Students are at the core of everything we do at Una Europa, and 2022 has seen many milestones supporting and strengthening our commitment to offering unique joint opportunities for our student community. In September we welcomed the first cohort to the Una Europa Joint BA in European Studies, while in the summer we delivered the first Una Europa Summer School, two weeks of team-building, problem-solving and skills development in the area of One Health. As we move into Autumn our student community looks ahead, with the next Student Congress, "A Step Closer to the University of the Future", welcoming the next iteration of our Student Board and the wealth of ideas they have for how we can better work with and for our student community.
In this episode we explore some of the different journeys students have taken with Una Europa so far. Students from all corners of our alliance share their experience and the connections they have made across our community, not only with their fellow students but also with researchers, academics and professional services staff, right up to senior leadership figures at our partner universities.
Brian and Christiana, two representatives from the Student Board, offer perspectives on harnessing the energy of students and the value of including them at all levels of university governance. We then highlight the impact of Una Europa in our university communities with Riccardo, a member of the Una Europa local taskforce at Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna. The episode finishes with Tamara, who attended the first Una Europa Summer School in One Health and felt the energy and vision of our community over two inspiring weeks at the University of Edinburgh.
" It’s important for the decision-makers in Una Europa to listen to students, and I also think they should trust students. They know what they want and they are the best people to tell the decision-makers what they want. "
Brian Talty, Student Board acting Co-Chair and Secretary, Helsingin yliopisto/ Helsingfors universitet
" It’s a vertical link and a horizontal link: vertical because they connect the student communities of the different universities with the alliance itself, but also horizontal because the Local Task Forces connect the student communities of every university. "
Riccardo Stronati, member of the Una Europa Local Student Taskforce at Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, on the role of the Una Europa Local Taskforces
Meet our speakers
Brian Talty is a final year Global Governance and International Law Master’s Student at the Helsingin yliopisto/ Helsingfors universitet. Although originally from Ireland, studying at University College Dublin, rian has been living in Helsinki for the last 18 months. Brian has been a member of the Una Europa student board since January 2022 and has been acting as Co-Chair and Secretary of the board since the summer.
Christiana Galani is a student at KU Leuven, currently in her third year of BA studies in Engineering Technology. She is the student representative at her university responsible for internationalisation, international development, and Una Europa. Christiana is a member of the Student Board and acts as treasurer of the board.
Riccardo Stronati is a third-year bachelor student in “Diplomatic and International Relations” at Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna. He is part of the Una Europa Local Student Task Force and helped to organize the 2021 Student Congress in Madrid.
Tamara Indira Reyes Ojopi went to school in La Paz, Bolivia (at a German school) and studied at the University of Greifswald and Technical University of Berlin. She is currently enrolled in the master’s program “Geographical Development Studies” at Freie Universität Berlin. Tamara was one of the participants of the One Health Summer School at the University of Edinburgh.
Brian Talty
Christiana Galani
Riccardo Stronati
Tamara Indira Reyes Ojopi
The podcast is part of the 1Europe project and co-financed by Erasmus+.
