September: ESN ESA Cyprus

This month’s Section in the Spotlight is located on the sunny island of Cyprus. ESN ESA Cyprus has a very unique member structure, as their team is made up by almost entirely current Erasmus students on Cyprus. This means that the section has to re-establish itself almost every semester, making it a real challenge for the team which also consists of the strong duo of the President/NR and Vice-President/Vice-NR who have been developing the section from the very beginning.

The team currently consists of 17 members, 5 of them are board members and the remaining members are university coordinators, they work as contact persons between the universities, the Erasmus students and the section. Local Cypriot students are also involved in the section work, as ESN ESA Cyprus has a well established partnership with a local international students club (European Club EUC), and they often co-organize big events together.

ESN ESA Cyprus is an active section, and during the academic year 2010/2011 over 60 activities was arranged for the international students at Cyprus. Monday evenings are dedicated to a weekly radio show about cooking, each broadcast is related to a different country of Europe with an Erasmus student as guest.  It is one hour full of typical food, drinks and typical music. The section organizes and overnight trip almost every month, and in the past the Erasmus students on Cyprus have been able to visit Egypt and Jordan as well. There are also lots of local events being organized such as karaoke challenge, sports days, a paint-ball tournament or a trip to a waterpark. For almost every overnight trip the Super Juyice Committee ensures that there is enough SuperJuyice for all the participants.

Throughout the semester the President, with the help of other board members, organizes special workshops with various topics such as ”What is ESN”, ”Teambuilding and leadership” and ”Public Speaking”, to keep their members motivated and help gain knowledge of ESN. Several former ESN ESA Cyprus members have continued working actively with ESN upon returning to their home countries.

The section also have people involved in international committees and although there yet hasn’t been an international event at Cyprus the section is willing to host one, so perhaps there will be one in the future.