AEP-ESN Padova

This month’s Section in the Spotlight was founded in 1992 under the name Associazione Erasmus Padova. Two years later they joined ESN and today we know them as AEP ESN Padova. It is a big group of very active ESN’ers, the 11 board members and the 40 active members arranges over 70 activities per semester, so there is never a dull moment in Padova.

Every Tuesday there is a meeting for active members, and usually 30 or more people are present. During the weekly meeting they evaluate past events, plan upcoming activities and discuss the everyday issues that occur. For smaller activities there is appointed a responsible member for every 20 participants. For bigger events an actual OC is chosen. The actual board of AEP ESN Padova usually meets every second month and they mainly deal with more strategic things such as financial partnerships, international projects (fx PRIME) and relations with the institutions.

An office is provided by the university and it is open four days per week, giving the students plenty of opportunities to come by if they need help or have questions.

ESN Storage is a new project started by the section where the leaving students can leave some of their belongings (bikes, pans etc) and the section will store them so the future exchange students can benefit from them.

The local students are offered the possibility of getting and ESN card so they can participate in the many activities and events organized by AEP ESN Padova, and this way become aware of the work done by the section and hopefully the local students will be interested in become involved in the international student society.

The section divides their many activities into four different categories: Cultural activities includes salsa lessons, photography and theater courses. Educational visits to museums, galleries, day-trips to art cities like Veronia and Venice, and excursions to a local brewery. Sport activities including bowling, football tournaments and one-day ski trips and of course fun with tandem nights, bar crawls, pub golfing and national parties where the ERASMUS students cooks food from their home countries. Every year AEP ESN Padova also organizes a 3 day trip to Slovenia.

The main event of the section is the Boat Cruise and Party in Venice Lagoon; a 15-hour trip where 250 ERASMUS students participates in an incredible mix of knowledge, culture and fun.

For the local students who are going abroad, AEP ESN Padova organizes an Erasmus Day before departure along with a Welcome Back Day upon their return to Padova.

However, not all the activities are for Erasmus students, because the section also organizes a Christmas dinner and an “Attivi dinner” just for ESNers to spend a little more time together. They also try to organize workshops with a focus on team building.

The section is not only very active on a local level, they are also very involved nationally and internationally, and among their members four of them have been involved in the international board within the last five years. The section also has active members in both national and international committees.

AEP ESN Padova is also involved in national and international events and they help the other Italian sections with accommodation when they organize trips to the Venice Carneval.

They are also an European Voluntary Service (EVS) hosting association and together with their partner sections ESN Maribor and ESN Nancy  they are planning to have an exchange of ESNers for a 6 month period through EVS. There really never is a dull moment in Padova.