As the virus hits all of our sections quite hard, none of the planned activities for the summer semester were possible anymore. In the first call in April 2020 between the Northern sections we came to the conclusion that we all found ourselves in the same situation. . The sudden lack of events was especially critical for the beginning of the semester when the crucial role of ESN is to welcome the international students in their respective cities. The uncertainty of not being able to fulfill this task could only be anticipated by exploring the possibilities of digital activities. This was a whole new experience for almost all of our volunteers in the North and we decided to join forces and help each other during these exceptional times.
Another core idea of the joint activities was that during the first attempts of virtual activities by one section alone, every section faced the same obstacle: There was a clear lack of participation in their events. Seeing that it is very difficult to motivate not only international students to join online events but also volunteers to organise them due to their foreign format, we decided to join forces to create something bigger than one section was capable of at that time. Through sharing each other’s activities and dividing the work amongst the sections we saw the opportunity to gather more participants and volunteers engaging in our activities. For our members we thought it extremely important to see other motivated volunteers willing to organise activities that they also could engage in themselves. By creating collaborative digital platforms we also saw the possibility to share our common ESN spirit, helping our volunteers who might have lost their motivation to recover their engagement
Last but not at all least, there is a strength that affects the whole perception of the Erasmus Student Network within the single sections and also in the minds of international students. Creating a level of collaboration between sections lets them see the connection between different cities and people through the network. Communicating this connection to the local level can have a tremendous impact, not only on the common student’s perception of the ESN as a wide community but also on the working morale of the single volunteers. Raising awareness on the existence and functioning of other sections within the network has always helped local volunteers gain new skills, ideas and inspiration for their own local work. This can also be applied in this case
This cooperation is intended to run regularly and in the long term. Our first joint online event took place on the 14.04. and up until the 21.05.2020 we had four events per week scheduled. In the beginning there was a lot of demand but when it decreased, we responded to the needs of the participants and reduced the planned activities to two events per week between the 25.05. and the 26.06.2020. As the COVID-19 regulations loosened in the summer, the end of our online events eventually came. But we intend to continue this cooperation as long as there are interested volunteers and internationals.
We organized in the beginning a Language Café, a Quiz Night, a Game Night and a “Stammtisch” and reduced it later to the Game and Quiz Night. The idea behind the Language Café is to enable language exchange tandems. Participants could enter our platforms and find a partner to practice a specific language. For the Quiz Night, we established a rotational system and every week one section prepared questions about different topics. In contrast to this, the Game Night was open for different games or quizzes to play and participants formed small groups according to their favour. Finally, the intention of the Stammtisch was to simulate the German tradition of a regulars’ table and to facilitate open discussions in a relaxed atmosphere.
