ESN-EYE is a self-governing organization that has been operating at Lodz University of Technology for over 20 years, and for the past two years, it has been defending the title of the best section in the country. It focuses on international activities, primarily cooperating with students coming to Poland from the Erasmus+ program. ESN Spirit - Ewelina Pilatowicz, a board member for projects, talks about the skills that can be developed and what can be gained through this.
When did you start working at ESN-EYE?
I've been working for a year. At the very beginning, I took the position of local education officer, which made me the person responsible for promoting mobility at our university - an Erasmus specialist. Students usually find it more convenient to contact another student on Facebook or even send them an email than to send official emails to the office to get answers to basic questions.
What does your organization do?
Of course, we focus most on showing foreign students how to live in Poland, which is possible thanks to the involvement of local students. Thanks to our actions, many people step out of their comfort zone. For example, we recently went winter swimming together. People from warm countries were particularly interested in this, even though they didn't know what "winter swimming" was. When our Polish coordinator ran into the water, they probably thought: "Is she crazy? Do Poles do this all the time?" (laughter). We recently conducted a rather loud, promoted throughout Lodz, useful action called "Mental Health Awareness Week". The event was online, but thanks to this we did a bigger promotion for all of Poland and other countries. Even people from Finland took part in it. We received incredibly positive feedback. The project was submitted to many competitions - in the Polish arena we won in the category "project of the week", but we also applied for the best project of the year from all over Europe. The results will be in April at the Erasmus Generation Meeting Gala, which I am going to Porto as a representative of Poland.
In the current situation, we are trying to support the Ukrainian community in a unique way. We joined forces with the Student Government of PŁ in the matter of collections being conducted. We also provide information on where and how to help and direct interested people to the appropriate points.
Individual ESN units, operating at universities, usually include its abbreviation in their name. So why do we have ESN-EYE in Lodz, not ESN TUL?
Our name is indeed unusual. It all started with the fact that 20 years ago at TUL there was an organization "European Youth Exchange" (EYE). Its members dealt with similar things that we are currently dealing with - primarily promoting European values. In 2007, the EYE association began to apply to join the ESN organization. Interestingly, at the beginning all ESNs were student organizations, so they did not have a legal form, we, on the other hand, had it from the beginning. At this point, ESN Poland is an “association of associations.” We are quite an independent unit, although we have great support from IFE employees and good contact with director Dorota Piotrowska and professor Paweł Hillebrandt.
What does recruitment to ESN-EYE look like?
You can sign up through our event on Facebook. There is a short form referring to what a given person likes or studies. This makes it easier for us to select guardians for new people. We are recruiting until the end of March.
When joining ESN-EYE, for half a year you observe the work of others and verify what the organization does, what opportunities it offers, how you can develop in it. Then you go through a recruitment interview. In fact, as soon as people apply, we provide a field for showing off and allow them to show off. When you observe how other people work and what motivation they have for it, you just want to act yourself. It's a very good environment of people. By the way, you can learn a lot.
In ESN-EYE we have various working groups, e.g., we can develop in PR, where we foresee necessary training, e.g., in graphics (Adobe Illustrator). Some members choose the HR path, where you mainly work with people, organize events for our members, collect basic information about them. You can choose the PM (Project Manager) path. This is where we write applications for grants, awards, competitions. Since we are a non-profit organization, we have to account for all the money, so we also need financiers. Some people work in the field of culture, others in sports, in the field of travel or fundraising. We also have something like the ESN Card, thanks to which we have, among others, discounts on flying with Ryanair. As you can see, there are many possibilities and profits.
What are you planning to do in the near future?
We received two grants, which we plan to implement. One comes from the European Parliament. As part of it, we plan to organize workshops for high school students called "Stereotype is not my type", which will refer to developing stereotypes about different cultures. We want to show young people that we are similar to each other, we only have different cultures. The lectures will be conducted in English by foreign students, but of course with the participation of students from Poland, who can provide support in translation if necessary. We hope that such classes will also encourage young people to Erasmus, show that it is a wonderful experience, just like being in an international environment.
We also received a grant from ESN International in the amount of almost 400 euros. We will use this money to promote mobility in the form of "Erasmus Breakfast". We will be organizing breakfasts with appetizers typical for a given country and talking about how to live in a given country. In addition to foreign students, there will also be recruitment people who will answer troubling questions. We plan four such events during the entire semester at different faculties at TUL.
Does working in your organization open up opportunities in the job market?
Working at ESN-EYE is well seen in the CV. I recently had several recruitment interviews, and everyone asked about this sub-item. But we have a lot of stories about graduates. A girl who was a financier in our organization graduated in mechanical engineering and works as an auditor and is already doing a master's degree in finance. It is extremely popular that students who work with us go to management, project management, human resources management for their master's degree, often completely retraining. In the ESN Poland board, we have two TUL graduates, and some people who went on Erasmus and established international contacts found work in other countries.
What skills can be developed thanks to ESN-EYE?
First of all, working in an organization or a student research club falls during the period of studies, so we have to combine learning with additional activities that we want to perform. This teaches us organization, because we need to know how much time we can devote to a specific activity to maintain good grades at university.
I have a strict mind, so I always thought that creativity is not for me. Meanwhile, now I have a thousand ideas per minute. I opened up more to people and improved my self-confidence. Now I have no problem with going out to someone and starting a conversation.
When it comes to practical skills, you can definitely develop in various PR matters, graphics, IT sector, and even in negotiating. It's great that you can try so many things to verify what suits us the most.
Interviewed by: Paulina Krygier
Photos: private archive