Europa Nostra presents the Culture Award of the 2021 Erasmus Student Network Awards to ESN Timișoara, Romania
On 5 May, Europa Nostra took part in the 2021 Erasmus Student Network (ESN) Awards Ceremony, which was held online. As the jury member in charge of the Culture category, Europa Nostra’s Secretary General Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic was pleased to present this year’s ESN Culture Award for the most impactful initiative fostering intercultural competence and understanding to ESN Timișoara, Romania, for their initiative ‘Present Your Country: Home Edition’.
Our Secretary General, @SneskaEN is proud to present the #ESNAwards ‘Culture Category’ winner. Each submission was highly impressive in its ability to turn current challenges into opportunities for students, helping them remain close while physically apart. pic.twitter.com/9qnbTEIMSF
— Europa Nostra (@europanostra) May 5, 2021
During the presentation of the Culture Award, Europa Nostra’s Secretary General expressed her gratitude to ESN for the invitation to become a Jury Member, which gave her the opportunity to get acquainted with diverse student-led initiatives taking place throughout Europe. Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic underlined the high quality of all 33 unique submissions, each illustrating the ways through which current challenges were turned into opportunities for local and international students to remain close while physically apart.
Understanding the difficulties students face in moving abroad and benefiting from the Erasmus experience in these challenging times, Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic emphasised that the winning project managed to swiftly embrace the digital transition by converting all of their activities into an online format. With this, they reached a vast number of local and international students who promoted intercultural dialogue through the weekly immersion in the culture and heritage of a different country. The activities successfully fostered a culturally diverse and inclusive environment, including quizzes which were an inventive way to measure the outcomes and knowledge gained, proving the positive impact on the communities involved.
Congratulations to @esntimisoara, winners of the #ESNawards Culture Category🏆
Adapting digitally, activities promoted intercultural dialogue by immersing students in culture to show “how diverse we are & how this diversity brings us together to create the European community” pic.twitter.com/9XdWBPo9Pd
— Europa Nostra (@europanostra) May 5, 2021
The equally worthy second and third place awardees in the Culture category were also celebrated: ‘Gatronomix’ from ESN Toulouse, France, and ‘World Conversation’ from ESN Évora, Portugal, respectively. Additionally, two honorable mentions were granted to ‘Home (not) Alone’ from ESN UJ KrakowCracow, Poland, and ‘Cultural Cafe’ by ESN Fribourg, Switzerland.
Moderated by Michal Hubáček, Chair of the ESN Committee on the Awards, the ceremony celebrated the top awardees in each of the 14 categories which, in addition to the Culture category, included: Mobility, Employability, Environmental Sustainability, Health and Wellbeing, Social Inclusion, Education, Visibility, Cooperation Awards, Fundraising, HR, IT, Training and Network Awards.
Each year, Erasmus Student Network (ESN) recognises and celebrates the fantastic work that its member organisations undertake in the span of a year, through the ESN Awards. Both local and national sections submit their varied initiatives, activities, events, projects, programmes and campaigns across 14 different categories. The chosen applications are awarded a certificate signed by the President of ESN International which can be used for advocacy purposes towards the universities or other stakeholders and/or as a motivation booster for reaching out to volunteers.
ESN is one of the largest student associations in Europe and brings together a vast network of over 40,000 young people. ESN operates at the local, national and international level, working in the interest of international students through the support and development of student exchange. Europa Nostra and ESN are currently developing the pilot project ‘ESN Meets EN’, which aims at linking young members of each organisation and empowering them to make cultural heritage a greater part of the Erasmus experience. Europa Nostra looks forward to establishing its partnership with ESN further and to a future of ongoing collaboration.
Read more information about all the 2021 Winners of the The Best of the Erasmus Generation.
