EPIC Missions 2021/22: Milestone Event

EPICUR > EPICUR news > EPIC Missions 2021/22: Milestone Event

EPIC Missions 2021/22: Milestone Event in Freiburg

From May 12-14, the pilot students of the EPIC Missions 2021/22 came together in Freiburg where they were able to meet in person to present their final reports to the two external stakeholders, the Carl-Schurz-Haus Freiburg and the City of Freiburg (DIGIT Project).

EPIC Missions are group projects in which interdisciplinary teams of students from across Europe join forces to solve real-world problems for real-world stakeholders with the academic support of their mission guides (click here for more information on the EPIC Missions 2021/22). The format combines short-term physical mobility with long-term virtual mobility. Since the Kick-off event in December last year had to be shifted online, the students were excited to be invited to Freiburg for the milestone event.

The milestone event started with a welcome dinner on Thursday night where the participants met in person for the first time. On Friday, the two Mission teams then presented the recommendations for their respective stakeholder to each other and exchanged valuable feedback. After some final edits, the students finally had the chance to present their findings to the two stakeholders – Friederike Schulte of the Carl-Schurz-Haus Freiburg and Dr. Renate Häuslschmid of the City of Freiburg (DIGIT Project).

“The EPIC Mission was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me as I hadn’t experienced anything of this magnitude before” (Anastasis, AuTh student)

EPIC Missions a “challenging but unique and empowering experience”

Having thereby completed the team mission component of the EPIC Mission, the student participants reflect on their experience:

Valentine, a student at the University of Strasbourg: “In one word, the EPIC Mission is challenging. And that is exactly what makes it such a rich and unique experience.” She is joined by the University of Freiburg student Nicole: “It was cool to generate something out of nothing – it showed how creative we can be.” However, the primary sentiment is one of pride and achievement. Sorami, a student at Waseda University in Japan who is currently on exchange at the University Freiburg puts it in her words: “Having completed the whole team mission, I feel very grateful and proud of myself and others in my team for working together as a team.” Anastasis, a student at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, agrees: “Presenting our solution and seeing how it could actually make a difference was very fulfilling and beautiful. Participating in the EPIC Mission was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me as I hadn’t experienced anything of this magnitude before.”

In general, students stress that participating in the EPIC Missions is very different from ordinary university courses: “It was a great experience and I’ve learned a lot that I can use outside of my normal study programme. My favorite part was working in an international team on a real-world problem”, says Lukas, student at the University of Freiburg. Unsurprisingly, the students particularly enjoyed the opportunity to meet their fellow team members from across the continent in person at the milestone event. Ananya, 2nd-year student at Amsterdam University College adds: “My favorite part of the EPIC Mission was the Milestone event where we looked back at our learning process and presented our final product to the stakeholders. We were also able to come together in person for this stage, which was really lovely.” Looking back at his learning process, Moritz (University of Freiburg) describes the personal growth he has experienced: “Participating in the EPIC Mission empowered me in the sense that it reminded me of my and potentially everyone’s capability to come together working on a problem through acknowledging our backgrounds, values and intentions and negotiating between them.”

…To be continued: EPIC Missions 2022/23

In the upcoming academic year 2022/23, EPICUR will expand its EPIC Mission offer and applications are currently open for seven challenges provided by stakeholders from across Europe:

If you are interested, please check further information on the EPIC Mission and the European Tracks. To find out more about the exact challenges, please check the European Track offers in the EPICUR course catalogue. Who knows, maybe you will even meet one of our pilot students. Anastasis already says: “For the record, I will most likely take part again”

Article by Mathias Hempfling. Photos: Valentine Jander, Mathias Hempfling

All news

We are using cookies to give you the best experience. You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in privacy settings.
AcceptPrivacy Settings

GDPR

  • Cookies

Cookies

We use different cookies on the site to improve the interactivity of the website and our services. Consent is considered implicit if you continue your navigation on our sites without configuring cookies.

What is a “cookie” ?

A “cookie” is a file of limited size, usually consisting of letters and digits, sent by the Internet server to the browser’s cookie file located on the hard drive of your computer.

3 types of cookies are stored by the site :

  • Internal cookies needed for the site to operate
    They do not represent any danger for your privacy since the cookie memorising your choice for the configuration of cookies is part of this category.
  • Audience measuring cookies
    Depending on the sites visited, we use Google Analytics to analyse the audiences. Your consent is requested prior to storing Google Analytics cookies.
  • Third party cookies intended to improve the interactivity of the site
    These in particular are :
    • sharing buttons (Twitter and Facebook)
    • lists of tweets (Twitter)
    • videos broadcast on the site (YouTube, Dailymotion)

These features use third party cookies directly stored by these services. During your first visit to our site, a banner informs you of the presence of these cookies and asks you to indicate your choice. They are stored only if you agree, or if you continue your navigation on the site by visiting a second page of the same site. At any time, you can find information and configure your cookies to accept or refuse them by going onto the page [Cookie management] at the top of each page of the site. You can specify your preference either globally for the site or service by service.

This site is registered on wpml.org as a development site.