Worth the risk? – A video about the emotional journey while being abroad Erasmus Project

Project Title

Worth the risk? – A video about the emotional journey while being abroad

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

Both participating schools focus on the teaching of foreign languages, which implicates the studying of different cultures and values of European countries. The European Union is therefore an essential part of our eduaction porgramme. Since you can only get to know another country with their people and language by travelling there and making own experiences, we have several exchange programmes to do so.
In the last years, we noticed, that the number of students travelling to European countries decreased every year. This was not surprising, because it can be challenging and intimidating to overcome one’s own boundaries and face the unknown.

That is why we started the project. The main objective was to produce a short movie, consisting of different entries of videoblogs and diaries of the participants of an actual exchange. We wanted the students to express their scruples, fears and uncertainties before and during the exchange and the activities to go with it. Afterwards they were bound to reflect on the experience, the way they dealt with their fears and how they could manage them in the end. On the one hand we wanted our students to grow with this experience and to draw conclusions for their further life and decisions wether to take part in exchange programmes like the Erasmus programme for university students. On the other hand we wanted this short movie to be a medium of encouragment for other students, who are about to take part in any kind of exchange programme or are planning a year abroad. At the same time the movie should provide advice for people hosting foreigners as well, so they can help to decrease the intimidation and worries.

Before I go on with the mobilities we did and the results we produced, I have to say, that we had to cancel the project due to the Covid-19 pandemic after out first mobility. That is why we do not have any results to present to the community, which makes us very sad and disappointed. During the project we were certain about the benefit we would create with the movie, because everything went according to plan and worked out fine.

We started our project with weekly club meetings in which we prepared the different mobilities. We learned about the best angles to shoot a moviescene and how to cut it afterwards. Than we filmed small scenes in which we first presented ourselves, than our school and at the end our citiy. This had the objective to be prepared for the videoblogs the students had to do during the mobilities and to get to know their exchange students. We also planned the mobilities that would be done during the exchanges. The students got really invested and excited to get to know their exchange partners.

In January the first mobility took place. The German students travelled to Spain and faced their first challange during the trip. They travelled about 12 hours, because of a flight cancellation and that is why they had a lot of stuff to talk about in their first videoblog. When the bus with the Spanish exchange students finally arrived, it was a mix of emotions for everyone: fear, happiness, excitement, exhaustion, etc., but all of it was forgotten when they got to know each other.
Everything went according to plan and even better, because everybody got along very well. Of course it was a roller coaster of emotions – homesickness, feeling of freedom, happiness, sadness – but in the end everybody was really happy to have been part of this incredible experience and that is exactly what we wanted to prove. Even one girl, who has a mental illness, said, that it was one of the best weeks in her life. Every emotion was recorded in the mornings and evenings in their videoblog and evaluated afterwards.

After the first mobility the Covid-19 pandemic started and the schools were closed. We did not see our students again until the end of the schoolyear and that is why we could not continue with the project. We also decided not to extend the project for another six or twelve months, because we did not know how the situation would evolve. That is why we decided to cancel the project although we did not have any result to show afterwards. This makes us very sad, but we did not have another choice.

For the participating students the project had a great impact, because all of them would do it again right away. Unfortunatley the project will not have any impact on other students, because they can not participate in our experiences.

We do have some advice though:
1) Make sure to connect the participating students right away and let them work together before the actual exchange starts
2) Talk about the emotions the participants are going to feel and make sure, that bad feelings are normal and go away
3) Start with teambuilding activities during the exchange: Sports and music can help!

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 21024 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnasium Siegburg Alleestrasse & Country: DE

Project Partners

• IES Vicente Medina