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Versatile interests, common expectations, room for discussions: On Sunday we start the seminar season 2013

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The clock is ticking: On Sunday our first EUSTORY academy 2013 will start in Helsinki

On Sunday, Helsinki will get to welcome 24 young Europeans as its guests for one week. But who are these young people and what do they expect from their stay here? Geographically this group is wide spread, our participants are coming from 11 different European countries, from Southern Spain to Russia, Bulgaria to Sweden. Despite sharing their enthusiasm towards history, the participants are a versatile group when it comes to their interests.

Most of the participants are upper secondary school students, although some have already began their studies at the university or are starting them this autumn. For instance, Karin (18) from Slovakia is beginning her studies on marketing communication and advertising, while Tomasz  from Poland studies Law and Anastasija (19) from Latvia History.

What truly is distinctive about this group of Europeans, however, is the broadness of their free-time activities. Given by the amount of interests the participants name, all of them seem to enjoy an active lifestyle. The 19-year-old Álvaro  from Spain describes his interests in a way which represent well the attitude of many participants: “I love both reading and writing, as well as handcrafts and internet apps. I’m interested in almost all kinds of sports, policy, philosophy and whatever happens on Earth (and even further).” Common fields of interests for the participants are, for example, music, sports, art, literature, languages and – naturally – travelling. Of course these categories include a vast selection of activities. Among the group there are tennis players, climbers, dancers and riders as well as actors, drawers, singers and creative writers. Philosophy also seems to be a passionate subject for quite a few participants – although the opinions on it vary. So plenty to discuss about in Helsinki!

On one matter the participants seem to agree already before meeting each other in person: their expectations for the academy are almost with one accord. “There are two types of things I expect to learn during the week: On the one hand I would like to improve my handling with academic procedures, just like answering a guiding question, analyzing a document or working together in a group and on the other hand I hope to get extensive knowledge about Finnish Civil War and nation building problems”, writes Pia  (18) from Germany and summarizes the expectations of most participants.

In addition to learning new things, all the participants are looking forward to one thing: meeting people who share their passion for history and gaining new friendships. With Eustory, that should be guaranteed. As predicted by Koi (16) from Belgium: This week will become a memory never to be forgotten.” 

976272_10200290491365256_83641744_o-1This summary was prepared by Anna, a EUSTORY alumni from Finland, who has already participated in EUSTORY activities in Switzerland and Germany and who will support us, together with one other Finnish alumni during our academy in Helsinki. The two of them will be resonsible for the blog, so you will get to read more of them soon!