The UAB Summer School students say goodbye
16/07/2018
After three weeks full of activities and intensive courses, the first period of the UAB Summer School comes to an end. Last Friday July 13th, Ally Zhou and Carles Maisonave, two students who have participated at the Summer School, gave a speech saying goodbye to the Autonomous and their fellows at the closing ceremony that took place at the Cinema of the university.
“Six weeks is not a lot of time to make a foreign country your new home. But the past three weeks have told me otherwise”, said Ally at the beginning of her speech. The first period of the summer school started last June 25th and now, three weeks later, comes to an end, although students like Ally will continue during the second period, from July 16th to August 3rd.
During her speech, Ally mentioned the challenges she had to confront as an international student during her stage at the UAB: “Barcelona has challenged me to get out of my comfort zone, to expand my language skills and cultural awareness, and to experience the world beyond the borders we’re accustomed to”.
Finally, she thanked to the local students and to the programme of the Autonomous this opportunity of learning: “The people, the culture and the city have helped me grow in curiosity and in knowledge”.
On his behalf, as a local student and a member of the Buddy Programme 2018, Carles highlighted that the Summer School is not only an experience for international students but also for the locals: “Because you’ve shared with us your opinions, your ideas and your view of the world”. And he also wished that those weeks had been valuable for the students: “We also hope that these studies, and what you’ve learned, will help in making the greatest version of you”.
Second period of the Buddy Programme
Together with the second period of the UAB Summer School 2018 the second part of the Buddy Programme is opened. Buddies are local students who have lived the experience to go abroad in an exchange program or that have the intention of doing it and want to support newcomer students. The figure of the buddy aims at boosting, through participation and dynamization, the interaction between the local and international students that participate at the Summer School.
Next July 17th at 14 h, buddies will formally meet the students and will repeat this meeting again July the 23rd. During this three weeks they will accompany them in activities like the Tandem, where they will be able to practice different languages, or the international lunch (on July 19th at 1 pm in front of the Centre of Resources for Student societies) while both international and local students will be able to participate in workshops like Catalan from scratch (July 24th at 14 h).