Good morning everyone, welcome to UR podcast of UNIGE radio, from the University of Genoa, the harbour of your voice. Here is Marta again, and I am happy to welcome you to the second episode of the “Rocket to ESA2023” podcast. Probably you got intrigued about my journal, listening to the first episode and so I'll do my best to get you further involved. Let’s begin then!
Today I am going to reveal how I managed, in the end, to make it to the ESA 2023, after apparently giving up on the project. Before jumping to the heart of the story though, I think it is useful to make a small digression, to explain why I got so intrigued and excited about this event.
Well, in my academic field, taking advantage of the many and diverse extra-curricular experiences, such as Ulysseus, is a big part of the game. Attending a bachelor in international and diplomatic sciences before, and now a master in fundamental rights and protection of the environment, does not only involve spending hours on the books. It also means being eager to know and personally live what is going on in other countries and in the world in general. Being international, for me, means feeling at home in the world and willing to make it, therefore, a better place, or at least contribute to this global goal. This motivation has always led me to take part in various university-projects , such as Ulysseus.
Going back to the story-telling, I left you with my negative experience with the university administration & bureaucracy offices and my consequent discouragement about not having been able to apply for the ESA 2023. All that happened at the end of the year 2022, so after a while, I was ready to turn the page, forget about that story and move on to the following year. After about three months of not hearing anything from the Ulysseus coordination team in Genoa, an unexpected email arrived. Basically I was officially being invited to a summit in Turin at the end of March, where my friend Carlo and I had to talk about our Ulysseus experience, along with some other students (and friends) of Ulysseus. More precisely, this event was organised by the UNITA students alliance, in partnership with the university of Turin, which is one of the member of UNITA and the italo-french university, to talk about: “ITALIAN AND FRENCH UNIVERSITIES IN THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES INITIATIVE''. After the first usual organisation hitches, that got me a bit sceptical about participating or not, I finally decided to take the chance again and head to Turin with my friend Carlo.
This big institutional event, that brought together students, professors and stakeholders from different countries and European Universities Alliances, got me deeply motivated and excited again about my engagement in Ulysseus and further opened my mind about the role of European Universities Alliances. I didn't know there were so many around Europe and that Italian universities were so deeply involved in them. Moreover, I further realised that, even if all the alliances had been funded for different purposes and had apparently different objectives, all of them shared the mission of sustainable development and the empowerment of future generations. We were all heading towards the same goal, just taking different paths. This synergy between different actors of the European university community, in particular of the university alliances, stays exactly at the very heart of the ESA project and that is why during the summit in Turin there was a dedicated session for the dissemination of this event.
Hearing again about the ESA 2023 brought me back to my initial excitement that I had felt in December, when I wanted to apply and I realised once again how committed would I have been to such a wonderful event and that summit in Turin would have been my last chance to find a way of getting to participate. So I immediately decided to talk to one of the members of the steering committee of the ESA 2023, explaining to her that I hadn't managed to apply on time for the event due to bureaucratic issues but I would have loved to take part, even as a listener or a member of the audience. Unfortunately, she told me that this wouldn’t have been possible, but she gave me her contact and got me to talk with another member of the steering team, who told me that I could have contributed to the orientation and logistical organising part. Then, all of a sudden, another idea came up to me, and I thought: “why not participate to ESA as a reporter for my own university and Ulysseus? This would give visibility and prestige to UNIGE, turning into a flagship of involvement in European matters and empowerment projects .” You know what, turns out I was right and that’s why I am here now! However I don't want to ruin the surprise of the further plot-twists of my experience.
So, if you want to know more, stay updated for the next podcast episodes.
This is Rocket to #ESA2023 on UR podcast, the podcast platform of Unige Radio, the voice of the University of Genoa. To comment or contact us, write to
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