Ancona, ITALY – When students from all over the world and specifically Europe gather in a tiny Italian city to share their stories, traditions and cultures, some wonders take place.
This is what happened in Ancona during the recent Erasmus Generational Meeting which focused on cultural exchange, youth empowerment and uniting Europe by bringing students together.
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Hosted by the Erasmus Student Network in Ancona, the event united more than 1,000 students from different countries for a week of connections, workshops and cultural exchange to this small city on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
“It’s an amazing experience,” said Anastasia Charalampous, a representative from Cyprus. “You meet new cultures, new personalities and it’s very fun.”
After attending Erasmus in Belgium, Charalampous joined the Erasmus Student Network in Cyprus to help others.
Charalampous praised the student network in Ancona for an organized event.
“Everything is amazing,” Charalampous said.
But what is Erasmus, and who are the masterminds of these events?
Established by the European Union in 1987, Erasmus+ offers youth the opportunity of studying, working and even volunteering outside their country. It’s not fully based on education – it also involves learning from experiences, seeing the world from different perspectives and making friends for life.
The program is carried by local Erasmus Student Network sections, which are groups of volunteers – usually students – who plan events and activities and work to make this an unforgettable experience.
Tajana Mohnacki, who is part of the Erasmus Student Network in Dublin, Ireland, said she attended Erasmus in Poznan, Poland and Milan, Italy.
“Both were unforgettable, but very different experiences because Milan is a big city and Poznan is a bit smaller, so it was nice to experience that and different cultures as well,” Mohnacki said.
According to Mohnacki, Ancona’s community helped make the Erasmus Generational Meeting special for students.
“It’s great to see the city engage so much,” said Mohnacki. “This is the first time I see the city invest so much into the event, which is really nice to see because it really feels like the whole city has joined the celebration.”
Mohnacki continued.
“Ancona is not a very huge city and I think there’s a lot of benefits to that, because the community is closer so it’s great to see an event take place not in a big city like Paris or Madrid or Barcelona but in a more tight and closed community.”
Locals who support the program help to ensure that international students feel at home.
While students enjoyed the different activities, workshops and friendships, organizing the Erasmus Generational Meeting was not an easy job.
For the volunteers of Erasmus Student Network in Ancona, hosting was a dream come true – and a big challenge at the same time.
“Organizing the biggest event worldwide of the Erasmus Generation has been, above all, a great honor. It’s not an opportunity that comes around every day, and I’m truly glad that my team and I believed in this dream from the very beginning,” said Alessia Pandolfi of the Erasmus Student Network in Ancona.
“We made it happen with motivation, dedication and enthusiasm,” Pandolfi said. “We are only volunteers, but we have something very significant in our hearts – passion! Passion that leads to the desire to make our community realize the beauty of Europe and all the amazing mobility opportunities, thanks to the Erasmus+ project.”
Their work went far beyond coordinating rooms and finding places for students to stay.
Ancona was not set up to hold over 1,000 young people as it doesn’t have high capacity hotels in its center, so the team had to be creative . They organized shuttle services to help students reach the evening venues and had to build from scratch the spaces where lunch was served and evening events took place .
Pandolfi said organizing team members would tell each other, “If there’s no road, we’ll build one!”
For the Erasmus Student Network in Ancona, the impact was way deeper than logistics. Organizing the event became a way to redefine Ancona’s potential and what it can represent to students, to Italy and to the world.
“I would say that choosing Ancona as the host city for the Erasmus Generation Meeting was the best decision from multiple points of view,” said Pandolfi. “Despite the many challenges, the event served a fundamental purpose: it conveyed powerful messages that needed to be heard.”
There were other advantages, according to Pandolfi.
“It helped the city of Ancona realize its true potential to host large-scale, high-impact events. It also sent an important signal to the entire Erasmus Student Network that even medium or small cities, and their local sections, can successfully organize outstanding events when driven by motivation and enthusiasm,” Pandolfi said.
In addition to uniting young people, the Erasmus Generational Meeting strengthened collaboration between local institutions, such as the Università Politecnica delle Marche and the Municipality of Ancona, according to Pandolfi.
“This cooperation has boosted mutual trust and reinforced the belief that young people and institutions can work together to achieve great things, not just for students, but for the entire city,” she added.
The fact that previous editions took place in major cities like Porto, Bucharest, or Seville, said Pandolfi, should not discourage smaller communities from dreaming big and turning their cities into international stages.
Larissa Ayoub is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
