The Team Winner in the ENGAGE.EU Expedition Week at UNWE Was Announced
A team called VirtuoCity won the final of the ENGAGE.EU Expedition Week at UNWE.
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| The team winner VirtuoCity |
In the period of 16 to 20 October 2023 the students from the partner universities tested ideas and sought solutions in the area of Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities.
In the expedition week took part a total of 30 students from 7 partner universities – the University of Mannheim, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, University of Toulouse Capitole, LUISS Univesity, NHH Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), Tilburg University and the UNWE. The students were divided into 4 teams and worked under the guidance of the mentors Dr. Francesco Leone from the University of Mannheim, Chief Assist. Dr. Christian Zhelev, lecturer at the International Economic Relations and Business Department at UNWE, Chief Assist. Dr. Silvia Georgieva, lecturer at the Entrepreneurship Department at UNWE and Chief Assist. Dr. Violeta Toncheva-Zlatkova, lecturer at the Public Administration Department at UNWE, who was also a presenter and moderator of the event.
The student teams worked on real cases set by the National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria /NAMB/ and the Sports and Youth Activities Directorate of Sofia Municipality.
The challenges set by the NAMB included the following topics Ideal Model for a Hospitable City for Citizens", Ideal Model for a Hospitable City for Tourists" and Ideal Model for a Hospitable City for Businesses.
The Sports and Youth Activities Directorate of Sofia Municipality has prepared a case study on Sofia - a Hospitable City for Sport".
The objective of the event was for young people to learn to think critically and creatively about the pressing issues facing the urban areas and to explore how the sustainable practices can be integrated into their design, planning and management.
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At the beginning of the closing ceremony Assoc. Prof. Dr. Denitsa Gorchilova, Head of the Public Administration Department and Chairperson of the organizing team of ENGAGE. EU Expedition Week at the UNWE, delivered a presentation about the work during the expedition and emphasized: "The expedition is a wonderful opportunity for intercultural exchange - the students get to know the country, the city and the university they work at in a completely different way. They develop the perspectives of those affected by certain problem, show empathy and work out more concrete solutions. They also work in a real intercultural environment - teams are formed randomly and they have to find the best ways to work together. Regarding the common challenge - creating sustainable cities is one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The vast majority of the world's population lives in cities and creating sustainable, welcoming and friendly urban environment is of utmost importance to all. Over the past five days we have seen that it is possible to combine the hard and fruitful work on a specific problem with fun, make new friends and get to know Sofia and Bulgaria. Congratulations to all and you are welcome back again at any time!"
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| Assoc. Prof. Dr. Denitsa Gorchilova |
The event continued with the presentation of the works by the student teams.
The team called Tour de Green presented a project entitled Welcoming City for Tourists.
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| Team Tour de Green |
The team called VirtuoCity had made a project entitled Welcoming City for Businesses.
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| Team VirtuoCity |
The team Roaring Sport Sofia had worked on the project entitled Sport for All - an Active and Healthy Lifestyle".
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| Team Roaring Sport Sofia |
The team Citizen Pioneers presented a project entitled Welcoming City for Citizens.
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| Team Citizen Pioneers |
A four-member jury consisting of Prof. Dr. Nikolay Denchev, Founder and Head of the Social Entrepreneurship Department at the Free University of Brussels and researcher at the UNWE Entrepreneurship Institute, Pavel Ivanov, Executive Director of the Public Administration the Institute, Svetlana Lomeva, Executive Director of Sofia Development Association and Kremena Dervenkova, Executive Director of Association of the Bulgarian Leaders and Entrepreneurs /ABLE/ evaluated the projects and selected the team winner VirtuoCity.
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| Prof. Dr. Nikolay Denchev, Pavel Ivanov, Svetlana Lomeva, Kremena Dervenkova /from the right to the left/ |
All students were awarded a Certificate for their participation in the ENGAGE. EU Expedition Week at the UNWE.
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| Chief Assist. Dr. Christian Zhelev, Chief Assist. Dr. Violeta Toncheva-Zlatkova, Dr. Francesco Leone, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Denitsa Gorchilova |
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What did the participants share about the ENGAGE.EU Expedition Week at the UNWE
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Ninas from Tilburg University "Two or three years ago I started to work on the topic of sustainable cities and when I received the invitation to participate in the ENGAGE.EU Expedition Week I did not hesitate to accept the challenge. During this week I met wonderful people, got to know the culture and food of Bulgaria and it is a great pleasure to be here". |
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Fay from Tilburg University "The issue of sustainable cities is extremely important because it is one of the biggest challenges we face today. It is a very personal topic for me because I really care about the Earth and I believe in the power of connection between the people who care about the Earth. That's why I like this programme and it gives me the opportunity to share my ideas with other people and to work with them on this important issue. I have never been to Sofia, Bulgaria, and I had no idea how beautiful and rich in culture Sofia is. I also realized how important it is to get to know another culture and to see things from the point of view of that other culture as well as to get new ideas and share experiences and values". |
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Luka from WU Vienna University of Economics and Business "The topic of sustainable cities is very important because a large part of the earth's population lives in cities. So the number of cities is increasing very fast and it is expected to increase even faster in the future so we need to create sustainable cities for future generations. ENGAGE.EU Expedition Week brought me together with wonderful people to discuss interesting projects for the future development of sustainable cities and Sofia is very beautiful city and the people are very welcoming". |
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Amy from the Université Toulouse Capitole "ENGAGE.EU Expedition Week is a challenge that I really enjoyed because it helped me get to know a new city, it helped me meet a lot of people from Europe, it helped me learn about other cultures and see how people with different cultures can come together and work together to make the world a better place to live in". |
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Gabriele from the Université Toulouse Capitole "I took part in this challenge because I really believe that it is important to make cities a more welcoming place to live both socially and environmentally. The experience here was really exciting because I met a lot of new people and got to know a place I've never been before". |
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Vanessa from the University of Mannheim "I think that young people should live and study in the cities, so transforming them into sustainable cities is very important. I like the international environment and the interaction with many people from different countries". Emre from the University of Mannheim "The topic of sustainable cities is a great challenge, because cities today are the heart of modern society, cities are the energy factor for sustainable development. I really enjoyed the opportunity to work in a team with people from other countries and exchange experiences and ideas". |
About the ENGAGE.EU
The European University ENGAGE.EU, launched in 2020, has an objective to bring together the students, researchers and staff from the nine leading European universities - University of Mannheim, LUISS University, /Rome/, NHH Norwegian School of Economics /Bergen/, Tilburg University, UNWE /Sofia/, Université Toulouse Capitole, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Ramon Llull University /Barcelona/ and Hanken School of Economics /Helsinki/.
The initiative aims to develop new models to promote the student, faculty and staff mobility in order to contribute to the quality, integration and sustainability of European higher education, innovation and research. Within the Alliance, the universities work on an interdisciplinary level to find sustainable solutions to societal problems, each university offering a programme focused on education, innovation and research. Students, researchers and staff can benefit from training, courses, expeditions, summer schools, laboratories and other initiatives both online and on-site.
