31/12/2023
Italy
participants
These two projects are part of ESN strategy to support outgoing students, so, as all the initiatives that ESN Italy carries out on the matter, the main goal is to make their upcoming experience abroad more conscious and easier. In particular, the aim of the contest (Il Tuo Erasmus Con ESN) is to actively support the outgoing students while introducing them to the Erasmus Generation. It is a healthy competition that involves international topics. It is the first of the many challenges that students will face during their Erasmus journey, but it gives away really useful prizes; it is the starting point in their process of broadening their minds and starting to create a borderless view of the world.
As already mentioned above, the further objective of the contest is to disseminate the opportunities offered by ESN and consequently increase the strength of the Brand, its visibility and its capillarity in terms of knowledge and interest. It is enough to look at the figures reported in the rest of the application to be immediately aware of the rating of dissemination that the contest has and of the following that it generates.
AskErasmus aims at supporting students as much as possible in the most delicate moment of their mobility period. Working alongside a volunteer allows the student to get in tune with the other and create a friendly relationship compared to the one that could be created with another figure.
Both projects fully embrace the core value of ESN: students helping students.
Furthermore, both are great ways to strengthen the relationship with the University's International Relations Office and help them support outgoing students.
As ESN Italy we believe mobility should be made easier for everyone. Therefore, we constantly work on initiatives that support outgoing students preparing for their experience abroad. The support programme includes many Local and National initiatives and is crowned by two main National projects: Il Tuo Erasmus con ESN (Your Erasmus with ESN) and AskErasmus.
The first one, a contest started in 2012, gives away 3 financial contributions to future outgoing students to make their mobility more accessible. Participants have 3 hours to write an essay on a given topic to win a financial contribution of €1.000 to spend during their mobility. During the contest participants get to know our Association and AskErasmus through a presentation while reflecting about different aspects concerning the European Union, the Erasmus+ programme, the ‘Erasmus generation’ and many more ‘secondary’ topics.
The last edition of the contest took place in 48 different Universities nationwide, but in order to make it as accessible as possible:
- - it was open to all prospective outgoing students enrolled at one of the Italian Universities in possession of the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education;
- - participants could choose to take the test in a different university/city other than their own;
- - essays could be written either in Italian or English;
- - essays could be handwritten or written using a word processor on a mobile device;
- - participants with disabilities or SLDs could also join and be granted dispensatory and compensatory measures.
For this edition which took place on July 3rd, 2023, 1.945 future outgoing subscribed to participate and 708 essays were submitted and subsequently evaluated by three different committees:
- - a First Level Committee at the local level including members of the Local Sections adhering to the contest;
- - a Second Level Committee at the national level including volunteers and Alumni chosen by the National Board;
- - an external Third Level Committee including personalities from the world of institutions and culture. Maria Cristina Pisani (President of National Youth Council), Carlo Bitetto (GaragErasmus CEO), Michela Bucci (Representative of Erasmus+ National Agency) and Matteo Gori (GFE General Secretary) were Commissioners in this edition.
The contest also helps strengthen the collaboration between ESN Sections and Universities and between ESN Italy and National Institutions. For example, the Erasmus+ National Agency sent an email to all Italian Universities to make them aware of our contest and to support us and promote the initiative.
On the other hand, AskErasmus is a project started in 2015 which allows outgoing students attending Italian Universities to get in touch with an ESN volunteer who has already had their mobility experience in the same Country to ask for advice, suggestions and tips. The platform used to carry out the project is Papaya, developed by ESN Modena. It works as follows: both outgoing and ex-outgoing students fill in a form and wait for their match, which is communicated by email. At this point the volunteer gets in touch with the outgoing student who is supported throughout the Erasmus in this way, especially in the pre-departure period.
