Dmytro Khomenko, a third-year student at the Faculty of Humanities of the National University "Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic", participated in the "Rural Voices of Europe" youth exchange under the Erasmus + program, which was taking place from October 24 till October 31 in Lugo, Spain. Students from higher education institutions of Ukraine, Algeria, Italy, Spain, Lithuania and Serbia improved their oratory skills, learned to prepare for interviews, write screenplays and work on camera.
For seven days, participants were actively working in teams, discussing the topics of youth exchange, visiting prominent historical sites of Spain and got acquainted with the culture and customs of the countries represented by students.
The aim of the project was to inspire young people from rural areas to intensive professional development and creation of new opportunities, combating depopulation in rural areas.
Among the main goals of the "Rural Voices of Europe" youth exchange are to improve soft skills, conduct effective meetings with peers from rural areas of Spain who have never participated in international projects. It consists of creating social media pages and YouTube channels dedicated to rural youth life and opportunities for it; developing the initiative of training participants through the search for solutions to issues faced by rural youth; encouraging young people from rural areas to develop their own skills as well as active participation in social, economic and cultural life of the country.
"I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Poltava NGO "Vzayemopomich" for the opportunity to take part in this wonderful youth exchange under the Erasmus + program as well as special gratitude to my lecturer – Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Germanic Philology and Translation – Anna Pavelieva for constant inspiration, positive stimulus of my scientific and educational activities and thorough preparation for participation in this program.
During the meetings of our student scientific group "Philology" Anna Kostiantynivna talked a lot about the opportunities that are opening up before us, shared her own experience of participating in such trainings and explained how to fill out project applications, as well as where to look for interesting projects etc. Whilst participating in the youth exchange in Spain, I met interesting people from other countries and learned a lot of interesting things about the problems faced by modern youth, analyzed ways to solve these issues and gained new digital skills – learned how to create podcasts, YouTube channel, take and interview, film thematic videos, control a drone, etc. As a student-translator, I acquired many new words and expressions that enriched the level of English language proficiency," – shared Dmytro Khomenko, a participant in the youth exchange and a student of the specialty "Philology".
The youth exchange "Rural Voices of Europe" had a cultural component: the participants visited the main attraction of the city of Lugo – the ancient Roman wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
"During the youth exchange, we performed tasks for creativity and creative imagination, namely, we worked on the development of a project in which it was required to present what our planet will be like in 20-30 years, and creating a comic book. We were also taught how to make podcasts (the hostel has a recording studio), control drones, take photos on a digital camera, and how to use virtual reality glasses.
In addition, the program provided a trip to the countryside, where we had the opportunity to get acquainted with the life of Spanish peasants and even observe the cheese-making process at home. The next day, the participants were divided into teams, which had to develop a joint project about people living in rural areas based on the information heard the day before, choosing the video or podcast format. On the last day of the project, a hackathon was held on various relevant topics, such as poverty, global warming, environmental pollution, discrimination. Intercultural nights were held every night – so-called cultural evenings, where teams of participants from different countries presented the cultural heritage of their homeland and treated everyone to national dishes and drinks," – said Dmytro Khomenko. Upon completion of the training, he received a certificate of participation.
Previously, a student of philology participated in a youth exchange on social stereotypes, a university lecturer participated in the Erasmus + project "Speak UP, we are Listening", and underwent media literacy training in Leipzig, and Poltava Polytechnic hosted an international training and practice training, where European practices of waste collection and processing were discussed.
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National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”
