The EUTOPIA Certificate of Internationalisation (EUCI) gives students a space in which they can discuss and reflect upon international experiences with fellow students from across the alliance.
Students also have the option to compile a reflective portfolio – which can include creative and multimedia elements – along with a ‘cover letter’ summarising how they have fulfilled the EUCI learning outcomes in order to obtain the certificate.
Here, we showcase a selection of recently submitted portfolios, with the kind permission of the students.
How can you get involved?
To learn more about the EUCI and find out how to enrol, please visit the programme homepage.
Alexander Sorodoc (VUB)
What I feel after a decade of international experience, in Slovenia and Belgium, is not a loss of my own Romanian culture within me, but rather an enhanced understanding of the importance and uniqueness of my own culture on a global scale.
Ariadna Guerrero
"The EUCI seminars have helped me understand how my international experiences have influenced my intercultural skills and my life in general. These experiences enable us to communicate with each other, and cooperate to achieve common goals such as the SDGs."
"As an individual, I’m attached to every single location I’ve had the chance to dwell in, and I'll always have parts of them in me, while I left parts of myself in them. Regardless of what will come next, I’m sure I have much to learn, and a whole lot left to explore."
"My international experiences changed my life. They gave me the chance to open my mind and my soul, and be connected, and discover myself. Indeed, travelling breaks stereotypes and makes you feel free."
"The EUCI program encouraged me to go out of my comfort zone and gain new experience and knowledge, which I am sure to use later in life. That’s why I’m grateful for the opportunity and am happy to be able to write this portfolio as a final step in this program. International experiences have taught me to be open-minded and to listen to others’ opinions, because we can make this world a better place only if we work together."
"During my stay in different countries, I’ve always felt a lingering sensation every time I spoke in my native language, as if I’m performing something special, something that’s only shared by some and not understood by all. Indeed, out of all the elements of Slovenia and Slovenian culture, Slovenian language is where I feel most at home."
When the French students visited us, I rediscovered my own home by showing them around the city. Six months later, me and my classmates went to their small French village, Lézat. There is where I experienced a real cultural shock. Thanks to this experience I noticed how much I loved getting out of my comfort zone - from then on, I started travelling much more and looking for more international experiences.
"I upended my life in Belgium to move to South Korea alone for five months. I was in a completely new environment with a distinctive culture. This step out of my comfort zone was, without a doubt, the single most emancipatory act I’ve done (so far)."
Laura García Hernández (UPF)
Laura García Hernández (UPF) "After my Erasmus experience, I learned to work on topics that I already dealt with at my university but from a completely different perspective. Integrating the vision of a Belgian faculty with my knowledge of the university in Barcelona was enriching and full of challenges. Above all, the way in which the students understood each part of the lessons was a challenge, which, when we studied together or did group work, meant understanding things twice, from your perspective and from that of the rest of the group."
"The trends of internationalisation and localisation are taking place at the same time. An increased pace of internationalisation can induce the urge to reconcentrate on local characteristics of culture and society. This can lead to self-segregation tendencies among cultures and underlines the need for cross-cultural dialogue."
"Since I was a child, I have been enchanted by the idea of studying abroad, learning about other cultures and traditions, having the opportunity to live in my own skin in a range of diverse educational systems, and achieving what, personally, is the last step of the “adult life” in its early years: being resilient to live by your own. "
Maria Ollé Grau (UPF)
"Starting my portfolio I was in a plane towards Los Angeles, scared and unwilling to do the adaptation process and effort of moving into a different culture. However, writing this essay made me realize how much each international experience has given me, and how this one would be just as life changing."
"Through my international experiences, I have learnt how different cultural backgrounds relate to each other in the school environment. The encounter with cultural diversity is increasingly becoming a part of everyday life, and the task of education in the framework of these experiences lies in the teaching of intercultural competencies."
"Seeing with perspective what I have been through to arrive here, I am sure that I am not the same person that first enrolled on the IB program, not the same person that went to study for one year in Belgium, and not the same person that is now part of an international organization. I have gone through a long journey, but the path hasn’t ended here."
"Apart from Slovene, I started learning basic English and German words in kindergarten. I picked up French as my third foreign language in high school. I’d been singing in choirs and solo in many different languages and learned to feel in many different social contexts. Now that I think of it, it had not been that many. The main domain of my feeling acquisition had been the European Catholic musical tradition – I was raised a Catholic more than I realize."
"Through my international experiences, I have made very good friends who have now become my family. I call them my family because like members of a family, we spend most of our time together, we watch movies, we talk about our interests and beliefs, and the culture and history of our country, and we celebrate our ceremonies together, and we even cry together!"
"After graduating from a law school in China, I spent four years working on different cultural projects and travelling to figure out what I wanted to do in my life. Since beginning my studies at Warwick, the Resonate Festival is the activity that has most influenced me: I have not only deepened my academic understanding of sustainable development studies but also gained practical life skills."
"When the opportunity of an exchange program arose last year, I chose to study in China so I could come back to my roots after more than 15 years – and more than that, sort through my feelings about who I am and who I should be. This is why I consider this year overseas as an ‘identity journey’."
