURS VOTE FOR A COMMON DISH GO GREEN IRELAND? ESN UCD! ESN INTERNATIONAL GOES GREEN A HILARIOUS ARTICLE

PHOTOS

ESN PARIS ASSAS & ESN COMPIÈGNE FRANCE AND STARS OF ESN ESN BESANÇON & ESN NANCY NEW SECTIONS: ESN NICE & ESN RENNES

ARTICLES

PROJECTS & PARTNERS

EXCHANGEABILITY PROJECT Meet the Coordinators!

by:Ana Frangova, Galina Krysteva, Alexandros Vigkos, Bjorn Lemmens

ANA FRANGOVA I’m Ana Frangova, and I’m (still!!!) 19 years old, and I’m on my second year of my studies on the Faculty of Political sciences and international relations at FON University, where I’ve also established an ESN section. I am in ESN for almost 2 years, and I’ve been a National Representative of ESN Macedonia since April 2010. I’ve started working on ExchangeAbility in 2010, and in the meantime I’ve became also an international coordinator of the project.

ExchangeAbility fascinated me as a project since the moment I’ve heard about it, mostly because it gives us the opportunity to see not only ESN, but also the world from a different point of view. The fact that your can make your activities, projects and events accessible for everyone is a big step and requires a lot of work from everybodyplus there are always a lot of obstacles, like lower accessibility of the venues or not enough awareness by all of the students, but in the end- the results are more than amazing!

So, ESNers, open your hearts and give an opportunity to everybody!!!!

GALINA KRYSTEVA I am Galina Krysteva from Bulgaria. I am 25 years old. I have master degree of Slavic Phιlology and now finishing the second subject -Balkan history with Greek and Turkish languages. I love sports, historical books, travelling and meeting with new people. I involved in this project, cause I had my Erasmus a few years ago in Krakow Poland in Jagelonian university. I am total blind and think that with my experience as erasmus student could be so useful on the other students with disabilities, who would want to do this so hard step. :) ALEXANDROS VIGKOS I am 20 years old, an ESNer for almost 3 years and proud member of ESN KAPA Athens. I normally study economics in Athens, but at the moment I am doing my Erasmus in Lisbon. I am not sure if all the time I’ve been coordinator of ExchangeAbility (since 2009 in local level and since last fall in international level) I’ve given more to the project than what I took, maybe these things cannot be compared.

Anyway, I’m glad that I am contributing to the evolution of the project and thankful for all the people I met, all the experiences I got and all the things I learnt! So, I’m here to stay and make world a more accessible place.

BJORN LEMMENS My name is Bjorn, from Brussels. I’m not studying anymore but I have studied Linguistics and Literature: Spanish-Italian with a minor in Swedish. I joined ESN more or less 3 years ago and last year I became really interested in ExchangeAbility so I went to the EAmeeting in Antwerp. There I got to know a lot of interesting people with a meaning and a view on the accessibility of the world and thus also ESN. This made me answer on the call for Coordinators for this amazing project and now I’m trying (with 3 other amazing ESN’ers) to make this world a little more accessible for students with a disability. I have a few friends and family members with a disability; and I will try to implement my knowledge in ExchangeAbility to help others.

If we would all just do a little, we do together something big

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ExchangeAbility project has one main aim, which is to increase the number of exchange students with disabilities.

Such an ambitious aim of course demands a lot of work and can be reached only in long term. Let’s take it step by step: ESN wants to increase mobility of students with disabilities -> ESN should contribute making Europe a more accessible place -> ESN should minimize the extra difficulties a student with disabilities would face during an exchange -> ESN should work in making the universities and cities where it is present more accessible.

To achieve that, a pilot group of ESN sections was created, which either attracted students with disabilities to join them or just with the existing members, tried to make their universities or cities more accessible. By the end of the article you will know what ESN sections do in order to make EA project successful.

• Our team started already establishing a communication with local coordinators, which we want to evolve.

• We are recruiting new sections in ExchangeAbility project and we are getting bigger and bigger • We are planning to have an ExchangeAbility meeting next fall for the coordinators and everybody interested in the project.

• We are thinking also the creation of different workgroups, so local coordinators could also be more involved in international level.

These are some of our plans and the main areas we are working on at the moment. We encourage people to give us feedback on them and propose more things if they’d wish to!

MAKE ACCESSIBLE YOUR LIFE!

Our team is consisted by 4 members, who together with Leo and Marco from the International Board are responsible for ExchangeAbility project.

Our motto: Make accessible your life!

PROJECTS & PARTNERS

FOSTERING STUDENT MOBILITY

A Consortium composed of UNICA, ESN and five universities supporting mobility: for everyone! by: Marco La Rosa ESN and the Project.

The project that we share with UNICA and 5 other universities is the follow up of our first project and it’s an EU Grant.

In each grant there are “work packages” and ESN has two of them: evaluation and dissemination. Moreover ESN actively participates in all the site visits; at each meeting there is a visiting group and among them a ESN member, at all the meetings ESN is represented as well by Marco La Rosa, in charge of the project from the ESN side.

Impressions The site visits were very well organized by the 5 universities, in terms of accessibility I noticed huge differences among the countries and the universities. There were many presentations and workshops during the conferences, but what was the most interesting part?

Listening to the stories and the experiences of students with disabilities that went abroad in exchange!

We want to hear more stories, successful, unsuccesful, challenging... any story is important and could be inspiring for all those students that are tempted to go in exchange, but concerned by the challenges that they might face.

The project at-a-glance

A consortium composed of UNICA, ESN, ErasmusHogeschool Brussel, University of Cyprus, Tallinn University of Technology, Eötvös Lorand University Budapest, Comenius University Bratislava set up a project that aims to enable students with disabilities to participate more fully in exchange programmes.

The idea is to stimulate the mobility of students with disabilities by organising site visits to the five European universities. The visits will be organised by the partner universities with the cooperation and involvement of the ‘ExchangeAbility Ambassadors’ (students with disabilities) from both welcoming and sending universities.

A grant for the project was approved by the European Commission (call DG EAC/41/09) in the framework of the “Lifelong Learning Programme”, action “Erasmus Accompanying Measures”.

Aims

The main aim of ExchangeAbility is to encourage an increase in the number of students with special needs taking part in the exchange programmes by stimulating their mobility through the organisation of site visits connected with different activities. All parties involved will lead a sensabilisation campaign composed of different activities and outcomes that will stress all the aspects of sending and welcoming disabled student at HE institutions, the policy of universities on inclusive education, the accessibility of the departments, as well as the social support and involvement in the student life.

www.exchangeability.eu Did you know that...

According to the data from the European Commission, there is a very low participation of students with special need in the Erasmus mobility and, more in general, in exchange opportunities (only 0.17% in 2008-2009).

Special attention will be put on the following factors: • Encouraging a higher number of students with disabilities to go for an exchange and the quality of these exchanges • Raising awareness among all the groups involved: university officials, students with and without disabilities, pointing out opportunities of participating in the exchange programmes.

• Creating a group of ExchangeAbility Ambassadors that will promote exchange programmes among other students with disabilities during and after the lifetime of the project • Providing information on accessibility facilities available at the universities of the pilot group • Prodiving audiovisual material and showing cases of good practice able to reach students with disabilities and their close environment

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PROJECTS & PARTNERS

SECTION IN THE SPOTLIGHT: APRIL ESN Odense, Denmark

by: ESN Odense

The Section in the Spotlight of April is located in the Northern part of Europe, in Denmark. ESN Odense is one of the three sections in Denmark and all of them are working very well together. The local board of Odense has 7 people including an international student from the UK at the moment and together they organize trips, events, international cafés and more. In the past they had board members from Greece, Rumania, Slovenia, Brazil and Portugal in the local board, to make sure that international student’s needs are met as it is always good to hear it from someone who is experiencing everything at the same time as well.

The international students not only experience the Danish lifestyle with the ESNers, but they also get the chance to see more of the beautiful country, like Copenhagen, Aalborg and also through trips to Legoland and Møns Klint (the White Cliffs of Denmark). But they do not only discover Denmark together, but also organize trips to other cities and countries, like Berlin in Germany or go to a cottage altogether. They also organize quiz nights and everyone can show their national colors during the “Bring your Flag”-Night. Unfortunately during the last semesters the international evenings did not really

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work out as planned, as the international students were not really interested to organize one themselves. Nevertheless ESN Odense found a new activity for this semester as they are participating in the ESN Seabattle for the first time. The section is also taking part in the international corporate identity by using the ESN Card for each event they organize.

A Buddy System is also organized by the section and the university together and they even have a paid coordinator for this one.

They do not only match the international students with Danish local students, but also with other international students, who are already there, to make sure, that most of the international students get a buddy. The buddies are all introduced to their tasks in the beginning of the semester with a nice pizza dinner and later in the year a big bowling night is organized to let them socialize with each other. Of course it is also a great opportunity to gain new members for the section, as for example all board members started out as buddies once.

ESN Odense is closely working together with the other Danish sections and all of them take turns in organizing the NP. The new NR of Denmark is a section member of Odense and she is willing to introduce the section to the international level and wants her home section to get more involved. The section will also work on having a National Board in Denmark for the first time in their ESN history, of course always in cooperation with the other Danish sections.

PROJECTS EVENTS & EXPERIENCES & PARTNERS

ESN SHEFFIELD EXPLORES THE PEAK DISTRICT

by: Kate Wright

Throughout our time as committee members for ESN Sheffield, we have found it difficult to pinpoint exactly what we could do to appeal to and cater to Erasmus students. The University of Sheffield provides such a great range of affordable good nights out as well as well-priced weekends away. It occurred to us however, that few local day trips were being offered, and since Sheffield holds the Peaks as its back garden, it seemed a pity that Erasmus students were not exploring it!

The president of our society has relatives living in Edale, a beautiful village in the Peaks, who know the area very well and very often take walks there, and we figured that having local experts like this was definitely something to take advantage of. We created an event through our facebook group, with the plan to meet at Sheffield train station at 11am and return back at around 3pm, throughout this time taking a leisurely walk through the Peaks, followed by a Sunday lunch.

We began our journey from Sheffield station and were elated to find nearly fifty students had turned up to join us. Edale is only thirty minutes away by train, and at a very reasonable price it was the perfect choice for an afternoon walk and Sunday lunch. On arriving to Edale, we were greeted by beautiful weather and our

friendly local expert, who had kindly devised an easy to follow route especially for us. We were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm when talking with the Erasmus students, all saying how excited they were on seeing the event on Facebook, and how many of them had not visited the Peaks before, even though many of them had been there the previous semester. The walk took approximately two hours, however not entirely walking, the weather was so good that everyone took their time enjoying the weather, socialising, taking photos and even some sunbathing! Following the walk, we ended the event at a typical English pub allowing the students to enjoy a Sunday pub lunch and local ale, if they wanted.

The walk had proven successful for both us and the students; comments from throughout the day confirmed that everyone had a good time and at the same time, with so many attendants, we got the chance to talk with them and find out their ideas for what we could organise as future events. One of which was a tour of a Sheffield brewery, which like the Edale trip resulted in a very high attendance and great feedback. Going to show that sometimes the best of trips can be made just from looking at your local area!

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PROJECTS SHOW YOUR & PARTNERS COUNTRY

FRANCE

by: Sarah CheminCreux

So now, let’s have an overview on French culture! Forget all what you know about us! Forget all these clichés! We are going to tell you the truth about the Frenchies…

As you may already know, France is the country of complaints, strikes, camembert and taxes.

The main problem in the-country-of-cheese is that the French do consider that the “hexagon” is the center of the world; and if you don’t say so, they will simply answer you “Have a look on a map, buddy”.

But, even if the French are complaining all day long about their country, the economic crisis and despot, they will maintain “France is the most wonderful country ever!”

Well, and about sport, all we can state is that the French are jealous of Italians and Brazilians, because they play football better than us. But no matter how they play, we still won the World Cup in 1998.

France is also famous for philosophy: French writers are known for giving to the entire world major trends of philosophy. Among them, we can notice writer like Blaise Pascal, René Descartes and Alizée, and her famous “Moi… Lolita”. They truly influence contemporary artists.

PASSPORT capital: Paris language: French area: 674,843 km2 (including overseas territories) population: 65,8 million government: Unitary semi-presidential republic EU accession: 1957

To conclude, we will stop speaking about sport and legends; Above all, France is revolution! Keep just in mind that the average French guy does ride his bicycle every morning with his baguette dress shield, and that the dress code in France is “beret and striped pullover”.

Thanks for reading, and forgetting what you’ve just read.

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PROJECTS SHOW YOUR & PARTNERS COUNTRY

ESN FRANCE A revolution!

by: Tania Berman

Two French IB members last year – two French IB members this year – although there was no French IB member ever in the past. 6 NB members coming from 6 different sections out of 22 – although the NB was small and centralised in one or two sections in the past.

What happened in France? A big change. In international French terms – a revolution. Nowadays, France is more than ever a strong country within ESN.

voted. A fourth national platform per year will be organised in order to keep the sections close to each other.

During the last two years, the number of French ESNers joining international and national events has increased in a very positive way. Also, many sections are involved in international projects as PRIME or their members in Committees. This is a result of the proactive attitude of the national board that invested a lot of energy in motivating and uniting them in order to strengthen the network.

Goal reached for now. The improvement is huge. But no pause allowed yet: we need to keep up with this good energy and network spirit.

How did the NB motivate the sections and unify the network? It focused on tools for the sections and their visibility. The French travel fund – that is already inspiring other countries – has been created to help the sections to come to the NPs. A national bank partnership allows them to receive a financial support when they encourage their students to open a bank account with the ESNcard – the account itself containing then a welcome package containing around 50 euros and other advantages including insurance.

The NB is currently working on a contract with a phone company to provide Erasmus students with SIM-cards – and sections with financial support.

The visibility of the network has also been improved through the creation of gadgets like pin’s and “berets” (typical French hats), a flyer and a poster for ESN France and a partnership to be present at important fairs on international studies.

Stricter rules to enter or to be expelled from the network have been

All in all, sections gained the feeling of being part of a network that values their presence, gives them an added value and helps them to develop on the local level thanks to services offered as to best practices shared amongst sections.

With its 22 sections, ESN France is far from reaching all cities and universities. France is one of the first countries for the amount of incoming and outgoing students – as well as for internships abroad.

France is also one of the top-European countries into volunteering.

Requests to create sections in France are arriving very regularly.

In the last year, very important cities welcomed the opening of an ESN section: Nice, Strasbourg, Rennes, Clermont-Ferrand and Paris (2nd section).

For the upcoming year, ESN France has big projects to achieve.

We are looking into the creation of new sections in important cities like Lille, Bordeaux or Marseille. The cooperation with institutional partners such as the national agencies and international offices of universities will be enhanced. The search for partners and the strengthening of the network will be continued. And maybe ESN will see the creation of a national event somewhere in the South, next to the sea?

Let’s wish for the best and encourage all sections to continue to put so much effort into the welcoming of international students in the country of wine and cheese!!

ESN FRANCE INSI(DE) DIJON !

The first General Assembly of the ESN France network for 2011 was held in the capital city of Burgundy from the 18th to 20th of February. The event was a highly anticipated one, as there was the highest number of participants presenr ever in the history of the national network (about 60 representatives from 20 French sections!)

Indeed, the idea of such a meaningful event was actually surrounding the whole three days and especially through lectures and workshops where there were many issues addressed relating to the development of intercultural associations. Debates were in particular focused on financing, social aspects, communication, voluntary work and recruitment; the overall goal being the promotion of the national network through mutual support, information exchange and collaboration. To that extent, both the working and casual environment was a nice occasion for people to get to know each other, share poroblems and solutions or their experiences abroad and in France, enabling the “senior ESNers” to give some pieces of advice to the beginners.

It was also the opportunity for the quite recent local section, InsiDijon, to make participants discover the city and atmosphere with a Dijon by-night city tour, a Flash mob “Chouette” , a jazz concert -French Dinner and a reception at Town Hall. The involvement of the local active members was nicely welcomed by the then President of the National Board, Rémi Thomas, who spoke about a “master-hand

organisation that draws the conclusion of an historical year and opened on very optimistic prospects for the French network”.

Actually, it occurs during the weekend that the French ESN is turned towards the future, not only with the election of the coming Board but also with the integration of two new sections: Nice and Rennes, attesting that the ESN spirit and values are spreading throughout the country. Proof of success? One week later, when ESN InsiDijon went to Strasbourg, ESN Strasbourg had made plans for their evening…

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PROJECTS SHOW YOUR & PARTNERS COUNTRY

ESN PARIS ASSAS ESN STARter 2011

by: John Hustaix

In Paris, we are all very proud to be the ESN starter 2011, Paris is a very Erasmus city, with new associations every year, some university based, some city based.

Our university, Paris II panthéon Assas, allegedly the best French law school, had not had an active association for years.

E.O.L.E, a 20 year old association, was barely surviving in a very hostile environment. This was a shame as the university offers a wide range of international experiences, 300 bilateral exchanges including 250 Erasmus exchanges. 10% of the Students are international, and the strategy is clearly aimed towards internationalisation. Local students had to do something!

In June last year we gathered a few returning Erasmus students to launch an ESN section, on the basis of E.O.L.E. The great thing about Erasmus students is that all sort of different people, from contrasting backgrounds and with a wide range of skills, can help out and associate themselves to create a steady and coordinated team!

ESN France and international gave us the website, the ESN cards, the ESN design, E.O.L.E gave us the legal organisation and status in the university, and we gave in the Projects, ideas and ambitions!

Amongst the first projects we put in place, we reached for easy and efficient projects. Buddy programme, parties, trips, orientation... In Paris, although everything is expensive, the opportunities to do stuff are limitless! How do you like a picnic just at the foot of the Eiffel Tower? Or maybe simply a private visit of the Louvre? oh, and how about a treasure trove in the Quartier Latin?

We sure are helped by our environment!

Now new challenges are coming in, but we are ready to face them! We need to cooperate more with the other Parisian section, ESN Dauphine Erasmus Exchange, we need to create a clear and steady programme for next year. The problem with returning Erasmus students, is that the turnover is high! We need to replace those guys, and improve our level of first year students in our organisation. We need to find new resources, fixe our partners. Most of all, we need to create a long term dynamic strategy.

Stars of ESN in France!

Now that we won’t be able to get STARter any more, how about reaching STARLight ??!! Padova, here we come!

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DRINK GREEN IN ESN COMPIÈGNE!

by: ESN Compiègne

From November the 8th, our exchange students will enjoy their first evenings and parties in the university pub! And they will do it without hurting our mother nature! While some are having fun, others are trying to serve a good cause! We have to respect them, showing that young people like to party but, of course, this is not their one and only interest!

Our pub has introduced the use of Ecocups: beers and soft drinks are not served in disposable plastic glasses anymore.

Also, our waiter and waitresses are very satisfied with it: they don’t have to care about broken bottles on the ground anymore!

Widely used at music festivals, those plastic glasses massively cut the amount of garbage (plastic glasses, cans, bottles, etc). Almost everyone has already been proud to show to a friend the wonderful and very useful plastic glass he brought from such or such festival! You’ll do the same with our Ecocups!

Our bar sold them for only 1€: it doesn’t seem to be an expensive price for preserving our earth and bringing a pretty souvenir of those crazy French evenings back home! You can also get the already famous necklace which carries the Ecocup by itself and is very colorful.

Plus, you’ll see we have different models of Ecocups, so you have the choice.

Our ESN section, Esperanto, has its own Ecocup! In fact, every association uses it for the promotion of some events or just to advert our association just like we do by wearing sweat shirt with our logo Esperanto.

Give a good image of young Europeans and come get your ecocup(s)! here: www.ecocup.eu

You can get more details about ecocups

“We don’t inherit the world from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” Antoine de Saint Exupéry

ESN COSMO LYON : second position ESN Logo Star All the ESN CosmoLyon’s team is very proud of getting this second position at the ESN logo star award competition.

We have worked together with Melinka, our graphic design responsible, during several months in order to find our own new visual identity. We wanted to show that we are a young and dynamic team, composed by students from different countries and cultures but still working together. When you look at the draw you can see a lion : the symbol of the city of Lyon...impressive isn’t it ? So we are very proud of our logo, of our graphic design responsible, and of this second position even if we wanted to have our place on the stage...

Flavie Chollet, currently making her Voluntary Service at ESN CosmoLyon.

ESN Paris ASSAS : ESN STARter ESN Besançon : Alumni price for knowledge transfert

PROJECTS SHOW YOUR & PARTNERS COUNTRY in ntern ier 2011 CA ME DIT L’INTERNATIONAL Saamedi l’international Ça Me Dit Ç

International Forum in Besançon

by: ESN Besançon On the 5th of February 2011, ESN Besançon held “Ça Me Dit l’International !”, meaning ‘I feel like going international!’ (wordplay for ‘Samedi International’ - International Saturday), an event that focused on: international life in Besançon, handing out information differently, boosting the campus, as it was held in two places.

FORUM INTERNATIONAL DE LA MOBILITE (3th, 4th, 5th of February 2011) While a Forum can be very useful for people that are already interested in what we’re ‘selling’, the real challenge for us was to get youngsters to start being interested in going international. And that’s where we had to develop a series of ‘baits’.

The first was to hold the Forum under a tent, which demanded preparation 4 months in advance - we had to obtain authorizations, provide heating and all the material necessary to fill a 100 square meter tent. Other ‘baits’: free coffee and croissants, music, display of photos from past years’ Forum and Cultural Market, many flags and of course plenty of motivated ESNers to talk about the magic of international.

International students from 13 countries presented their universities, but we also had official information provided by University services.

transmitted would be coherent to the city’s waste policy.

Around 400 people visited the forum during the 3 days where the tent was open for public visits.

CULTURAL MARKET (5th of February 2011) Food is always the best argument to bring different cultures together, and as always, it went extremely well. 17 countries participated in the Cultural Market, which was held in a University Restaurant.

During the Forum, we were able to ‘lure’ students into coming to taste a bit more of the international culture at night. To our surprise, some parents also came and were absolutely delighted.

International students were free to perform at any time, if they chose to. Of course some performances were prepared in advance (Romanian dance, Algerian dance etc., Ukrainian singer).

“Ca Me Dit le TRI!”: we handed out Eco-cups instead of regular plastic cups. This had double benefits: we reduced the amount of waste, and we contributed to the city’s service for the physically challenged as it provided work for the persons integrated within this service.

On this occasion we introduced a project called “Ça Me Dit le TRI!” (‘I feel like Recycling!’/’I feel like going Green!’), which focused on helping students understand the importance of recycling. The city of Besançon provided us with all the material necessary: bins, flyers and gadgets concerning recycling.

Some of us were trained for this project, so that the information

GALA ERASMUS ESN Nancy: One night to travel around the world!

This was the crazy project of the ESN Nancy: Organizing a Gala Erasmus based on the Eurodinner’s concept! You wanna know more about it?! Let’s go back few months ago...

Friday, the 21st of January. Its 9 pm, the ESN team has been working all day long to prepare the night club. The official opening ceremony is over, everybody is in position: the first part of the Gala is now beginning, so let’s step right in a cosmopolitan world!

During this first part of the evening, multiculturalism had a place of honor! There was 16 stands decorated with colors and symbols from 16 various countries (Brazil, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Scotland, Slovenia and Spain), where the international students presented their gastronomic delights!

That part was a real success, thanks to our international students!

They have done a pretty good job, decorating stands with colors, maps, flags, pictures, games, drinks and carefully prepared dishes...

The exchange students were so involved that some of them played music: the music band Franchement Fantastico was made up of international students of the first semester! Other students rather

liked to give a dance demonstration: four typical dances were presented (Flamenco, Mexican, Oriental and acrobatic dancing).

At 1 am, the atmosphere changed: Let’s party! We slowly closed the stands and opened the cocktail bar. We had chosen cocktails on our own and we were barmaids! Two DJs were playing on two dancefloors for two moods! The party was awesome: music, surprise galore, delicious cocktails...

It was the first time a student association monopolized a night club! ESN Nancy was in charge of the cashier, the cloakroom, the coordination, the bar, the bus to shuttle back home… All volunteers were involved in the staffing to impose the ESN style!

The party was so amazing, all guests were glad: even exchange students from last year came back to Nancy to be in the Gala Erasmus 2011! We welcomed more than 1000 people and were delighted to host three special guests: two current members of the International Board and a former President!!

So now, you wanna be involved next year?! Feel free to contact us!

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PROJECTS SHOW YOUR & PARTNERS COUNTRY

ESN FRANCE... +2 LIKES! New Section: ESN Nice!

Erasmus Student Nice was created in september 2010 by French and international students that shared common experiences abroad. The 14th of October 2010, we joined the federation for student associations from our region – Alpes-Maritimes- called FACE 06. The 19th of February 2011, we joined ESN France.

ESN Nice is composed of 14 active members that are responsible for different activities such as the Welcome Day, the team called “Each One –Teach One”, trips, cinema evenings ( Cinéforum), cultural visits, sport events, parties… We focus on sport events such as soccer, for which we provide Erasmus Students with material (protégé-genoux…) and a place to play. We also give the international students a guide of the city, information on the curriculum, on the universities, on places to live..

Until now, no student association taking care of international students existed in Nice. This is why we created ESN Nice. Nice

New Section: ESN Rennes!

20th of February 2011, a date we will remember ! On that day, at the French NP in Dijon, Rennes Sans Frontières joined the ESN network together with ESN Nice. One and a half years after its creation, our association already showed what we were capable of in the capital of Brittany. Rennes is a student city that needed a structure like ours to get a reputation outside of our borders.

With 6000 international students, the city needed an ESN section.

Now this is done thanks to the actual team that is organizing and will organize many activities to welcome international students throughout their year in Rennes.

Since September 2010, Rennes Sans Frontières has become the student association that organises the most parties in the

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has around 5000 incoming students and 500 outgoing students.

The university of Nice Sophia Antipolis has all together 30000 students and dozens of campuses.

Our team is composed of dozens of volunteers that had the chance to go on Erasmus thanks to the university of Nice Sophia-Antipolis or other institutions. Our association covers the whole city – we take care of all international students that came to study to Nice, helping them to integrate in the region and to discover the French culture.

Thanks to our great team, we could organise several projects for international students in Nice and its surroundings. Romain, Brikena, Laurent, Miguel, Benjamin, Marion, Felix, Othman, Mathias, Eline, Laura, etc are in charge of 5 different poles of activities. The board is composed of the president Laurent Benoit, the secretary Brikena Xhomaqi and the Vice-President Romain Mayolini.

by: François Oger city, surpassing other organizations in terms of cumulative inflow.

Next to these evenings, a trip to Disneyland Paris has been organized and was an amazing success! Nowadays, the team tries to organize new activities thanks to the structure of the city and to the partnerships that we are achieving with public and private organisations.

The association hopes to grow quickly by getting more active members in order to be able to suggest more activities and events to mobility students. Now that we have joined ESN, we would be more than happy to welcome your sections when you’ll travel to the Mont Saint-Michel, for example! We’re only 2 hours from Paris and are thinking of organizing the next NP…

PROJECTS & PARTNERS

ESN ROMA3: TIME FOR RESPONSIBILITY? by: Al Moletta After some time of big efforts and incredible fun in a section like Roma 3, which is quite new to ESN but which has always been very active at the local level, we started acknowledging that the opportunities that our association and the network it belongs to were providing were literally endless; so we thought that we couldn’t confine our activities only to the fields of entertainment and culture, since as young, skilled, motivated and international people we wanted to use our means to affect our world in a positive way.

We already planned activities which involved directly and actively the exchange students, like cleaning once a year during our trip to Sicily the beach of “Scala dei Turchi”, constantly threatened by illegal dumping, or giving to some Erasmus the chance to give a hand in the voluntary camp of “Verde acqua” after the earthquake in the city of L’Aquila.

During the last AGM, we discovered that many other sections around Europe are going in the same direction and we are now even more interested in enhancing this kind of activities within the new framework of “Social Erasmus”, in which we would like us and the other Italian sections to get more involved (maybe following the Spanish example regarding blood donations).

We think that our green\social stance cannot extinguish itself only in some charitable events but it should be a constant aspect of our activities. I think we all agree about the fact that a change is needed, so the question we should ask ourselves is “how to REALLY be the change?” the answer we found starts and ends with two of the core values of the whole ESN world.

As a student-based and student-centred association, the first

core value is education, not confined in the narrow school-related or work-oriented meaning, but intended as everything that can change anybody’s mind\behaviour in a better way. What we are trying to begin, under this point of view, is to put environmental content together with other entertainment activities or to propose green or nature-based activities: the range goes from bike\horse trips to natural springs and we are also planning to start classes of traditional organic cuisine.

The second core value is respect: when you get to know things or people, suddenly it becomes so natural to respect them, so we would like our activity to be based on respect, which is according to us the key of student mobility, and it is exactly what we constantly learn through team working and by matter of operating in a multicultural environment. Respect plus education gives, as the only possible result, responsibility, which means that the minimum goal for us should be at least to have our actions not affecting the world in a negative way.

Our ideas on this fields are many, together with other sections we are trying to launch at national level a campaign for responsible clothing (we would like every ESN t-shirt and jumper to be made in the greenest and most responsible way) and we are starting a research to give birth to a self-run system of tree planting to balance the CO2 we emit with our websites and activities, but at this stage we can’t go any further without the help of the network and the other sections.

So if you have any expertise in this fields, if you want to share you experience with us, if you have any better idea or any advice or if you want to start something similar in your section please contact us at roma_3@esn.it

INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE by: Slawek Babicz International Village – a term which means a gathering of people in one place from different cultures and nationalities, presenting their native country haute cuisine, terrains and history and breaking the stereotypes strictly considered with their homeland. In different countries students are using different terminology, as Eurodinner or Global Village, but the crux of the matter is the same.

In this term, which is summer 31.03.2011, this event took place in Banska Bystrica, a nice city placed in the middle of a small, but splendid country – Slovakia. This day was special, hitherto unthought-of, differerent from others for the people gathered in the dormitory. It was nice to see that since morning until afternoon all students were preparing food for placing onto the representative table. I do not want to describe it in vivid details, but every floor was crowded, people flocking and cooking together. When you were walking between the floors you could smell the delicious smells wafting out of the kitchens. After this, students gathered at the bus stop in order to go to the venue in the downtown. We had the pleasure to see such countries like: Spain, Turkey, Hungary, Lithuania, Norway, Finland, Cameroon, Bulgaria, Russia, France, Romania, Italy, Poland, Slovakia. People were presenting videos, showing national dances and the spirit of their nation and trying to place their country in the limelight. The presentation of each country had a limit – 5 minutes, and after the ESN committee voted for the best one – a choice based on original content and the amount of work put into it. Students from Poland won. Their presentation was an amazing animation video about breaking stereotypes, which was created by two girls from Poland.

International Village lasted a few hours that we spent laughing, dancing, drinking and eating altogether. You could taste delicious chocolate and fruit cakes, drink a huge variety of drinks (including wine, vodka, beer and some funny mixtures). Everybody could feel the spirit of this event, because almost everybody was present. Even Onur from Turkey, who unfortunately had to leave a few days before this event. He didn’t attend as our imaginary friend. He was so popular between all of us that his likeness was printed and attached with an apron in the stand (see photo).

After International Village we gathered our stuff, packed, moved into cars and headed to the club to burn the big amount of calories we gained during the whole day.

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PROJECTS & PARTNERS

BE SOCIAL! GO PUBLIC! by: Monika Lapenaite

There is at least one time in a year when people try to become a bit better and do something nice – and that is Christmas! No matter what is the reason – expecting some surprise from Santa Claus or just giving some New Year‘s promises to yourself. However, some people have, as we call in Lithuania, „goodness vein“, which prompts them to do nice things thoughout the year. No secret that you can find many such people among ESN‘ers and Erasmus. Am I sure? Let’s have a look at Social Erasmus practices and there will be no doubt anymore!

Firstly, let‘s break the stereotype that Erasmus students only party and go to the events which are organized by ESN. ESN Lithuania can witness that Erasmus students come up with very good ideas by themselves. One of the examples is Erasmus Fundraising, which was initiated by exchange students from Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius. During the whole term, exchange students were collecting small coins, the so-called “white cents“, from the students in the dormitories. Also, the refund money for empty bottles was added to the general fund. By the end of the term, students had collected quite a round sum of money which was used for buying presents, games and candies for children sick with tuberculosis.

Actually, ESN Lithuania sections had quite many nice social initiatives so far, and there are still a few to be mentioned. In the end of 2010 ESN VGTU decided to create the winter fairy-tale for children in one Lithuanian kindergarten. A group of foreign students acted one famous Lithuanian fairy-tale “Wolf and seven goatlings”.

The amazing thing was that they learned it in Lithuanian language!

The children were amazed and we were as well!

Also, quite active in Social Erasmus projects is ESN Vilnius University section. The members of it, altogether with Erasmus students regularly go to the home of orphans, play with them and just try to make their days a bit more colorful. It has become a nice tradition to do have some social initiatives before Christmas.

We also organize some English lectures in schools throughout the

year. During such meetings various methods of learning are used, so that makes it easier for children to memorize and also makes the days of Erasmus more special.

So, on one hand, Social Erasmus is a great opportunity for exchange students to blend deeper into local life, a good reason to pick up some more Lithuanian words and to “make a world a better place”.

On the other hand, it is also a great opportunity for local children to have a glance into the world of different cultures, languages and customs. No matter if it is done by having fun (e.g., learning Indonesian dances with the exchange students) or through more serious work (e.g. at school in language lessons which were given

by ESN VMU section students, who became teachers during the day of languages), it certainly widens the eye range of the children and helps them to be open-minded and tolerant.

Of course, although different ESN Lithuania sections have already contributed a lot to different social projects, there will be always something left to do. That is really what keeps the world going, doesn’t it? During our last NP we made a contest called GO PUBLIC! and nominated sections for best new idea, best event and best social event. We hope that being acknowledged as the ones, who did very good job concerning social projects, will motivate sections to work further on. Let’s be social and go public!

RESPONSIBLE PARTY? RESPONSIBLE PARTY! Orinta Movsesjan Responsible party and responsible drinking... It is not the most interesting theme for a party when you are an exchange student.

Still, it is not mission impossible, moreover, it may turn out to a very great experience. Further you will find some hints how ESN Lithuania made it successful and nice for International students.

1. This party was organized not for one but for all 9 ESN sections in Lithuania. That is a very nice trick of how to raise people‘s interest – just give the opportunity to meet other foreign students from all over the country. In the party, which was organized in the heart of Lithuania – Kaunas, participated International students from Kaunas, Vilnius, Klaipėda and Šiauliai.

2. Not to make people come just to the party, we organized the city tour during the day and found the sleeping places for them, so that after the party they wouldn‘t have to think where to go and how to come back to their own cities.

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3. During the party we had a big photo wall with the Responsible Party logo and a professional photographer, so everybody, who wanted, had an opportunity to take a nice picture. Bob was also giving his advice how to party in a responsible way on the posters and screens in several places in the club (even smoking areas, ladies‘ and gentlemens‘ rooms, etc.).

4. During the party we had a few public responsible games. For example, international couples (girl/boy) had to change their clothes on the stage as fast as they could. That is how we checked whether they are drunk or sober and made trainings what to do just in case of being caught. Very nice Responsible attributes were given afterwards as prizes.

The party was really successful, and both, our International students and all ESN‘ers from all over the country, enjoyed it a lot.

In the pictures you can find how much.

PROJECTS & PARTNERS

RESPONSIBLE PARTY

by:Leo Smith

On 21st June 2010 in Brussels, ESN International signed a Partnership Agreement with Pernod Ricard to create the Responsible Party campaign, a pan-European campaign across Europe to order to raise awareness among students about responsible drinking and contribute to the reduction of excessive and inappropriate consumption of alcohol among youth. The focus of the project is on helping sections promote responsible behavior, drinking and partying to exchange students as they are somewhat known for certain behavior. We have been gradually implementing this project across the network and now we want to encourage more of you to start participating to make it truly pan-European. Hopefully this article will inform and inspire you to start organising Responsible Parties in your city!

Across the network there have already been over 30 parties organised. They have happened in 14 ESN countries including: Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Norway, Finland, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain and Poland. Based upon the information and statistics gathered from the parties, the campaign has directly reached 20,000 students across. Of course, we are more ambitious and the idea is to reach 60,000 per year, but nonetheless it is a promising start for the campaign.

NATION2NATION IS A RESPONSIBLE PARTY!

by:Patrik Polonec

Breaking down the barriers, bringing the world together – that is the motto of ESN VSE Prague. And one of their events which best combines with this motto is the Nation2nation party. Each week of the semester there is a party dedicated to different nation, offering not only typical welcome drinks of the respective nations, but also a country presentation prepared by the incoming students. Since the last semester, ESN VSE Prague started to participate in the Responsible party project and on Tuesday 26th of April, we could enjoy the second Nation2nation Responsible party.

The Nation2nation parties are always held in the best Prague clubs and for the Responsible party, the Nation2nation team lead by Bohumil „Bob“ Dvorak chose an exquisite place – Venue club, situated in a real church – St. Michael´s church, just few metres from Prague´s Old Town Square.

An enchanting interior, fine music, perfect atmosphere and, of course enthusiastic members of Responsible party staff impossible to overlook (including the PR, Treasurer and NR of the current National Board). Those were the basic ingredients of the event which wanted to show that it is posible to party and have fun responsibly, „an idea we totally share“ as Bob mentioned in the name of whole ESN VSE Prague. The topic of the party was Balkan Sail party and dresscode – light blue and white colours – matched perfectly with the outfit of the Responsible party volunteers staff. They spent a big part of the party in conversations with the guests about partying responsibly and after the night, the guests could take home a small gift, such as Responsible party bracelets, breath testers or condoms, the gifts that will, amongst other, remember to all the participants, that there is the webpage www.responsible-party.com/ , where all the visitors can find not only interesting information about alcohol and how it affects our body, but also several good tips about how to organise an event, to calculate the budget and enjoy with the party already running. Just a few clicks to find out how to party responsibly. In Prague, we already know it. And you? Will you join us during the next Nation2nation party?

Why your section should get involved?

• • • • • •

Develop a positive public image Improve relations with your university, International Office and Students’ Union Offer more services to exchange students Consider the welfare of exchange students You will receive support and guidance from ESN and Pernod Ricard There is no extra work for you (just incorporate the concept into existing parties)

What do you get from Resp Party?

The main aim of the campaign is to support the sections in looking after the welfare of their exchange and international students.

Therefore, we have developed a number of tools which should make organising Responsible Party easier and more effective, they are: • • • •

Official Documentation- a press kit, sample of partnership agreement, order forms, evaluation grids and guidelines for the use of the website Website- www.responsible-party.com with information about alcohol and tips to organise a responsible party A communication campaign- Posters, leaflets and other PR material with a Responsible Party mascot which your section can use to promote the Responsible Party theme.

Responsible Party materials- Gadgets and PR material including: t-shirts, bags, baseball caps, stress balls, condoms, breathalyzers etc.

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PROJECTS & PARTNERS

TOWARDS A RIGHTS BASED APPROACH ON VOLUNTEERING

by:European Youth Forum (YFJ)

The European Year of Volunteering 2011, the 10th anniversary of the United Nations International Year of Volunteering 2001 and the Council of Europe Report “Promoting Volunteering in Europe”, together create a unique momentum to work to improve and increase volunteering in Europe.

The European Youth Forum is convinced that volunteering and participation in youth organisations are at the heart of democracy, as dynamic forces for social inclusion and active citizenship. Volunteering policy is a core issue for the almost 100 Member Organisations of the European Youth Forum – being volunteer based, volunteer led and representing millions of young people engaged in voluntary activities every day. Hence volunteering is the basis for the work of the European Youth Forum and the rights of volunteers are among its concerns.

In order to foster a culture of participation and active citizenship in Europe and the world, volunteers must be given the access as well as encouragement to exercise volunteering activities. First and foremost, however,volunteers need rights that fit their duties.

The need for a legal framework on Volunteering on the European level was first raised in December 2006, when an analysis provided by National Youth Councils and International Youth Organisations, combined with the European-level analysis of the European Youth Forum, pointed, inter alia, to a clear conclusion: the need for a common legal framework or charter defining the basic rights and responsibilities of volunteers. Moreover, this framework should encompass support to youth organisations, not least in view of the fact that a volunteer can participate only if there is an organisation providing her/him with the necessary support.

The European Youth Forum Member Organisations were calling for a European Charter on the Rights of Volunteers, as one of the major objectives of the European Youth Forum work plan 2011/12. Close and reliable collaboration with the Member Organisations is crucial, in order to allow the development of a Charter, that truly reflects and answers the needs of volunteers and volunteering organisation all over Europe and in your country. Additionally the charter will be discussed with all stakeholders in order to achieve its recognition by the institutional partners.

II Youth Convention on Volunteering To place the work of volunteers in Europe 7-11 September 2011, Brussels (Belgium) in the spotlight, The European Youth Forum is organising the biggest civil society event in Europe during the European Year: The II Youth Convention on Volunteering from 7-11 September this year! The convention will showcase the contribution of participatory youth organisations to the volunteering sector and society as a whole, and celebrate young volunteers from all over Europe. It will bring together volunteers, institutions, volunteer organisations, researchers and decision makers from all over Europe. Together, they will discuss a rights based approach to volunteering and develop a Declaration the biggest public event on Volunteering during the stakeholder organised by the conference.

YOUNG VOLUNTEERS STAND UP!

european youth forum for the european year of volunteering.

European Youth Forum at-a-Glance

www.youthforum.org

You are warmly invited to join this debate and contribute your expertise to an initiative that the European Youth Forum hopes to become an integral and valued part of European life.

The European Youth Forum (YFJ) is an independent, democratic, youth-led platform, representing 98 National Youth Councils and International Youth Organisations from across Europe. The YFJ works to empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives, by representing and advocating their needs and interests and those of their organisations towards the European Institutions, the Council of Europe and the United Nations.

Since April, 24th 2010, ESN is a full member of the European Youth Forum.

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PROJECTS & PARTNERS

A TALE OF THE NEW BOARD OF THE EUROPEAN YOUTH FORUM by: Peter Matjašic, President of the European Youth Forum This is a tale about 11 young volunteers from all around Europe. On 1st January 2011 they officially started their mandate and assumed the responsibility to lead this unique youth platform called the European Youth Forum (YFJ). So the tale begins...

In order to make the platform slimmer and fitter the previous Board and the General Assembly provided them with a brand new work-plan and together with the Secretariat a new implementation plan that will allow for many new adventures.

This plan guides the work of the new Board and the Youth Forum within three main pillars: • • •

Chapter 1: Young Volunteers as Builders of European Society Chapter 2: Strong Youth Organisations for a Stronger Civil Society Chapter 3: A Rights-Based Approach for an Inclusive and Participatory Europe

The new structure of the work plan meant a shift in the mentality of the organisation and reorganisation of both the Board and Secretariat with the focus now being on a team-oriented approach and small implementation teams that can best tackle the nature of the work-plan with its pillar structure and cross-sectorial approach.

In line with the European Youth Forum Statutes the Board has the prerogative of constituting non-permanent working structures to assist with the implementation of work-plan. Having taken into account the evaluation of the previous experience of having working groups we have now established three new working groups (youth work development, non-formal education, volunteering), three new expert groups (vote@16, youth rights, Youth in Action), one new project group (Eastern Europe and Caucasus) as well as continued with a reformed Pool of Facilitators and Trainers (PoT).

Our tale is only at the beginning and you’re all part of it. We are here to work for the platform and lead the European Youth Forum in the coming two years! On behalf of my entire team I want to assure you that will do our best to keep the promises made during the GA and make the Youth Forum a truly open and inclusive platform. The tale lives on...

Note: The new Board is composed of Peter Matjašič (President), Katarina Nevedalova (Vice-President), Luca Scarpiello (Vice-President) and Anemone Birkebæk, Rui Duarte, Katrine Korsgaard, Guoda Lomanaite, Mourad Mahidi, Falko Mohrs, Imse Nilsson, Lloyd RussellMoyle as Board members. Visit www.youthforum.org for more information.

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PROJECTS EVENTS & EXPERIENCES & PARTNERS

EUROPEAN FLAVOURS VOTE FOR A COMMON DISH ESN AGM tastes like morning coffee after three hours of sleep: it has a bitter sweet savour which you can fully enjoy only during the first relaxed sip. After that, it gets into your blood in a continuous innuendo, makes it run like a speeding car and just compresses time. My first AGM has been like that. I have the feeling there have been so many things I took part in during such a short period of time, that it is just difficult to list them without feeling I am robbing each moment of its particular charm. However, I know that the ravishing feeling I am left with after it could somewhat be suggested by the tastes I have the tendency to link each country and each experience with. If you look at the bigger picture, it looks (and tastes) exactly like the EuroDinner: peculiar, probably stereotypical at times, yet interesting.

Who would blame Popeye?

Do you remember Popeye the Sailor Man and how he was “advertising” spinach? Children my age did not like spinach, but loved the cartoon. I started to eat spinach after watching Popeye the Sailor Man. I do not remember if I liked the taste, but I surely know I thought I was growing stronger and smarter after eating it.

On the one hand, the AGM plenary sessions were like spinach to me: I was too busy judging and understanding the results of my country’s votes and the whole system’s implications that I cannot say if I enjoyed them or not. I just know I learned more about ESN International than I thought I would and I got “infected” with even more enthusiasm than I already had. The workshops, on the other hand, were like morning crackers: crunchy and appetizing enough, but they finished when I wanted to get some more.

The taste of stereotypes I guess many times we tend to check if the labels we put on countries and their inhabitants fit the people we have in front of us; AGM has also been a perfect occasion to do that. I am sure those of you who can remember something from the EuroDinner would still feel the flavour of the Polish Zubrowka, the bubbly Austrian shot and probably would like to sing some more “I love Slovenia, na-na-na-na-na!” on the bus, without knowing why. But have you tried the Azerbaijan wine, the one tasting sourly-sweet, just like its

GO GREEN ISN-TUNDUK being the Associate member of ESN would like to outline a few events which we regularly carry out under the name of “GO GREEN” under which Social activities play a major part.

Based in Kyrgyzstan, we are fortunate enough to regularly visit the beautiful mountains in any season. So, as a network we make ecological trips to the mountains, where we not only enjoy, but also spend a part of our time over there in carrying out an eco-friendly program of removing out the plastic waste thrown on the mountains.

Though we know that this cannot totally remove or reduce the plastic waste in the mountainous region, we do it thinking as our first step to global protection, by giving up a very small fraction of contribution.

We also annually carry out the Clean and Green program in the International School of Medicine (ISM IUK) hostel premises where our head office is located. We do this program in the spring season, after the heavy and beautiful snowfall and is coordinated by the

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by: Andra Mardare

name: “My darling”? I did, right before the Spanish sangria, and it changed the whole perspective upon wine and Azerbaijan.

Now I am almost certain the stereotypes regarding different countries, though having some basis in real life, are just the mere appearance one is confronted with at the first encounter. Some Austrians might lack initiative and be a little distant. The ones I met stuffed me with chocolate cake after they discovered their famous shot was over and wandered with me in a park in Pest, with their map, their big smile and dark chocolate handy. The Swiss precision can hardly be kept in mind when a big Swiss guy hugs you innocently on the streets of Budapest, during the parade. Happy drunk guys as they may be considered, the Bulgarian people I met were kind and polite at all times. Some French, as distant as they are known, would not mind starting a conversation over dinner in English if you are the only not-native-French-speaker at the table.

And yes, it is true Italians are volcanic and noisy, but they have kind hearts and can be such fine gentlemen you just do not realise when four hours of discussion have passed. Turkish can have a serious conversation about politics in Cyprus without getting inflamed, and Portuguese can also appreciate other things than football – and I am not referring only to the girls they flirt with.

“One more cup of coffee before I go” The problem with this AGM is the fact that it has been too short and therefore I got the feeling something has been missing. There are so many people I would like to have got to know better or at least to speak with more. One thing I regret is the fact that I did not have the chance to tell all the Hungarian ESNers and volunteers what an overwhelming job they have done, despite the small otherwise difficulties that existed at times. Their discrete presence has been as charming as the boat trip on the Danube.

Like many others participants at the ESN AGM in Budapest, I have started drinking my coffee from the AGM mug. Nevertheless, my coffee just does not taste the same: it lacks the magic of the precious passing moments and the blood rush with anticipation of a new day full of new exhilarating experiences. It is left only with the bitter-sweet taste of some nice memories.

by: Nanduri Raghuveer, ISN-Tunduk administration of our university, with the students taking active part in it by cleaning out the plastic waste in around our premises, removing out the wild plants and level the ground to make it a play ground for the perfect hot summer, where the students wait only for the evenings.

26th March 2011, 8:30 pm- The time where most part of the world goes dim. The Earth Hour, which reminds us of our individual responsibility to protect our Earth. Realizing its importance ISNTUNDUK contributed its part by turning off all the main lights of the offices of all the boards of ISN-TUNDUK in Kyrgyzstan. Within that time we gathered in our office room under the candle light and had a group discussion on the theme of “How students can contribute to the global protection by saving electricity”. We also motivated other students of in the dormitory to take part along with us, by turning out all the main lights of the hostel. This made most of the dormitories without life during that period of time.

PROJECTS EVENTS & EXPERIENCES & PARTNERS

IRELAND? ESN UCD! by: Kenny Ho ESN UCD made enormous inroads in 2010/2011 and was one of the most successful years to date of the organisation in University College Dublin but also in Ireland and with a record high membership of over 600 students, all active. Our section joined in 2007 and since then we have continued to improve and prosper year after year. The success of ESN UCD this particular year was evident in its organisation of a wide range of events, activities and the extent of the information and helps it provided for members.

The overall aim for ESN UCD was to create a student experience and atmosphere that was missing in UCD and cover the social and information that students from abroad were searching for, to make their Erasmus not just memorable and positive but unforgettable and in doing so promote UCD, Dublin and Ireland as the place to study. To bring all students together and get as many involved as possible and cater for everyone’s needs and desires.

Our section focused on two primary goals that will enrich exchange students experience in Ireland, both culturally and socially. To ensure they form new friendships and discover the many natural beauties that the country has to offer! So how did we do it?

We believed that the best way to achieve this goal was through social trips across Ireland, so ESN UCD organised weekend trips to Galway, Cork and Belfast. These trips were not only cultural and educational but also socially fun and a fantastic way to travel around Ireland in an economic and fun way.

We then created a unique social event in which we hope it will be our national event in the coming future. Hundreds of exchange and Irish students gathered in the city of Dublin for a Halloween fancy dress team orientated treasure hunt exploring the hidden gems of one of Europe’s most vibrant cities, with the winning team being

awarded the Prestigious Sumsare (Erasmus spelt backwards) Trophy.

We even organised an ‘ESN Emergency Christmas Eve Party’, when many exchange students were stuck in Dublin after the snowstorm of last year and fearing the worst that they spend Christmas in an airport terminal alone, we decided to host a dinner at one of the on-campus residences dining hall where they spent their Christmas with their Erasmus family!

But ESN UCD was not always about partying but also about improving exchange student’s overall welfare and so we established an open forum for exchange students and ‘ESN Clinic’ to help in sourcing and finding accommodation. These included the ‘language tandem event’ and regular information meetings to inform students of the cultural make up of Ireland, the necessary information to study in UCD and to live and best adapt to live in Ireland.

What an incredible journey!!!! Given that the committee started out from scratch and we set out many objectives and aims of a high standard and successfully met all but now is dealing with the challenge of continuing the work rate and to transfer responsibility to a new committee as the majority of the current committee are final years and are leaving. So we want to transfer all the good work and to continue to grow the organisation. ESN UCD is at the forefront of ESN in Ireland and as the only official section we hope to lead by example and continue to raise the standard so that Ireland becomes a leading ESN country and more importantly to be more involved with the rest of ESN sections across Europe who share our vision, our dream, our desire and our passion! Long live ESN!

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PROJECTS TRANSLATION & PARTNERS

ESN OLYMPICS by: Joanna Wakuluk

Euro 2012 za rok – Erasmusi walczą o zwycięstwo w ESN Olympics już za kilka tygodni!

7 maja 2011 roku odbędzie się pierwszy ogólnopolski finał zawodów sportowych dla Erasmusów – zagranicznych studentów przebywających w Polsce – ESN Olympics.

Wydarzenie organizowane przez Erasmus Student Network będzie miało miejsce na terenie Akademii Obrony Narodowej w Rembertowie pod Warszawą. Zwycięży drużyna, która zbierze najwięcej punktów w 4 dyscyplinach sportowych.

Już za rok oczy setek tysięcy kibiców z całej europy zostaną skupione naszym kraju.

Dla wielu młodych osób uczestniczących w międzynarodowej wymianie studenckiej „Erasmus” w Polsce, możliwość przebywania w kraju, który przygotowuje się do Euro 2012 jest bardzo ekscytująca. Stowarzyszenie Wspierania Międzynarodowych Wymian Studenckich Erasmus Student Network Polska postanowiło stworzyć okazję do wspólnej rywalizacji studentom z najdalszych zakątków świata w zawodach sportowych ESN Olympics.

POLISH

W pierwszym etapie zawodów zostaną wyłonione przedstawicielskie drużyny z 10 miast Polski, które przejdą do etapu ogólnopolskiego. W rywalizacji o zwycięstwo weźmie udział również najlepsza drużyna z Domu Dziecka wyłoniona w zawodach sportowych Dream Cup. 7 maja na terenie Akademii Obrony Narodowej w Rembertowie odbędzie się Finał ESN Olympics. Wybrani przedstawiciele z finałowych drużyn wezmą udział w 4 różnych dyscyplinach sportowych, zwyciężą ci, którzy zdobędą najwięcej punktów w każdej z nich. Finałowy dzień zacznie się od zawodów w pływaniu. Rozbudzeni poranną kąpielą zawodnicy przejdą dalej do rywalizacji w piłce nożnej, biegach przełajowych oraz zawodach atletycznych. Po zakończeniu wszystkich dyscyplin zwycięzcy otrzymają dyplomy oraz atrakcyjne nagrody. Dla uczestników finałów przewidziana jest wielka impreza w jednym z warszawskich klubów pod hasłem „Interantional Party”, studenci będą bawić się - przebrani we własne barwy narodowe.

Ze względu na różnorodność kulturową uczestników ESN Olympics będzie wydarzeniem barwnym, pełnym emocji, kultywującym zdrowe współzawodnictwo i dobrą zabawę.

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EN

NGLISH

PROJECTS TRANSLATION & PARTNERS

Euro 2012 Is Just Around The Corner & Our Erasmus Students Will Fight For Victory in the ESN Olympics Just in a Few Weeks!

The first finals of the nationwide sports competition for the Erasmus students (staying in Poland) ESN Olympics will come about on 7th of May 2011. The event organized by Erasmus Student Network will take place on the grounds of the National Defense University in Warsaw. The team which will have the highest score in 4 disciplines will win.

Soon the eyes of all the football fans in Europe will be concentrated on Poland. For many young people taking part in the international exchange here, in Poland - the country that is getting ready to host Euro 2012 - must be very exciting. ESN Olympics was created by Erasmus Student Network - the organization that supports international student exchange, in order to give the international students a chance of fair competition in sports with people from all around the world.

Within the first round of the competition, ten teams representing ten different Polish cities will be chosen. The teams will then take part in the second round that is going to be nationwide. Also, there is going to be an additional team participating in ESN Olympics - the best team from an orphanage which is to be selected in the Dream Cup sport competition.

On May 7th, on the grounds of the National Defense University in Warsaw, the Final of ESN Olympics will take place. The selected representatives from the teams that make it through the finals will participate in 4 various sport disciplines. Those who get the highest score in each discipline are the winners. The first discipline of the day will be swimming. Contestants awaken by the morning bath will move on to fight for the victory in football, running and the athletics. At the end the winners will receive diplomas and appealing awards. For the participants of the finals there is going to be “The International Party” in one of the Warsaw’s clubs. The students are going to party wearing clothes in their national colors.

Thanks to the cultural variety of the participants of ESN Olympics it is going to be a very colorful, exciting and fair competition cultivating event.

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PROJECTS & PARTNERS

SECTION IN THE SPOTLIGHT: MARCH Autour du Monde, Nantes

by: Lea Granados It has been almost 10 years that Autour du Monde works for a better integration of international students. International is the right word ! In fact, the students who created our section in 2002 came from countries such as Greece, Chile and of course France.

Today Autour du Monde welcomes about 400 hundred members every year, among them about 40 active members. As our section was growing and the number of activities we organised considerably increased, since 2005 Autour du Monde employs a full-time coordinator to help the team with administrative work.

As most of the ESN sections in France, we organise visits of the city and trips to the vineyards or the seaside so that international students can meet each other and discover their new home. We also promote linguistic exchanges by organizing every week 10 ‘polyglot cafes’ in 10 different languages. When they arrive we welcome students with ‘welcome teas’ and ‘stuff markets’ where they can find local food, cheap crockery left for them by ex-

exchange students, get information about our activities and meet their buddy for the first time !

In partnership with the local council we organise the ‘Cercles Europe’: european students present their country to high-school pupils, a ‘Social Erasmus’ experience that both kids and students enjoy very much! This year 15 students have had the opportunity to participate and share their culture with hundreds of children.

Of course, we also organise ‘Welcome Parties’ at the beginning of each semester and cultural events such as international brunch or ‘dances of the world’ nights! Our main event takes places every year at the beginning of spring. ‘Les Journées Interculturelles’ is the international students’ festival, where they can present and share their cultures with all the population of Nantes. In April 2011, 18 countries were represented and we welcomed 600 people in our world tour around Colombia, Germany, Niger, China, Iran, Bulgaria and much more! Local food and drinks, dances, shows, traditional costumes, short films, theatre… international students have a lot to share ! The cultural diversity of the international students in Nantes is at the heart of this festival.

We try to work in partnership as much as we can with other student and international organisations in Nantes, such as radio or other medias, sport organisations, etc. to act as a a key student organisation in our campus and our city!

As a quite old section we always have a lot of work to keep meeting the challenges of integration of the international students, creating exchanges between them and French students and promoting international mobility. Thanks to ESN we are always in touch with other sections and enjoy exchanging advice to help each other to improve activities and the running of the section and of course we have a lot of fun. We ESNers also have so much to share!

SECTION IN THE SPOTLIGHT: MAY ESN UAX, Madrid

by: Vincent Janiak

Madrid is not only the home town of Penelope Cruz and Enrique Iglesias, it is also the hometown of ESN UAX, Section in the Spotlight of April.

Right from the beginning of the semester the international students gets into the Erasmus life starting with an intense welcome week which includes activities such as museum visits, paintball and huge parties. The section also has a large focus on cultural events and activites and every semester they host a large international dinner where the students cooks and prepares food from their home countries. They also join ESN UCM for private cinema sessions to introduce the international students to Spanish cinema and the rest of the sections in Madrid joins ESN UAX for a typical Spanish party called ”Capea”.

The section also organizes a weekly football match and at least once pr semester they organize a trip to the stadium of Real Madrid to watch a champions match. All parties and activities are open to local students who are interested in taking part of ESN. The section has implemented the use of ESN cards and students gets free museum entrances with their cards.

The section is active on both the National and International level as well. They never miss and international event and they have had members in both the previous and the current national board.

ESN UAX is a good example that size doesn’t matter as long as you have great motivation and Pallomeri spirit.

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RECIPE

RABBIT AT THE BEER by: Damien Lamy Preto

Rabbit at the beer is a recipe from the North of France (front the Ch’ti) and Belgian.

Our country love cooking with alcohol but it’s a not alcoholic recipe because it will be cooked.

Let’s cook!

1. Cut the rabbit in piece: legs, head, ribs etc…

2. Keep the head it’s even better for the taste but you will not eat it.

3. Cut the onions in big slice and the carrot in cube.

4. In a stove, cook the onions and the bacon together without grass.

When they are gilded take it out and keep it.

5. In the same stove (without cleaning it), put the piece of rabbit with some oil. Make brown the piece of rabbit, around five minutes cooking.

6. Take a big pan. Put inside the rabbit, the onions, the bacon, the carrot and the beer. With 10CL of water clean the stove and put the water in the pan.

7. After 15 minutes with a medium fire, add the potatoes cut in four parts.

8. On a small fire, let it cooked for 30mn until the beer disappeared and potatoes are cooked.

Served with Belgian beer or white wine.

Beer: Chimay or other trappist beer White wine: Chateau de la Loire or a grey Tokay. A nice white dry wine fits as well.

Bon Appétit

Ingredients For 4 people: • A rabbit of 1,5kg (in piece if you don’t like cutting meet) • 200g of bacon cube • 2 onions • 1 carrot • 50cl of blue Chimay (If you don’t find it take a beer with a strong taste but no Pils) • 800g of Potatoes ( 8 big potatoes)

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PROJECTS & PARTNERS

ESN INTERNATIONAL GOES GREEN! by:Leo Smith As you all can imagine the ESN Office in Brussels is a busy place with 7 people working tirelessly 5 days a week, two people living and numerous people visiting. Thus, there is a lot of energy expended by the people, but also a lot of resources and energy used to ensure the cogs keep turning in the ESN International engine room. We have 8 computers running 8 hours a day, two printers, a heating system warming us in the harsh Brussels winter, desk lamps illuminating our work and a kitchen producing meals for the hungry masses once and sometimes twice a day. Thus, I began to reflect upon how we can take a more responsible attitude towards our workplace and make it greener, more efficient, and also save some money at the same time (which of course pleased our dear Treasurer).

So I set out upon a long investigation into how other small businesses save energy and reduce wastage to improve their green credentials, and sometimes the ideas were obvious such as switching off the lights when you leave the office, but some were more creative but nonetheless achievable such as having toilets that flush less water every time you use them. With a clear idea of all of the things that we could do I created an Action Plan for implementing the green steps throughout the year and set about my work to making the ESN Office a shining example of how we can all go green with a few minor changes to our routine and office set up.

As a mid-term analysis, I would say that we are about 60% on the way to achieving our first year targets, and perhaps next year we can set more ambitious goals, however we still have over 20 flights a year each to try and carbon offset, which I think will need a bit more than an Erasmus Forest. But nonetheless, we are happy with what we have achieved and would like to share some of the ideas, tips and best practices about how you can make your local ESN section greener in the future because one of the main principles of this mini-international project is to inspire the sections of the network to implement environmentally friendly measures in their work at the local level. In addition, we are also committed to working with partners and friends of the organisation to encourage them to follow our green principles whilst trying to learn about how we can extend our green credentials.

So here are our top ten tips to make your local ESN Office greener: 1. Refilling of ink/toner cartridges to save money and also it is a greener alternative to buying new toners each time 2. Usage of low-energy lightbulbs throughout ESN Office 3. Use a supply of paper with maximum available recycled content 4. Donate old computer equipment and office furniture to charities 5. Turning off equipment when it’s not being used. This can reduce our energy used by 25 percent; turning off the computers at the end of the day can save an additional 50 percent. Also turning off printers at the end of each day.

6. Use of electronic invoicing and scanning and digital storing of invoices and receipts 7. Using a timer to regulate when the heating is on in the office 8. Avoid printing hard copies of emails and documents that are not necessary. Print double-sided pages and use scrap paper for everyday documents 9. Sorting of all rubbish between plastic, paper, glass and recycling 10. Place plants in the office to make it greener and also improve the quality of the air This are just a small selection of ideas, and we believe that you can be much more creative in your ideas for going green, so don’t hesitate to contact the board with your ideas if you would like more ideas about the initiative from us

EXCHANGEABILITY! WE ARE HERE TO MAKE EUROPE A BETTER PLACE! Going on Erasmus is a challenging experience. An Erasmus student is of course having a lot of fun, but you will also have to overcome some obstacles: such as finding a habitable place to live, learning to go shopping at the supermarket without exceeding your sometimes, tight budget, having your credits recognized etc. all that, in another language.

If you think that the beginning is a bit complicated, try to imagine the situation of those who decide that having a disability is not a hindrance and take part in this enriching experience. Everything becomes more complicated. If taking the shopping to a 6th floor without a lift can be tiring, for a person in a wheelchair, living there is not even an option. If most people are getting lost in the tube when arriving in a city for first time, then imagine how a blind person would feel. Even making friends is harder as most of bars and clubs are not accessible for people with disabilities.

How is ExchangeAbility project ameliorating this situation?

Read how 4 ESN sections are implementing the project and you will find the answer to this question

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PROJECTS EVENTS & EXPERIENCES & PARTNERS

EA: BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC by: Barbora Pavlícková In spring 2010, we decided about making several ISC (International student club) events accessible for Czech students with sensorial or mobility impairment (and interested in multicultural environment) as a test group. First of all, there was a staff-training in three sessions, each with a field specialist, for ISC members in assistance and communication with visually, hearing and mobility impaired. We learned about social and language communication or personal assistance, but we also had a lot of fun with practical issues: we had a practical training such as navigation with eye flaps, description for blind or wheelchair ride. The trainings helped ISC staff to be able to help the students with disabilities.

After that, we implemented our know-how into two pilot events, one of which is described below: First event was „Wine Tasting“ in Wine gallery in Brno. Program consisted of wine tasting led by a professional sommelier, there was also live music by traditional folk band. We wanted to make this event accessible for hearing impaired students. The necessary adaptations were two interpreters for adaptation of the sommelier’s talk. As we could not find an interpreter who can speak both English and the Czech sign language (because of the international students, the sommelier had to speak English), sommelier‘s speech had to be translated to Czech and just then to the Czech sign language which made the whole process of translation a little bit long. Although the missing common language obviously showed to be an obstacle when trying to include the deaf students and it was a little difficult to socialize between both groups, it was not impossible, which is important. Nevertheless, we have many positive responses from both participants with special needs and international students.

The second event was „Concert of Brno Philharmonic“ in concert hall in Brno. This event consisted of a concert followed by an informal meeting of participants in a local pub. This event was accessible for visually and mobility impaired students. We had to provide barrier-free premises (concert hall, local pub) and concert program in electronic format in advance. After the concert, international students socialized well with the students with disabilities in a local restaurant - it was a new and interesting experience for international students to communicate with Czech students with disabilities. For them, it was important to get in touch with international community.

The co-operation between International Student Club and Teiresiás (University Support Centre for Students with Special Needs), Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic)

EA: ATHENS, GREECE by: Ilias Konstantinidis

ESN KAPA Athens joined the ExchangeAbility project 2 years ago, since then a lot of things changed in our section. Apart from the accessibility of the events which, especially after a student with disabilities is also working for the section, is higher with more events being organized carefully so they are accessible, our exchangeability team is also working on 3 main areas: 1. Researching the level of accessibility of 24 faculties of our university by visiting them on our own. In few days we will have finished with our research and we will contact the president of each faculty proposing measures in order to ameliorate accessibility. Our goal is that all faculties will become more accessible so students with disabilities will be able to attend every course they wish.

2. We are also researching all the university residences by the same way, to guarantee that a student with disabilities in our university will have the best possible residence.

3. Last but not least, a research will be carried out in all means of transportation. It is vital for a student with disabilities in Athens to know which means of transport are accessible and which areas do they cover.

All these results will be analytically published in our website, so everybody will have access to them! We hope that this way we will be providing useful information to people with disabilities who would like to study in our city/university, and we make the idea of doing an exchange here, for a person with disabilities more feasible.

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PROJECTS EVENTS & EXPERIENCES & PARTNERS

EA: TALLINN, ESTONIA by: Merlin Püss How does ExchangeAbility works in our section?

• All important ESN meetings are held in accessable places, usually at universities or cafes with ramps.

• Last 4 ESN National Platform meetings in Estonia were in accessable rooms and all people had a chance to take a part in them.

• At the moment there’s a process of mapping the universities and rooms which are accessable for the disabled students.

ESN Tallinn is planning to use green (accessable), yellow (partly accessable) and red ( non- accessable) signs. ESN Tallinn is also planning to map ESN Tallinn event locations.

• ESN Tallinn has informed their members about the Exchangeability project.

• ESN Tallinn 9 partner universities are aware about the Exchangeability project and they are going to be introduced to different sides of this project.

• One of ESN Tallinn members has planned to create a network of supporters, including 5 – 15 people, who will help students with disabilities so they could have more independence.

My own experience in ESN Tallinn: I have a hearing loss, which is repaired with a device. Usually when I meet a new person for the first time, I need to learn his/her’ s voice so I wouldn’t have to count only on reading his/her lips. Joining with ESN Tallinn and meeting other members and students has made me more courageous. ESN Tallinn is a wonderful organization.

They are supporting and understanding. After one year as a member in ESN Tallinn, I took the opportunity to be the coordinator of the Exchangeability project in Tallinn. New start, new future!

EA: MADRID, SPAIN by: Mercedes Llorente Going on Erasmus is a challenging experience. You are of course going to have a lot of fun. But all those who have already enjoyed this experience will agree with me that you will also have to overcome some obstacles: such as finding a habitable place to live, learning to go shopping at the supermarket without exceeding your (sometimes, very) tight budget, opening a bank account, having your credits recognized… and all that, in another language. Even getting used to living all alone can be hard.

But if the beginning was a bit complicated for you, try to imagine for a while the situation of those who decide that having a disability is not a hindrance and decide to take part in this enriching experience.

Everything becomes more complicated. If for you, taking the shopping to a 6th floor without a lift can be tiring, for a person in a wheelchair, living there is not even an option. Even going to class could be an impossible task as many buildings are full of stairs.

Another example: did you get lost in the tube when you arrived to your host city? Well, imagine if you were blind. We don’t realize that even making friends is harder as most of bars and clubs are not accessible for disabled people.

There are many things that we can’t change. But from ESN we can take some actions in order to make these people feel supported.

Because if they realize that we care about their situation they will have higher motivation to go on Erasmus. And if they become a more visible minority, it will be easier not only to obtain more financial support but also to make universities improve their facilities and installations.

In this sense, I think it would be extremely useful for disabled Erasmus students to get a buddy, a personal helper, who assists them in finding an adequate apartment before their arrival and to know the city and the university. Besides that, in order to favour their integration with the rest of students, our activities should be planned taking into consideration their special needs. This way, for instance, karaoke nights or tandem should be held in accessible places and films at cinema forum should be provided with subtitles

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for deaf people. Also, it would be very interesting to organize workshops to help the rest of the students understand what it is to be a person with a disability with role plays to realize what the daily routine of a blind person is like.

Being disabled is not a choice, but participating in Erasmus exchange program should be a possibility for everyone. And ESN should support and encourage it. Students helping students is our motto after all, isn’t it?

A great work is going on within ESN concerning the exchangeability project, and there’s even more to come.

Is your section interested to join us in this and try to make Europe a more accessible place? Do you want to learn more about the project? Just send us a mail at

exchangeability@esn.org

H as Heart U as Unit N as Nice G as Go to visit! :) A as Ace R as Ray of sunshine Y as Yeaaaaaaaah!

PROJECTS SHOW YOUR & PARTNERS COUNTRY

PASSPORT

HUNGARY

capital: Budapest language: Hungarian

area: 93,030 km² Hungary, this relatively small country with over ten million citizens, lies in the Carpatian population: 10,198,315 (2006 July) Basin, in the heart of Europe. Hungary seems WONDERful, but it is more than WONDERful.

Hungary has three main parts: northern, western and southern Hungary; these three are different worlds with different adventures and wonders: government: Northern Hungary EU accession: May 2004 The most obvious attraction close to Budapest is the magnificent Danube Bend, which offers some of the country’s finest landscapes. In the north are the uplands and their wide, forested hills of the Northern Uplands, spreading eastwards from Budapest, offer good opportunities for leisurely pursuits including hiking, cycling and even skiing. The region is also home to the country’s most fantastic natural wonder, the Aggtelek Caves, and Zemplén range, appeal to castle enthusiasts and those seeking to get off the beaten track. Not to mention the old village of Hollókő and Palóc region, inviting to a fascinating travel to the world of Hungarian traditions and customs.

The Tokaj and Eger vineyards produce famous „Aszú” of Tokaj and Bull’s Blood wine.

Western Hungary Southwest of Budapest, Lake Balaton, styles itself as the ‘Hungarian Sea’. Here the beach is an uninterrupted line of large and small resorts with bustling life, a paradise for worshippers of sun and water.

Siófok is the largest town on the southern side, as it is said: “Siófok is the capital of Lake Balaton”. The town 106 km far from Budapest can be easily reached by rail (from Déli Railway Station), road (route M7) or air from every direction.

The region also claims some of the country’s finest towns and cities; the vibrant city of Pécs, notable for its superb museums and Islamic architecture. Further south, the vineyards around Villány and Siklós - Hungary’s first wine road - yield some of the country’s finest wines.

Eastern Hungary In the south the landscape changes completely. The area south of the Upland is dominated by the vast flat known as the Great Plain, divided in two by Hungary’s other great river, the Tisza.

Szeged, close to the Serbian border, is the area’s centre with delightful architecture and a beautiful synagogue. Further east, its rival city Debrecen with its magnificent symbol, the Classicist Great Calvinist Church, the largest Calvinist church in the country.

Continuing the explore of the country, you can stumble upon Hortobágy puszta, home to a fantastic array of wildlife.

Aside from the country’s extraordinary concentration of thermal spas, there is also a wealth of other activities, including a range of watersports, horse-riding, cycling and hiking, while nearly two dozen wine regions offer the chance to sample quality wines.

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PROJECTS SHOW YOUR & PARTNERS COUNTRY

ESN HUNGARY HungaRISE your life!

by: Katalina Kossuth Europe’s heart, this little nice country joined the network in 1999 when the first section was established in Pécs. Hungary can be proud of 13 sections now while another 3 groups of Hungarian universities would like to be born as new sections. During the past ten years, ESN sections were working hard for an aim; not only to make the incoming students’ life more WONDERful but the dynamic young team of Hungarian ESNers would like to show for the foreign students and for Europe that Hungary is not only the heart of Europe, but this heart is beating; ESN Hungary is living, working, developing and is one of the most amazing part of Europe’s circulation.

The surrounding countries and the conquerinf nations had a big cultural effect on Hungary. Hungary has a great effect on Europe too, the hungarian virtue is famous worldwide and you find nobody who did not eat a gulyás (gulash) and you’ll find nobody who has already been in Hungary and doesn’t want to come back. This country is a WONDER. It is...

That’s why in a beautiful summer of 2008, ESN Hungary decided under the governance of Mózes Péter Fedor to make a dream true, called WONDERcamp. This dream was about to collect the foreign students who are here in Hungary and who would like to be in Hungary; together with the hungarians who would like to feel the ESN-life. In 2009 with huge success the first WONDERcamp came into fruition.

Facts, details about ESN Hungary • Founded in: 1999 • First National Platform: 2002 International Events • CNR Meeting, 2004 May-Debrecen • Cultural Medley, 2004-Budapest • Central European Platform, 2008-Budapest • Section Meeting, 2009-Budapest • Annual General Meeting, 2011-Budapest • National Event • WonderCamp at the lake Balaton. Planned in 2011 too.

Awards • Starland Award: awarded on AGM 2011 in Budapest.

• StarTer Award for ESN Debrecen (2. Place).

Sections: 13 (+3 in the future): ESN BKF, ESN BME, ESN Corvinus, ESN Debrecen, ESN ELTE, ESN Eger, ESN Gyöngyös, ESN Győr, ESN KJF, ESN Miskolc, ESN Semmelweis, ESN Szeged, ESN Veszprém Hungarian Board • President: Máté Eizenberger • Vice-president: Árpád Tóth • Webmaster: Ádám Tamás Hencz • Treasuer: Natália Horváth • National Representative: Katalin Kossuth Hungarians in the International Board: • Gábor Békéssy Jr. has been in the position of General Secretary between 2001-2002 • Melinda Horváth, Secretary of the IB in 2008.

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PROJECTS SHOW YOUR & PARTNERS COUNTRY

ESN DEBRECEN The formal name of ESN Debrecen is Student Committee on International Affairs, University of Debrecen, this means that ESN Debrecen is a part of the Students’ Union, University of Debrecen. ESN Debrecen has a good relationship with the Office for External Relations and the Erasmus Office, thus dealing with problems of exchange students is satisfactory in most cases.

What is ESN Debrecen doing? They help international students feel at home, thousands of kilometers far away from their real home, and they are the ones who help Hungarian students to know every specific detail about how they can study abroad in a totally new and different environment. These two things mean that if you are an International student living in Debrecen, or a Hungarian student, who wants to apply for scholarships, or for other programs, like summer universities, check ESN Debrecen’s website frequently. If you do that, you can follow what programs we are organizing that week, for example Night Tour, Hungarian Trip, Treasure Hunt, Pub Crawl and so on. These events are not just for Erasmus students, so anyone can join us, who feels like it.

Structure: there’s the President and there are 2 Vice-Presidents, one responsible for International Students and one for the Hungarians. In the local board there are 9 other members, who are working in all kinds of fields. There are more than 20 active members as well; whose job is to help out during the events and fairs ESN Debrecen organizes.

ESN Debrecen joind the ESN Card system, Cards are accepted in more than 15 places, detailed list is available on the website.

Website: http://esn.unideb.hu (EN) & http://dehkb.unideb.hu (HUN) - e-mail: esn.unideb@gmail.com

ESN EGER In spite of being a smaller college in Hungary, the Eszterházy Károly Főiskola has got many active and enthusiastic students who decided to help incoming international and outgoing Hungarian students voluntarily.

The aim of the ESN Eger is to integrate international students into the Hungarian as well as into a multicultural environment by organizing various events and programs.

Our wide-spreading mentor system allows us to help their every-day life by ensuring all important information about Eger, Hungary, college life and additional cases (how to find the hospital, a good restaurant or the best clubs of Eger). Accepting about 35-40 incoming students/ semester, the ESN Eger can easily provide assistance, organize common events and make their staying in Eger enjoyable and unforgettable. For outgoing students we provide information about the Erasmus program, involve them into our work and events in order to help their future staying abroad and their reintegration after their return.

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PROJECTS SHOW YOUR & PARTNERS COUNTRY

ESN MISKOLC Our name is ESN Miskolc, we are responsible for ensuring that you get to know this beautiful region and to spend here the best part of your life. We were founded in 2007 by our first president; Marcell Gyula Gรกspรกr and we are active members of the ESN since 22.04.

2009. We are a happy funny young group, that can work organically with the aim of helping the foreign students in Hungary and the Hungarian students in foreign lands.

Our section is always at service to provide information and to help for every inquiring incoming and outgoing student. We provide information basically in English and in Hungarian, but among our members there are persons that speak English, German, French and Italian.We are here for you to show this amazing region of Hungary everytime! Come and feel what ESN Miskolc is!

MISKOOOOOOLC :) Contacts WEB: http://miskolc.esn.hu - MAIL: esnmiskolc@gmail.com

ESN SZEGED We are ESN Szeged. We are members of ESN since 2002. Since then the number of incoming students multiplied, from 16 (2002/I) to 115 (2010/I). We love what we do and we constantly develop. We have just moved to a new office and we are looking forward to have even more incoming students in our city. We help them from the moment they arrive in Szeged and we are here for them untill the moment they leave. We work in co-operation with the International Relations Department of the University and also with the Student Union. During the semester we help to find appartments, organise parties and cultural events and offer a number of other services. If you are interested, visit us and let us show!

ESN BME Our section, ESN BME has been working at the recognized Budapest University of Technology and Economics, in the capital of Hungary, for over 10 years now. We have more than 40 volunteer members from all but one of the faculties of the university, who form the group of mentors: a very energetic bunch that likes going out together with new foreign friends very much. Our main profile is to organize many different kind of programmes of high standards during the semester, from caving through to opera visits to trips inland and abroad. We gladly help the exchange students of BME from their first steps at orientation week till the sad goodbyes of farewell gala.

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PROJECTS EVENTS & EXPERIENCES & PARTNERS

A HILARIOUS ARTICLE A manifesto for staying local

by: Vasco Gamboni & Maxence Viallon The human being is a lazy animal. We choose facility over quality in our every actions every day : Domino’s pizza around the corner over a delicious homemade one, a cheap Heineken over a good local brew, the nearest post-industrial village over the beautiful classical metropole a couple of hours further…but back to the animal in us.

Always social, always in need of attention and longing for affection.

The erasmus is faced with a dilemma and won’t make up its mind: discovering the virtues of an intercultural exchange, learning the local tongue and habits or staying true to its home flavours. This is where the hard work starts. And it goes without saying, an ESNer must put in big investments (money and time for the target) with a high risk of no return: you could be headed for a ponzi-scheme.

A certain committee, that we ESNers hold dear in our hearts, taught us the merits of hard work. Big investments, big returns. No risk, no fun. But back in reality - in our local sections - where most ESNers are worth one or two points, we enjoy our daily shot of accents, exotic small-talk and numerous head-nods due to a lack of general understanding.

The third and final scenario can be described as a long-term investment. It can be perceived as the gentleman’s move: the ESNer is truly interested in the erasmus. This case includes more qualitative than quantitative data, and thus deserves more than a quick analysis.

In conclusion, what does a lazy animal do in his local exotica-filled section? Apart from the joys of the national and international events, we have to survive and thrive on the in-house offer. We thus ask ourselves: what can possibly prevent us from enjoying the company of the Erasmi? They’re charming, smart, motivated, open-minded, and according to our wise elders, not challenging enough.

We set out on a qualitative and quantitative research to confirm or deny this statement. Conclusion: even erasmi aren’t that easy. Why? Many are morally binded to a (better)-half back home. For example, a charming and heavily-accented French lover, jacked Polish-mob member, Scandinavian Viking-godess and the Swiss boy who holds the keys to your savings. In the face of this competiton and due to our attempts we have seen three different scenarios.

The first case is the one of true love. Faced with this kind of scenario you must abort all atempts and settle for what could become a true friendship with no innuendo. Translation for ESNers: brossmus.

The second scenario is the one known as teasing but blocking.

The authors would like to share some best practices gained during this research and given to be implemented. There are a couple of factors that can help you succeed in your own study. External factors include reaction-inducing liquids, sounds that tickle your exchange-spirit, a charming spot without fellow erasmi calling you back to reality and most importantly, no emergency exits. But your way to success has to be brought forward by rhetorical skills: the importance of enjoying the local sights (« you have to fully enjoy your stay here, Johnny »), personal fulfillment (« Jessica, let your passions run ») and of course, never, ever, avoid talking about its better-half (« but, Isabella, isn’t he at a frat-party right now? »). Don’t shrink away faced with his/her existence.

Our elders exhort us to think global, act global; we prefer to act local. Our research has shown us that being part of ESN is a way to develop our skills and our contacts, discover new flavours and customs but admittingly it is especially a way to exchange our passions. As our shining light Desiderius Erasmus said: « Great eagerness in the pursuit of pleasure cannot exist without sin »! So, dear ESNers, don’t be afraid, and remember: with great erasmi comes great responsibility.

DISCOVER ESN: SEA BATTLE

by: Emre Emirlioglu

The famous ESN event Sea Battle has taken place again. It was a great trip with around 2000 students from Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Norway.

Sea Battle is a cruise that goes between Stockholm and Tallinn and the aim of the trip is to provide the international students from the participating countries a fun event which they will remember forever. During the trip the students can for example take part in free salsa lessons, watch dance shows, sing karaoke or participate in the treasure hunt competing to win a fabulous prize. The students also have the opportunity to get guided tours of the beautiful cities Stockholm and Tallinn.

The next trip will take place in November and to get further information about the trip and how to participate, go to the website http://seabattle.esnsweden.org or send an e-mail to the Sea Battle coordinator Joakim Särehag at seabattle@esn.org.

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PROJECTS TRANSLATION & PARTNERS

INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF FORESTRY STEP ESN Pavia è unàassociazione di medie dimensioni con i suoi 300 studenti internazionali e 12 super motivati membri attivi!

Le nostre attività non si fermano mai e ogni volta proviamo ad organizzare qualcosa di più della solita serata in un club: qualcosa di cui i nostri studenti si ricorderanno per sempre.

Dopo aver adottato un animale come mascotte della sezione (le tipiche zanzare di pianura di cui non possiamo fare a meno!= e avendo seguito l’esempio di altre sezioni all’estero, abbiamo deciso che il 2011 sarebbe stato il nostro anno all’insegna del “go green” lasciando un segno indelebile nella nostra città: un evento che porterà alla nascita della prima foresta ESN italiana!

Grazie al supporto dell’Università, del Comune, di CREA e ERSAF (agenzie locali a supporto dell’ambiente), per dare il benvenuto agli studenti Erasmus del prossimo anno presenteremo il progetto “AMBIENTATI”.

Inizieremo a scavare e piantare attorno a Pavia un numero di alberi pari alle nazioni dell’Unione Europea. Ci sarà un’ambientalista che darà agli studenti informazioni e rivelerà ogni tipo

di curiosità sulla flora locale e l’importanza di fare la differenza quando si tratta del nostro pianeta.

Al tutto seguirà un enorme pic-nic con giochi e musica.

“Grazie a questo progetto vincono tutti”, riferisce l’OC, “i nostri studenti Erasmus avranno un tangibile e positivo ricordo della loro vita a Pavia, ricorderanno sempre questo giorno e cosa hanno imparato, passando le informazioni ad altri. Potremo migliorare l’ambiente della nostra città dando il nostro piccolo contributo ad una mobilità “più verde” nell’Anno Internazionale della Silvicoltura (International Year of Forestry).

Questo è solo l’inizio delle iniziative ecologiche di ESN Pavia, d’ora in poi ci impegneremo sempre per l’ambiente!

Se vuoi partecipare all’evento o se hai bisogno di informazioni su come organizzarne uno simile nella tua sezione non esitare a contattarci a pavia@esn.it Fai la differenza... in stile ESN : )

ITALIAN

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PROJECTS TRANSLATION & PARTNERS

ESN PAVIA GOES GREEN! by: Laura Bovolenta

STEP ESN Pavia is a medium-sized section with its 300 international students and 12 strongly motivated volunteers! Our activities are never stopping and each time we try to bring something more than the usual night in a club, something our students will always remember.

After adopting an animal as section mascot (the typical plains’ Mosquito you just can’t live without!) and following the example of other ESN sections abroad, we decided that 2011 was going to be our year to go green and leave an indelible mark in our town organizing the first Italian ESN Forest event! Thanks to the support of the University, the Town Hall, Crea and Ersaf (local agencies supporting environment), to welcome next year’s Erasmus we will present the project “AMBIENTATI”(playin’ with the word “environment” and the verb“to settle” in Italian): we’ll start digging and planting in Pavia’s landscape, as many trees as to represent all European Countries. We’ll have an environmentalist explaining to students all

kinds of curiosities on the local flora and the importance to make a difference in the world minding our planet, all followed by a big pic-nic with games and music.

– This project is a win-win – say the OC – our Erasmus will have a tangible, positive, sign of their life in Pavia, they’ll always remember this day and what they’ve learnt and they’ll pass it on to others; we’ll be able to improve the environment of our town and give our small contribution for a greener mobility in the International Year of Forestry teaching our Erasmus what can be done - . This will be just the beginning of ESN Pavia ecological life as from now on we’ll all commit to environment saving rules when organizing activities for our students.

If you want to join us for the event or you’d like information on how to organize a similar one in you section don’t hesitate to contact us at pavia@esn.it . Make a difference, ESN Styleee :)

ENGLISH

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Stars of ESN Awards 2011 AEP-ESN PADOVA STARlight ESN UJ KRAKOW ESN-PARIS ASSAS movieSTAR STARter ESN EPF LAUSANNE ESN CATANIA ASE webSTAR LogoSTAR NETWORK&EVENTS ESN UP OLOMUC COMMITTEE STARproject STARworse ESN HUNGARY STARland

Photos by: Katja Krohn Marco La Rosa ESN Lithuania Matias Loyola

DO YOU WANT YOUR PHOTO HERE? Then send your photos to:

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photo@esn.org

QUIZ

QUIZ

Fill the vertical lines (beginning with the first letter from the top and going to the bottom) with the replies from the questions 1 to 11. The horizontal marked line will give you the answer to the question

6

What is the name of the sixth ESN International Committee?

1 7

8 9

2 4

11 5

3

10

If you solved the puzzle, please send it to us, the first answer we receive will get a price!

Send it to: Erasmus Student Network Rue Hydraulique 15 B-1210, Brussels Belgium

1. From which country the ESN Associate Member ISN Tunduk from?

2. What is the name of the manual approved at the AGM that will help sections understand the use of the ESN logo?

3. What is the name of the ESN project that investigates the obstacles faced by students whilst on Erasmus regarding their studies?

4. ESN the Netherlands celebrates which national holiday with an event in April?

5. Which city will be the host of AGM 2012 6. ESN Baku is the only section in which ESN country?

7. What is the name of the street (the French name) on which the ESN Office is located 8. Which country is a current candidate for full ESN membership status?

9. Where will the CNR September meeting be held?

10. Which ESN section won the LogoStar award at the AGM? 11. Josefin Svensson the new Communication Manager of ESN International comes from which country?

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g r o . n s e . w w w

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.