Connecting student associations from across the CIVICA alliance
20-12-2023
The Student Association Forum (SAF), hosted by SGH Warsaw School of Economics, took place between 23-25 November 2023. Over the three-day event, 150 students and early-stage researchers (ESRs) from across our ten alliance members came together to connect, network, and strengthen various practical skills.
The Forum aimed to bring together members of registered student associations from across the alliance in order to support cooperation between peers, allow for the opportunity to exchange best practices and experiences, as well as network and connect with other clubs with similar interests and goals. As well as being attended by members of student clubs, the SAF was also attended by CIVICA Ambassadors, members of the CIVICA Student and ESR Board, as well as ten students from our partner universities in Ukraine, whose participation was financed by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) under the project CIVICA for Ukraine.
“The idea is to give them the possibility of networking, getting together, and finding compatibilities between organisations, so in the future the organisations could prepare project proposals that can be funded from the Student Engagement Fund” explained Malgorzata Chromy, from the CIVICA management team at SGH Warsaw School of Economics.
The CIVICA Student Engagement Fund is planned to be established by February 2024, and will aim at giving the CIVICA students and ESRs the opportunity to apply for funding to develop projects that are of interest to them.
Throughout the Forum, students participated in over a dozen workshops on topics pertaining to project management, communication in multicultural teams, strengthening social media skills, and much more. Workshops such as “Effective business writing” and “Networking and partner engagement” offered participants an opportunity to develop practical skills that could support them in their student clubs and beyond. These workshops were conducted by experts from SGH Warsaw School of Economics, as well as representatives of leading companies such as EY, P&G, Henkel and JP Morgan.
The Forum also offered a space for students and ESRs to present their student organisations during plenary sessions, allowing other students to gain insight on how clubs were run at different universities and have peer-to-peer exchange on best practices. This networking opportunity also allowed association members from different universities to foster relationships with each other for future activities.
Moreover, participants partook in various extracurricular activities such as a bowling night, and a tango lesson.
“It’s been a really exciting experience here at SGH in Warsaw. Engaging with other students from all across the CIVICA network, coming together with a lot of different backgrounds, a lot of different experiences and aspirations and networking […] is really a great way to foster a transnational network such as the one of the CIVICA alliance” says Federico Campatelli, Hertie School, futurEU club representative.
YouTube Video: CIVICA Student Association Forum 2023 | Photo gallery
Written by Dania Abu-Sharkh (CIVICA Communication team at the Hertie School)
Photo and video credits: SGH Warsaw School of Economics