After a warm welcome by Menusch Khadjavi (Coordinator of Study Abroad), five students shared their experiences with the crowd. The first to speak was Enora, who went to the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She showed pictures of her 16th-century university and reminisced about the beauty of Scottish architecture. Her workload was lower than in PPE, which gave her time to "go on a lot of hikes." One of her favourite memories is seeing the northern lights on the northern coast of Scotland and visiting the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
Next up was Maurits, who went to the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. His campus was a "concrete jungle," with the student bar and nightclub being in the middle of campus. Maurits particularly enjoyed that student life was very active, from sports clubs to societies for "almost everything you can imagine."
The next speaker was Marcell, who did an internship in Budapest—his home city—at a left-wing think tank, which he called "one of the last bastions against Orbán." He rated his internship as "very valuable to experience democratic backsliding in action." His daily tasks included doing background research for the analysts at the think tank on topics like multilevel governance.
The fourth student to present was Sidney, who completed an internship with a small NGO in Ethiopia, where his parents are currently living. His NGO had a school and a women's empowerment programme, and his tasks included monitoring and logging seminars.
The last speaker was Diana, who went to the University of Canberra in Australia. Diana lived with 500 other students, which, according to her, made it "very easy to meet people." Diana said, "One of the nice things about going on exchange in Australia was that you make friends not only with exchange students but also with Australians."
After the presentation by the five third-year students, Menusch opened the floor for a general get-together. This gave second-year students, who had just received their exchange allocation, the opportunity to get tips for their study-abroad destinations, and first-year students could form their first ideas on where to go on exchange.