Erasmus in Schools

Erasmus in Schools

On 20 February 2014 three international students (Amadeo, Leenah, and Kathleen) took the opportunity to meet local Slovak students of the Hotel Academy in Košice by attending a SocialErasmus event called Erasmus in Schools. The ESN Košice coordinator for this event was Anna Beňová. Are you not familiar with those terms? Let’s take a look at them…

What is SocialErasmus? 

 SocialErasmus (SE) offers opportunities for international students to get closer to the local community where they can engage in volunteer activities, which aids individual community members or the local community in general. SocialErasmus aims to enrich society through international students. SocialErasmus has three different pillars which the project focuses on: 

•    Charity: Social activities with a charitable purpose. 

•    Environment: Activities that promotes environmental thinking or serves an environmental purpose. 

•    Education: Educational activities that integrate international students with the society. 

Alright, and what is Erasmus in Schools? 

 Erasmus in Schools (EiS) is the main activity within the education pillar of SocialErasmus. The sections organise visits to schools along with international students so they can present their culture en encourage mobility and promote exchange programmes at an early age.

Now that you know exactly what SocialErasmus and Erasmus in Schools are let me tell you about our lovely afternoon at the Hotel Academy in Košice. As mentioned above we had 3 international students from the following countries: Canada, Spain, and the United States of America. Each student had a little speech about their country, culture, lifestyle, etc. The international students spent in total around two hours doing some activities with the local students of Hotel Academy.

These activities included a get-to-know each other game with dices, puzzle of their national flags, and a simple crossword to test their knowledge in the field of literature. The aim of these activities was to break the ice between the students and make them burst into a vivid discussion about their countries, culture, language, and basically anything that they are interested in. I can gladly say that the aim was successfully accomplished. These 2 hours passed really fast and both local and international students had a lot of fun. 

A short feedback by Amadeo from Spain: “For me the experience was nice and I was surprised to find a lot of students interested in Spain. Some of them told me they were going to Granada in the next months.” 

Author: ESN Košice local SocialErasmus coordinator, Anna Beňová

Photos: Anna Beňová