|
|
Project Week in Vienna
|
At Adriatic College Project Week is a student initiated event during which groups of students
organize and carry out projects that involve travelling in and around Europe, working towards goals
that fulfill the UWC ideals, values and principles.
A group of 11 students and one volunteer, set out to Vienna on the 23rd of February, to
establish a long term collaboration and relation with AIESEC, an International Organization
entirely run by students.
Why AIESEC? Between 1946 and 1948, the founding members set up an organization that would
help break down cultural barriers and develop friendly relations between member countries by
organizing student exchanges and internships in foreign countries. The organization works towards
creating a better, more tolerant, sustainable and united world! Today, AIESEC is ‘the international
platform for young people to discover and develop their potential.’
Both AIESEC and United World Colleges are international organizations with similar
mission and goals. Many UWC students join AIESEC at University.
In Vienna, the Adriatic College students from Senegal, Spain, Greece, Indonesia, Hong Kong,
Canada, the Czech Republic, Lebanon, Latvia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sweden got a taste of what
AIESEC does and learnt that each local chapter of the organization is independent and unique.
The Adriatic students were hosted by members of AIESEC and an Atlantic College graduate. The
group participated in workshops, team meetings, a general body meeting, training sessions and
activities at the AIESEC office which is hosted by the University of Economics in Vienna. They also
had a chance to experience the warmth of the Viennese thanks to Franz Gammer who taught mathematics
at the Adriatic college for 9 years, to the members of AIESEC who made themselves available, to
members of the UWC Network in Austria who, despite their busy schedules, spent afternoons and
evenings getting to know our students and the former UWC students employed at the United Nations in
Vienna. The latter had lunch with our group and had the opportunity to go back in time and
re-connected with their ‘student-selves’.
It was an inspirational treat to be in a city with so many motivated members of a community
that still believes in and lives by the UWC ideals; the same ideals that brought them together in
the first place.
On their return, the group set out to establish contact with the local AIESEC office in
Trieste and introduce each United World College to local chapters in their respective countries.
|
|
|
