April: ESN Odense, Denmark

 The Section in the Spotlight of April is located in the Northern part of Europe, in Denmark. ESN Odense is one of the three sections in Denmark and all of them are working very well together. The local board of Odense has 7 people including an international student from the UK at the moment and together they organize trips, events, international cafés and more. In the past they had board members from Greece, Rumania, Slovenia, Brazil and Portugal in the local board, to make sure that international student’s needs are met as it is always good to hear it from someone who is experiencing everything at the same time as well.

The international students not only experience the Danish lifestyle with the ESNers, but they also get the chance to see more of the beautiful country, like Copenhagen, Aalborg and also through trips to Legoland and Møns Klint (the White Cliffs of Denmark). But they do not only discover Denmark together, but also organize trips to other cities and countries, like Berlin in Germany or go to a cottage altogether. They also organize quiz nights and everyone can show their national colors during the “Bring your Flag”-Night. Unfortunately during the last semesters the international evenings did not really work out as planned, as the international students were not really interested to organize one themselves. Nevertheless ESN Odense found a new activity for this semester as they are participating in the ESN Seabattle for the first time. The section is also taking part in the international corporate identity by using the ESN Card for each event they organize.

A Buddy System is also organized by the section and the university together and they even have a paid coordinator for this one. They do not only match the international students with Danish local students, but also with other international students, who are already there, to make sure, that most of the international students get a buddy. The buddies are all introduced to their tasks in the beginning of the semester with a nice pizza dinner and later in the year a big bowling night is organized to let them socialize with each other. Of course it is also a great opportunity to gain new members for the section, as for example all board members started out as buddies once.

ESN Odense is closely working together with the other Danish sections and all of them take turns in organizing the NP. The new NR of Denmark is a section member of Odense and she is willing to introduce the section to the international level and wants her home section to get more involved. The section will also work on having a National Board in Denmark for the first time in their ESN history, of course always in cooperation with the other Danish sections.