In Voss, attending @EYPNorway with skilled IB-students from #Åsvgs. Excited to get familiarised with more wise, young people #teacher #IB

10.09 - 13. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

First committee out debating how European countries can inspire change in food consumption patterns in order to reduce food waste @EYPNorway

09.50 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

One of my students @AasVGS contributes in the second committee debating a comprehensive approach to mental health issues in Europe #EYP #IB

10.21 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

Econ debates the "LuxLeaks", and the approaches European countries should take to takle monetary corruption and improper taxation #EYP #IB

11.14 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

The next committee promotes a resolution debating how European  countries can address the growing problem of marine litter #environment #IYP

11.43 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

Student @AasVGS contributes in the committee on industry, trade & energy. Debating smart cities for smart growth @EYPNorway #Sustainability
13.13 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

Another great student @AasVGS adressing the problems regarding fake news and misinformation in the press #eyp #PressFreedom #medialiteracy

13.59 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

Wonderful openingspeech from the Committee on employment and social affairs. How should Europe face youth unemployed? #Entrepreneurship #EYP

15.03 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

The last committee @EYPNorway forefronts the important topic of European people no longer feeling represented by mainstream politics #populism

15.38 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

Impressed with the politically engaged students of the European Youth Parlament in Norway, which… https://www.instagram.com/p/BZEHvU5lyY-/ 

16.05 - 15. sep. 2017 fra Voss, Norge

After a long seven hour and thirty minutes journey, we finally arrived in Voss. It is such a beautiful city! The landscapes are amazing and I immediately felt that I was in contact with nature. We went out for a walk and appreciated the beautiful landscapes of the Norwegian Vestlandet. At first, I thought that the EYP event would be very formal, and it ended up like that in the end, but in the first day, it was pure joy. We were starting the team building, we didn’t know anyone and suddenly had to ask each other's names in order to complete the task efficiently: we had to ask each other’s names in order to complete our name tags. After that, we played several games which were very creative and useful for the team building process. We learned that we had to work together in order to achieve our goals! So there were times when we had to agree with each other, argue and then come up with a final solution. Voss's natural beauty made all of these tasks very enjoyable, the location followed by the people who we had met made me realise how lucky I am to have had this opportunity of gaining, even more, knowledge and using this to help people around me, and hopefully one day help the ones who are far away from me :)  I must congratulate our team leaders for all their hard work. Although they were very young, they knew exactly what to do when we were shy, tired and this made us even more motivated to go through our EYP journey.

Thursday, 14th September 2017

On Thursday we had to meet our LIBE committee at 7:30….but we didn’t succeed. At 7:34 we were in a hurry trying to have breakfast but were told to leave immediately …This situation reminded me of one of the IB learning outcomes 'It is necessary to develop new skills as well as new challenges'. Our skill at that moment was to wake up early, eat quickly and be at our meeting on time. Because we showed up 5 minutes late we had to pay a price which was to spell our names while dancing and that's one of the reasons why we didn't show up late on the next day.

This day was one of the most important days during the EYP experience. We worked from 8:00 a.m  to 19:00 p.m, 11 hours of hard work. Although it was a long time to work, we had fun, discussed and listened to each other and by doing this we became a successful team! We were tackling serious global issues regarding media and fake news. We had to come up with media's main problems as well as efficient solutions to the main issues we pointed out without changing the media regulation in Europe. This made me reflect on how privileged we were to be chosen to tackle this point, a point which many people don’t know about since they are manipulated by media itself. I used what I learned in school about the study of language and its persuasive techniques to one of the committee's solutions. I said that we should invest in teaching students about media literacy so that they can improve their critical thinking skills and bring awareness about how fake news is structured in order to convince the public of an idea. I feel like this experience helped to broaden my horizons even more.

Friday, 15th September  2017

The day had come to show all our teamwork and commitment. We received the other committees resolutions regarding different global issues early in the morning and helped each other out to make our speeches sound the best as possible. Were we competing against other committees? Yes we were! But we were competing in a healthy way and helping each other out during all times.  The EYP conference looked pretty much like a court, where Politian's defend their points of view, debate and give a final solution to problems. This was a very competitive event in which we had to listen and think very quickly in order to impose ourselves and share our ideas efficiently. The conference was a great experience since we were all working together to come up with resolutions for a better European Union in the future. A great example of how well we worked as a team was when we were sending stickers to our leaders to suggest something or ask questions and they would immediately give us suggestions on how to improve our speeches and answer our attack questions. 

Seeing all of these young people standing together to protect different global causes is very special because it makes me feel hopeful and sure that better days will certainly come. I left this great experience feeling very grateful for being there, for the moments I shared, for the friends I made and for every single thing that I  learned and I'm sure that I'll be using this in different life situations. We are now traveling back home with much more than only personal items in our luggage, we are taking with us everlasting experiences that will indeed contribute to better people and to a better world. 

 

Not only did I dare to talk to a lot of new people, and open myself for them. I also dared to speak in General Assembly. I did not stand in front of everyone, but I asked a question to another comity. This is something that I did not think that I would dare because this meant that everyone would listen to me. My group leader encouraged me, so I did it. However, the feeling I got after doing it was not good. But when thinking of it now, I am glad I did it.My whole EYP experience was amazing. I am looking forward to next time. 

Photo by: Lukas Ischlstöger