Every year Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is having a lot of meetings where members of this network are coming together to discuss on current matters, share their best practices and make decisions in order to run our Network better. One of this type of meetings is Central European Platform (CEP )in which the delegates from 8 countries from the regions are representing their sections and countries.

 

This year from 27th to 30th of October Lithuanian delegation led by ESN Lithuania National Representative Inesa Cvetkova and ESN Lithuania Projects and Events Manager Indre Engelkyte represented Lithuania in CEP 2016 Pecs, Hungary. The delegation consisted of 18 members from the sections of different higher education institutions of Lithuania.

 

A lot of topics related with the events, projects, problems or new ideas and the network itself were discussed during this annual meeting. Participants had a chance to attend different workshops and small sessions related to their positions in the network or according to participants’ interests. During Meet Your Colleagues session everyone had a chance to meet people from different sections that are having same positions, for example meeting with Presidents and LRs, or Vice Presidents, or Events Coordinators etc. and to see how other colleagues are dealing with struggles or sharing experience.

 

During Regional Platform in Pecs sections voted for the ESN Showcase project in which the sections are showing their best practices. This year’s winner of this project among Central European sections was ESN CULS Prague with their best practice "My Section" - an IT tool for pairing international and local students.

 

Another very important matter for Lithuania during this platform was ESN Lithuania’s candidacy for CEP 2017. After an intense voting ESN Lithuania was elected to host CEP 2017 in Vilnius with the votes of 117 out of 120.

 

CEP Pecs 2016 was an interesting event for the delegation. We have made a lot of new friends from different sections, and also we got a chance to get to know each other and ESN Lithuania network better.

 

Written by Dovilė Zujevaitė

 

Central European Platform is a unique chance for close friends to meet. Definitely closer by distance, frequently by ways of working and attitude towards daily ESN matters. Those are reasons why CEP is the best time to exchange best practices and start partnerships with sections you share similar ESN vision with. President of the oldest section of ESN Lithuania Darija Kupstaitė only proves that by telling that “ESN VU seized the chance and found friends for section. It is ESN-EYE Lodz whom with we are already working on common future plans”. National delegate Tomas Tamulevičius adds that these are not all the news concerning partnerships between sections and much more information about Section Buddies program is soon to be presented during the next meeting of NB.

While participants were not working on partnerships they were invited to listen to presentations of the latest news and changes of the network. Coming upgrade of ESN Galaxy was presented by IT Committee Chair with the special attention to distribution of roles and coming personalization of the system. President of ESN International introduced sections with the upcoming STORY, which will aim at quality of learning mobility, placements and internships and is planned to be one of the biggest research projects conducted by volunteers. Moreover the importance of ExchangAbility was stressed out as for the project which has recently receiver grant from European Commission for the realization of MapAbility. From presentations of international projects to discussions about image of the sections in the public sphere and sharing experiences realized among all CEP countries. Delegates of ESN Lithuania were really excited to hear success stories of all 8 countries of the region. All like one proves that it gave a lot of ideas for what can be done within they sections and what only need to do is to wait a bit for those ideas being realized in practice! 

Every single ESN event would not be as unforgettable as they are without the evening part. At the first night CEP Košice has invited participants to the Slovak Night, where everyone could enjoy national traditional dances. Second evening has gathered 8 different cultures and their cuisines under one roof in the Kulturpark, where no one could simply miss yellow green red army all over the place! The last evening gave an exclusive opportunity to dress up and show the best you have since participants were invited to the Gala dinner. Boys in suits and girls in dresses is the time to prove that ESN can have many different faces: from colorful youth to solid representatives.

Event which has started on 10th and was closed on 13th of October – only 3 days, but which means a lot for our 11 representatives of ESN Lithuania. “It was a fruitful meeting, which gave a lot for me personally and lots of useful information for the sections as well. Starting from Eduk8 trainings for skills development for better management or taking under control some issues, to future plans among friends from different parts of Europe” they claim. So it was: useful, motivating, encouraging to seek for more.

So can you feel the vibe of central Europe?
 
 

New season of ESN Lithuania has started since the 1st of October then the new Board has started their cadency. Not long after, first changes became visible then this website was moved to a new server. Since then everybody could notice not only new design of esnlithuania.org, but also rising visibility of our 10 sections, because of their new websites, which were created for every single section of ESN Lithuania. You can find them here.

Changes weren’t about to end here. Along with the old facebook group for common issues as flat renting or simply experience exchange, new page was created for posting news under official ESN Lithuania’s name. Same was done with Twitter and YouTube. The latter one still feels lack of your attention, so create or recheck your archives and send video files [email protected] that information about your activity would be spread all around the world!

During 3 months not only technical issues were solved, but also many international events have happened. And gladly not without participation of members of ESN Lithuania. Starting with CEP ending with Winter’s National Platform. More information is given below.

CEP Krakow 2011

3rd-6th of November
Organized by: ESN Krakow United
Participants: Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary.
Coordinator Team: Italia, Lithuania, Slovenia.

ESN Lithuania delegates:

  • Toma Rimkevičiūtė (ESN ŠU);
  • Ieva Balinskaitė (ESN MRU Vilnius);
  • Kristina Gruodytė (ESN VGTU);
  • Eglė Skulskytė (ESN Vilnius University);
  • Kristina Butkutė (ESN VMU);
  • Justina Kraulėdaitė (ESN KTU);
  • Kristina Kaziukėnaitė (ESN ISLB);
  • Orinta Movsesjan (ESN VMU).

NBM Dublin 2011

11-13 of November 

Organized by: ESN Ireland, Supported by the Higher Education Authority – An tÚdarás um Ard-Oideachas: Irish National Agency for LLP: Erasmus.

ESN Lithuania delegates:

  • Gintarė Vaiginytė (ESN Lithuania President);
  • Sandra Baltkojytė (ESN Lithuania PR Officer).

Only for ESN Lithuania Kenny Ho (NBM Dublin Head OC): 
 
At first I was wondering why on earth did I apply for an international event? Their were high expectations from my NA and from the delegates which created my insomnia! However it was worth all the stress and I realise the best reward that I and the OC received was the memories we gave to the all the delegates.

The social night events we organised, the city, the university and the Irish people themselves all left an everlasting impression that will last forever and it can never be taken away from them. The OC and myself cannot hide our delight on how well the event went and more importantly we're very proud to be Irish, our friendly attitude, the love of a drink and our hospitality and just as proud to be European. It was a amazing and incredible experience to host ESNers from all over Europe, one that gave me priceless memories and new friends!


 
PRIME Final Conference in Brussels

13-15 of November

Sea Battle Autumn 2011

14-17th of November
 

Exchange Days Druskininkai 2011

26-27th of November

Organized by: ESN Lithuania, Student Travellers

CND Siena 2011

1st-2nd of December

ESN Lithuania delegates:

  • Ieva Vezbergaitė (ESN Lithuania NR);
  • Giedrė Gelšvartaitė (ESN KTU, ND);
  • Aušra Balčiunaitytė (ESN KTU, Vice-ND);
  • Cihan Keskin (ESNLithuania IT Coordinator).

ESN Lithuania National Platform

10-11th of December
 
Winter's National Platform organized by ESN ISLB invited various members of ESN Lithuania to discuss about the latest issues, possibilities and what has been done during the recent years. Also a desicion has been made that next time NP will be hosted by ESN ŠU. See you soon! 
 

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That's how second half of 2011 looks like in words and pictures. New Years has came with new plans and new challenges. With your initiative, positive mood and cooperation we will make them real. See you all soon.

 

For the Central European Platform, approximately 100 representatives of ESN sections from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Croatia are expected to gather in Cracow for a truly  memorable event! 
Can you think of a better way to spend quality time than while meeting a group of about 100 ESN members in a Magical City?

Official website:  cep.esn.pl

Facebook page

Attention! CEP event is dedicated for local ESN level - for ESN sections and their members.
Every ESN Lithuania section member has right to participate in the event, however the places are limited. Each ESN section from Lithuania have 1 seat guaranteed. However, more than 1 member from a section can registered, provided that there will be free places left. In any case, you should inform your section president about your intent to participate in CEP.
 
From this year registrations to all ESN international events will be done through centralized system with Galaxy account.
 
In order to register for CEP (or any other event) you should register to Galaxy and hold your account. 
 
Registration to CEP:
 
If you already hold  Galaxy account:
a) Go to http://rp.esn.org/content/cep-registration
b) Press Login and enter your Galaxy account username and password
c) Fill in registration form
d) Wait for approval by CEP organizators
 
 
If you do no hold  Galaxy account:
1) Go to https://galaxy.esn.org/
2) Press register (up-right corner) and fil in the form
3)  Inform your section president ASAP, so s/he could approve your account (by assigning you a role, e.g. local active member)
4) After your section president approves your account in Galaxy, please follow steps a) b) c) d) as described above.