On Wednesday, December 21, 2022, IUS Balkan Studies Center (BSC) in cooperation with IUS International Relations Office (IRO) and IUS Student and Career Center (SCC) organized a panel on Erasmus+ experiences, engagement and prospects titled “How did Erasmus Affect Me?”.
IRO Mobility Coordinator Ms. Ermisa Ćišić opened the presentation by stressing the role that IUS has played in terms of student and staff participation in the Erasmus + Program from 2015 until today. She noted that the IUS Strategic Plan 2022-2026 indicates internalization as one of its key principles. In addition, Ms. Ćišić highlighted the positive impacts of the Erasmus+ exchange on students. She pointed that the mobility develops their character and very often they come back to IUS better organized, more goal-oriented, more self-confident, more proactive, all thanks to their experience they got after stepping out of their comfort zone. Another interesting point that she indicated was better employability of students who participated in the Erasmus+ exchange program.
Five students: Ms. Roberta D’Agostino, Ms. Maria Perojević, Ms. Nedžma Latić, Mr. Muhammet Said Kuçuk and Ms. Coline Melanie Laurance Linquette held a panel where they discussed their own topics. Roberta’s focus was on how student exchange programs are a form of soft power while Maria and Nedžma discussed how the European and national identities are portrayed through the Erasmus experience. Muhammet Said began the talk on how Erasmus exchange program stands between the East and the West and it served as an introduction to Coline Linquette, our current incoming student from the Catholic University of Lille who focused on her personal shift and compared her perspectives on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian people and Islam she had had before her arrival to the current ones, six months later. Amazed by the warmth of the people she has met so far, she confirmed that she will go back to France as a totally different person feeling thankful for this extraordinary experience.
