1. Welcome

Dear ESNCard holders & Dear ESNFriends,

ESN is happy to inform you on many developments that have been going on in the last months:

First of all, it has been a while since the last newsletter was sent; this was mainly due to the development of a new “jacket” for the newsletter in the corporate design. We hope you find it as we do: it looks young, fresh and very readable.

We are also on the eve of a breakthrough of addressing more and more countries to join the network, as we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Erasmus programme in 2007. So, look out for celebrations throughout Europe in the following months.

And what about the ESNCard? It still gives you the 15% discount on all the flights of SkyEurope and much more.

Enjoy reading the new and improved newsletter!

Yours,
Davide, Ewa, Tomaso, Corinne and Jakob

Contact: secretariat@esn.org
ESN c\o CRUI - CNR
Rue du Trone, 98
B-1050 Brussels
BELGIUM
Tel.: +32 (0) 2 2902 271
Fax.: +32 (0) 2 2902 280
Mob.: +32 (0) 485 924 512

For any questions regarding your subscription or to unsubscribe please contact the network administrator at na@esn.org.

 

2. ESNLive: ESN is on the breach of reaching further than the EU and EEA, Turkey and Morocco

Not only have we reached and passed 220 sections, but now there are 29 countries: basically the whole European Union but Luxembourg is represented, plus Switzerland, Norway, Romania, Turkey and Morocco. Further, students from new countries and newborn organisations are interested in ESN and asked if it is possible to join, and in other cases the Country Development working group and the board have contacted International Relations Offices and Institutions in order to start up a section where we are not present yet.

Currently there are email exchanges going on between ESN International and Serbia, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. There's some activity and dialogue with Luxembourg, Bulgaria and Iceland. And if you want to start wondering where the border of ESN may be, we were contacted by students from Armenia, Egypt and Israel who are enthusiastic about our organisation and are really interested in joining. It's a challenge for the future to maintain such a big network in good shape and health, providing help and support to the new sections; the first step is to consolidate the present situation, and in this everyone can give their contribution.

An overlook of all the present sections can be viewed on:
http://www.esn.org/esn_international/section.php

3. Topic of the month: 20 Anniversary of Erasmus - Erasmus Student Network Celebrations

In the year 2007 Erasmus Programme will celebrate the 20 Anniversary. This programme led Europe into its new stage: the age of mobile society with students improving their skills during studies at universities abroad, culturally competent and tolerant and its future workers being willing to support the development
abroad.

Also the birth of ESN is linked to the idea of Erasmus. The idea to create a network that will assist students when abroad was in fact born during the first Erasmus evaluation meeting. The first generation of Erasmus felt need to support future Erasmus students and therefore created a network of organisations to
put in practice the motto of students helping students. From the group of 32 students, ESN grew to become the widest network engaged in fostering student mobility with 10,000 active volunteers in 29 countries.
By celebration of the 20 Anniversary ESN wants to show the importance of the academic mobility to all the European citizens and demonstrate how by the meeting of other cultures we can create a better Europe for the future.

What are the main aims:

  1. To promote Erasmus and exchange to local students and to encourage more students to go abroad and to promote ESN
  2. To make the European citizens understand the importance of mobility and of Erasmus scheme
  3. To gather comments on Erasmus Programme from exchange students in order to design better exchanges in the future and to pass the comments to the stakeholders.

The celebrations will exist out of three parts:

  1. The opening conference in the European institutions in Brussels on January 18 2007
    This conference, organised by ESN, will focus both on the history and evolution of the programme, and will look forward into the years to come, as the Erasmus programme will be under the wings of the “Life-long learning programme”. Already European commissioner Jan Figel’ and vice-president of the European Commission Margot Wallström have confirmed as speakers
  2. “Erasmus Days” – or how to promote student exchange in your local community
    All over Europe, local ESN sections will organise activities to promote the Erasmus programme. Also, a van of ESN will tour through Europe, making stops at many different locations. These series of events will start right after the opening conference.
  3. A conference organised by the European Commission in Lisbon, October 2007
    In contrast to the first one, this conference will be organised by the European Commission itself in order to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Erasmus. However, ESN is invited to participate actively in this event by showing the results gathered on the van tour.

And there is more…

Soon updated information and a website on the celebrations will be ready on www.esn.org. For more information you can write to Ewa Krzaklewska, vice-president of ESN AISBL at vicepresident@esn.org

4. Our partners introduce:

Swisscare: it means no worries on your stay abroad

Many students feel left out in the cold when insurance companies refuse to pay the high medical honoraria or only reimburse an insignificant part while being abroad. Besides, people start to think about getting a specific insurance policy when harm is already done: liability for accidents (traffic, fire, sports), theft or legal expenses. Most of these items require separate policies that altogether won’t leave students the amount to enjoy themselves abroad.

This is why Swisscare came up with a special policy that fits mobile students perfectly in all their needs:

Why does it meet your needs?

Swisscare allows you to take this policy 10 minutes before you leave! For 38€ a month you can just go to http://www.swisscare.ch where you can register and pay with credit card for the exact time you would like to stay. For more information on the policies please go to http://www.swisscare.ch/esi_cop.html

Enjoy your SkyEurope discount wherever you are!

Hello friends from all over Europe and beyond,

ESN and SkyEurope Airlines have started a partnership, that benefits
ESNMembers and ESNCardholders!

ESNCard holders enjoy a 15% discount on all SkyEurope flights.
For enjoying the discount* you must at first subscribe in the new
ESNCommunity at http://www.esn.org/community/

After you submit your ESNCard number and code, you can click on the link for the discount and book your flights online!

The discount is valid all year long and involves the flight fare only (and not taxes and surcharges). ESNCards from the last year edition are valid as well.

5. Get Involved: Economix Workshop edition 2006: play your own manager and lead your “company” to victory!

The pace of change in the industry is rapid and great expectations are set for new technologies. Overall trend globally is towards increased mobility and growth potential is great. However, development can vary heavily from one market to another. For a mobile handset manufacturer the biggest challenge may be keeping up with technological evolution since R&D requires continuous large investments. Phones are no longer devices for talking; visual and entertainment features mean more to users than ever before. The growth in the global markets will probably create momentum for establishing more production facilities, at least in Asia.

Università Commerciale Bocconi has launched a world-wide online competition which will involve 1000 players comprised of university students who are enrolled in the second-to-last or last years of an undergraduate degree program at universities

It will take place from October 12, 2006 to November 2, 2006 (11:59 p.m., Italian time).
The licences available for the game are 1000. The registration will remain opened until all licences are assigned, and will close on 2nd November in any case.

How to Play
The game is about managing a virtual company, a task which involves making decisions, planning strategically and analysing the achieved results. The assignment of a responsibility lasts 4 virtual years, corresponding to 4 rounds of the game. Each round has a deadline for management activities, and is estimated to last about 2 hours.

Classification
Students are put into groups of up to 7 participants. A group represents a marketplace where up to 7 companies (i.e. participants) compete against each other. The criterion used for the ranking of the students is the discrepancy of the “Total Cumulated Shareholder Return” from the average of the group. In the game the top 120 students in the ranking will classify! In other words, in order to classify among the 120 selected “managers” you should concentrate not only on beating your competitors but outperform them.

Registration Procedure
Students who are interested in participating in the game must fill out the registration form which will be available at www.unibocconi.it/economix until November 2, 2006.
There is no cost to participate in the game except for any related telephone expenses for connecting to the internet, as established by personal telephone rates.

And that’s not all…
First ranking team members and the best second ranking teams, (120 people maximum), will be invited by Università Bocconi to a five-day international event of lectures, team building, company visits and first-hand accounts from top-level business people.

The event will take place in Milan from Monday 19 to Friday, 23 February 2007.

Activities will be divided into four tracks by sector:

The general classification will be posted at www.unibocconi.it/economix
The 120 students who at the end of the game have gained the right to participate in the Economix Workshop Event will receive an invitation from the event secretary. They must confirm their participation by e-mail to economixworkshop@unibocconi.it specifying the sector track they are interested in.

Students invited to participate must also send certification of university enrolment and a copy of their IDs. These must by sent by mail, e-mail or courier by and no later than 19.12.2006. Failure to provide these documents automatically excludes students from the event.

Students invited to participate will be grouped into the 3 tracks according to their preferences and the order the above-mentioned documentation is received (according to the postmark date).

Università Bocconi will offer room and board to the 120 students invited to participate, as well as any costs related to cultural activities organized by the program. Travel costs are not included and will remain the sole responsibility of participants.

6. What’s going on in Europe besides ESN?

International Poetry Prize Castello Di Duino 2007

greet the POETS of the WORLD as ambassadors of Solidarity and Beauty

For the third time the International Poetry Prize "Castello di Duino" is organized under the patronage of the Prince Carlo Alessandro della Torre e Tasso.
Last year 800 people participated from 70 countries all around the world.
This year’s theme is:

Frontiers
...that divide, that join, real or metaphoric frontiers ....

So, how can you participate?

Poems must arrive before : 2007 January 31

How to send in you poem?

Please, download the complete Application Form at:
www.esn-belgium.be/applicationform.doc and please attach the poem in word or rtf.

As far as the deadline is concerned, we will take into consideration the postmark, but no poem will be taken into consideration, which arrives after the jury has started its evaluation process (soon after the deadline).

Awards: