Living EUCA: two students report their experiences of Summer Schools

The Summer 2010 has been full of EUCA or EUCA sponsorized events.Two EUCA students report their experiences:

Bianca Isaincu (Collegio Ghislieri, Pavia) participated to EUCA Summer School in Cambridge.

"Once upon a time there was a girl who thought she was happy, she lived in a nice little college in Pavia and she had everything: nice place to stay, nice family, so many friends, a beautiful boyfriend… What else could a poor-girl desire?
She woke up every morning, went to university, then to work and back to college then… She met people, friends each day, she party… Wow! Such a cool life! Maybe happiness is this, she thought…
Of course, there are so many problems in the world, but what could I, such a small insignificant person, do? She felt useless and thought that maybe life was just what she had… Then, a summer sunny day, while checking her mails, she finds an interesting mail from her dean, she decides to take the opportunity and go to that strange summer school… at the end, is a good opportunity to practice my English, she thought…
And she leaves… she is afraid, she knows no one and already misses home, friends… she wants to go back home… and then one day passes by… And she is now a bit more in Cambridge with heart and soul than in her hometown...  And another day passes by… And she stops thinking home… She meets nice-friendly-intelligent people and she starts to get excited! Wow! These people are really cool, she thinks!
And the first week passes by, and is incredible how she feels home in Cambridge, how she feels like knowing those young people since ages, and she feels like they all have been friends since ever…
But the count down to the last days starts… She returns, she cannot believe that everything is finished: a new life, a different life she lived for two weeks: exited, wonderful, lively, stimulating…
She returns home and she feels that something is changed: not her family, not Pavia, not even the boyfriend (oh my, that's such a shame), SHE is changed. She has new hopes, new energy and she knows that there are so many things to learn. She knows that there are wonderful people in the world and that it was such an extraordinary luck that they all managed to meet for such a short time. She knows what happiness means now, what being worried means too, what having friends means too, what missing someone means. And she knows that they will meet again all together again".

Laura Massocchi (Collego Nuovo, Pavia) took part to OLE Summer School, sponsorized by EUCA.

"The OLE, a short summer school about organised crime and legality organised by FLARE, took place inOtranto between 29th August and 4th September 2010. I was one of the 150 participants, coming from all parts of Italy but also from abroad (France, Germany, Macedonia, Ukraine, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Guinea Bissau, Serbia). The intention of FLARE was indeed to gather many people from all over the world to sensitize them on the theme of organised crime and its infiltrations in the globalized economy and in political systems. Organised crime is in fact a global phenomenon and a very strong economical actor: this aspect was very frequently underlined during the conferences.
FLARE is an association born from the contribution of Libera and other European organisations (associations, NGO) dealing with fight against organised crime. The OLE was the first summer school they've organised: next year they would like to repeat this quite successful experience and make it last longer, maybe two weeks.
The conferences were held by speakers with different backgrounds: journalists, ministers, European Commission Officers, members of European Parliaments, politicians and professors. It was really great to have the chance to meet such inspiring figures, even if sometimes there were little changes in the speakers' schedule. 
I've appreciated the great variety of points of view and the international approach, which allowed me to know more about the situation of African countries, Colombia, Afghanistan. Moreover, I gathered some useful information for the thesis I'm writing. What I regret is, that many stimulations were given to us, with few possibilities to deepen the subjects. The program was indeed very dense: there were two conferences every morning. In the afternoon, we were busy with interactive workshops and visits to confiscated properties in the surroundings, now reused for oil and wine productions and social initiatives. In the evening there were public conferences with outstanding personalities in the fight against organised crime. 
To sum up, I'm satisfied of this experience and of the things I learned, from the conferences but also through talking with the participants, which had very different backgrounds as well: there were students, people working in NGO, entrepreneurs, refugees. 
Considered that it was the first summer school FLARE organised, the few little organisational problems can be easily forgiven. It was a summer school dense of contents, but it had something in common with a holiday: a wonderful location, interesting people, good food".