ERASMUS EXPERIENCES
THE CZECH REPUBLIC ROCKS! by: Barbora Pavlícková The Czech Republic has become a very popular destination for exchange students in last few years. The number of incoming students is increasing very fast and the question is – why? Why is Czech Republic so cool nowadays? To be honest: what is the first thing coming to your mind if you are thinking about Czech Republic? Good beer? Beautiful girls? Ice-hockey? Well, it is stereotype as well as it is true. We really have great beer, lovely women and dream ice hockey team in the Czech Republic. But we are offering much more than just cheap alcohol or a strategic starting point for exploring the whole Europe! We have ten ESN local section with great volunteers who are organising many activities for their foreign colleagues from all over the world. ESN Czech Republic has won three ESN STAR Awards at the last Annual General Meeting in Istanbul. ISC MU Brno has won the most appreciated STARlight Award for the most active ESN section internationally, ISC CTU has won LogoSTAR Award for the best adaptation of corporate identity and ESN Czech Republic has won ESN Alumni Prize for Knowledge Transfer. It is a great success and we proved again that ESN Czech Republic is doing an excellent job in the field of ESN. In addition, ESN Pilsen was chosen as the first Section in the Spotlight and VSE Prague has won the same prize in October. Why are Czech sections so successful at international level of ESN? The answer is very simple: we are participating in many special projects such as Social Erasmus or ExchangeAbility. The SocialErasmus project involves exchange students doing things for the local community and so enriching both them and society. In the Czech Republic, exchange students can enjoy many interesting charity activities in order to get to know our culture or history. For example, international students in Brno can spend some days and nights at a Castle Hartenberg in West Bohemia as a volunteer and help to prepare an interesting cultural event for a local community. They can explore the castle and its surroundings and help to organize an event for children and their parents there. The main aim of the ExchangeAbility project is to make ESN an association accessible for students with disabilities on all the levels of its activities. One of the most successful events was programme consisting of wine tasting led by a professional sommelier and music by traditional folk band. This event was accessible for hearing impaired students - the sommelier’s talk was translated into Czech sign language. It was a great experience for all participating students as well as for organizers from the ESN section. Another Czech section organised a special cultural event accessible for visually and mobility impaired students: concert of Philharmonic followed by an informal meeting of participants in a local pub. 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 the international community. We can summarize: there are many great and enthusiastic ESNers in the Czech Republic – that’s the reason why is the Czech Republic so coooool for international students!
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