SIFEC – School is Fit through Europe Center: Erasmus+ project student meeting in Rovinj 2019

The Erasmus+ project student meeting took place from the 31st of March until the 6th of April 2019 in Rovinj, Croatia, including the following four countries: Croatia, Germany, Lithuania and Spain.

The first day of the meeting as a part of the Erasmus+ project „School Is Fit through Europe Center“ started with a welcome meeting at the Multi-Media Center of Rovinj, where the professors and students of the Zvane Črnja high school met with professors and students from the three countries that were visiting.

At first the principal of the high school held a speech to welcome everyone and wish the best of luck for a successful week. Afterwards, three students of each school presented a short clip about their schools and explained what type of institute they are.

As the welcome meeting ended, all the students went on their way all together to the Zvane Črnja high school to start working on the projects, for which they were divided into four clubs. These four clubs were formed by a mixture of students from each country, so that they could experience individual hard work but also team work. While working in these study clubs everyone got to know different cultures and behaviors the best. Also there were some communication problems, but we were able to sort everything out and we had a lot of fun.

The four clubs were: the „marketing club“, which was in charge of promoting the program,  the „working and studying abroad club“, which created a booklet to show some ways and means of working or studying abroad in each participating country, the „international start- up club“, which collected and provided information about how to best found a start-up company, and the „press“ club, which took interviews, pictures of all groups and meetings, and documented the whole week.

With only five days at their disposal, the students wasted no time and started working on their assignments right away.

The „marketing club“ made a plan of how to promote the program by creating posters and using them in the shooting of a promotion video. They also took on the task of shooting and editing it. While working together, they realized how different the schools systems in the countries are and which benefits every curriculum has.

The „working and studying abroad club“ started to research the ways of working and studying abroad, furthermore they collected information about sponsorships and intercultural behavior. Then, they created a brochure offering information and means about going abroad. Finally,  they started editing a video about their stay in Rovinj.

The „international start-up club“ had the task of creating a business plan for which they chose to develop a mobile application for tourists called „Seek to Peek“ for which they also had to explore the legal framework an app developing business has to work with. They also analysed all the details that may matter when developing a business such as location, resources, commercials and audience targeting.

Meanwhile the „press club“ made sure to have most of the information about the progress of the groups that could be collected such as interviews, polls and photos. Also, this club, in consultation with the marketing club, took care of the SIFEC Erasmus + Instagram page.

Although the time was mostly spent with hard work at the high school, the professors made sure that activities were also included in the program. Wednesday was more of a relaxation day as the groups were taken on a boat trip from Rovinj, around it‘s islands and all the way to the Lim Fiord, where a bus was arranged to take everyone to Poreč to have a look around and have lunch. Then the journey continued to Novigrad where everyone had free time.

To improve the international relationships, the students spent the evenings all together and also during lunch break everyone mixed with other cultures.

Overall, the project did bring students from different countries together to share knowledge, emotions, and ambitions, and to help each other with work and even self-improvement.

In our society it is important to get to know as many cultures and languages as you can and during our week in Croatia we got connected. No matter what issues you might have had, all students would stand up for you. In one week you can not change the world, but you can find amazing friends, create your own work and you can evolve.

We are all looking forward to the next meeting with our partner schools. Last but not least the German students would like to thank their teachers Mrs. Vetter, Mrs. Ewringmann, Mrs. Schlamp-Hoffmann and Mr. Schicker for their hard work that made our participation in the programm possible. Thank you so much for this great experience!

Also we would like to thank the Förderverein of the Robert-Bosch-FOS for their financial support which made it possible for us to take more students on the trip than otherwise!

Veronika Gißibl, Klasse  11BIW