Sciences Po is an international research university with focus on the fields of humanities and social sciences. This year Sciences Po celebrated 150 years since its foundation, and arranged an anniversary festival with international conferences, talks, artistic workshops, film screenings, open mics, and lots more.

As a student representative for CIVICA, Lovisa Bergdahl joined the event as a trip leader.

“I was very happy to do so, seeing as cross-cultural interactions and understanding is one of my very core interests, and something I aim to pursue a career around in the future,” she says.

Lovisa and Benita found the program both rewarding and enjoyable with many interesting activities along with just enough spare time to mingle and get to know other students from partner universities.

“I wanted to meet other students from universities around Europe to hear their perspectives on the current societal and cultural issues we face in this ever-increasingly complex world,” Benita says, and Lovisa agrees.

”This, together with the conference on academic freedom, were the aspects I enjoyed the most,” she says.

Cross-cultural understanding

Aside from the many interesting reflections shred during the conference, the CIVICA Cultural Event led to lots of rewarding new acquaintances and conversations between students from different universities.

“My main takeaway is how much we can learn from informal conversations with people from different cultural backgrounds. The conversation is almost inevitably geared in a direction of cross-cultural understanding, which I think is both rewarding and important,” says Lovisa, who aspires to pursue a career in academia.

She found the takeaways from the conference on academic freedom very valuable for the future along with the opportunity to be part of a multi-cultural environment.

“My main area of interest is that of cross-cultural psychology, why I truly enjoyed being put in this multi-cultural environment and spending time with people from various different backgrounds,” Lovisa says.

Sparked new interests

Benita found the event to be of great value, both today and in the future, and even sparked a further interest in new fields:

“I will most definitely take part in more CIVICA courses and strive to further develop my interest in the fields of governance and public policy,” she says.

Benita and Lovisa both look forward to participating in CIVICA Cultural Events again in the future and recommends other students to do the same.

“I think everyone would benefit from the international exchange, as well as from being put in academic and cultural contexts that are not normally part of our everyday lives, to broaden our perspectives on academia, and increase our understanding of each other,” says Lovisa.

Benita also found the event to be very inspiring and a wonderful opportunity to meet other students and gain new perspectives.

“I most definitely would participate again – the wonderful opportunity to explore the magical city of Paris and to meet and network with like-minded students from all over Europe should not be passed up. Visiting a new place and interacting with people from different backgrounds helps one to view things, and events from a new perspective, which can be super inspirational,” she says.