Studying Abroad – Why Not in Abu Dhabi?

Posted on by Marie Claude Hykpo
Marie Claude at campus NYU Abu Dhabi, Spotlight Europe
Marie Claude is studying at NYU Abu Dhabi with local and international students. (Picture: Marie Claude Hykpo, remix by Spotlight Europe)

Marie Claude (19) actually comes from France but decided to study in Abu Dhabi – an usual choice. Spotlight Europe had the opportunity to interview Marie-Claude for you.

 

Marie-Claude, thank you for answering our questions. You are studying in Abu Dhabi now. How did that happen?

It was mainly a coincidence. There were not a lot of French students in the school and so they were going through well-ranked high schools to talk about the project. I heard about it and I thought that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a great opportunity to discover something else while getting a high quality higher education. So I said to myself “Why not?”, I applied and here I am.

A new country, a new culture, a new lifestyle: Now that you have been there for a few months, how do you like it? Is the experience fulfilling the expectations you had beforehand?

I really love Abu Dhabi! The city is really young and dynamic although not as hectic as Dubai can be. The architecture is impressive, the sun is always shining and the people are extremely welcoming. To be quite honest, it has exceeded my expectations so far.

 

The Arab culture is quite different from what we are used to in Europe. What would you say are the main differences?

I think the main difference might be the place that religion holds in the culture here. It is omnipresent and it reflects some of the rules of the country (restaurants are not allowed to serve alcohol, dressing has to be more conservative when being in public areas like malls etc.). But even then, since there are so many expatriates here, it is really free and tolerance is a key word. I don’t feel like I have been through that big of a culture shock; Abu Dhabi in essence resembles a lot of other big cities.

Abu Dhabi seems to be a rather unusual choice for international students. Are there many other internationals or are you mainly studying with locals?

The school actually is mainly visited by international students though we do study with some locals. We have around 130 countries represented on campus!

Overall, what would you say is important when choosing a university? And would you encourage others to come to Abu Dhabi as well?

To me, the opportunity to travel and to meet different people was really important when choosing which school I would go to. I also really wanted to study in English so that was a big plus with NYU Abu Dhabi. Another thing was the wide range of classes and majors to choose from.

I would definitely recommend people to come to Abu Dhabi! I think we have the most amazing conditions to work in and it’s really an incredible and rare experience.

Thank you for your time!

 

About the interviewee:

Picture Marie Claude HykpoMarie Claude (19) participated in the “My Europe” workshop in Paris, France, in 2013.

Science and Work and Websites

Posted on by Davide Cannata
Davide presents the website to university students, Spotlight Europe
Davide Cannata presents the website to university students. (Image: Davide Cannata)

Spotlight Europe had the chance to interview Davide Cannata (24) about the website project Scienceforwork. Launched in December 2014 by Lorenzo Gallì (General Manager) and Davide, it brings together students with business leaders and decision-makers.(See Scienceforwork.com)

 

Hello Davide, please tell us first: Who are you?

Hi, we are a group of psychology students. We are different people, but we share the same values and we all believe that young people can start something innovative and successful.

So what is your website about? Who do you want to address?

Scienceforwork is a popular science website written by psychology students for managers. Visitors can read about many different topics related to different aspects of the organizational world, from recruiting to employees well-being, from leadership to organizational change.

Why and when did you start the site? What is the aim?

The idea came up first into the mind of my colleague Lorenzo. I remember when he told me for the first time about the project. He was really excited: “I am starting to follow discussions on Linkedin”, he told me, “and it is true what they always tell us in university: there is a huge gap between what scientific research discovers and what managers think and do”. That’s why he thought about to create a website that could spread scientific evidence. The aim is to help decision-makers in pursuing the most effective actions for the performance of their organizations and the well-being of their people.

Ok, on your site you write about Work, Organizational and Personnel Psychology (WOP) – what is it?

WOP psychology is the study of human behavior, emotions and cognition applied to the workplace. It is an applied science that studies people at work as individuals, as team members or considering the organization as a whole.

So psychology does affect the work routine?

Yes, working is a set of behaviors. It involves people´s emotions, attitudes, cognitive resources, interpersonal skills. People at work learn, communicate, make decisions, face conflicts. The consequence of a satisfying or a dissatisfying job can deeply affect the well-being of a person. Psychology studies all these aspects of work that are extremely important in our opinion.

Coming to the technical side: Is it difficult to start an own website?

Technology makes things easy. If you just want to express your idea, you use a simple wordpress format and the start of the website will only take a few hours. But building a professional looking website, to guarantee quality and quantity of content and running efficient marketing campaigns is another story. It was extremely challenging for us to get the website started and it was a great occasion for acquiring new competencies.

What advice can you give to other young people who want to start one?

You need to be driven by a strong idea. You need a vision in which you believe and for which you are able to pass over the difficulties you will meet.

How do you get new authors and readers?

We recruit new writers both online and through organizing workshops in universities. Readers are reached through marketing campaigns that take place mostly in social networks. Linkedin is our favorite channel, followed by Twitter.

What are the advantages of a website as information channel in your view?

I think that the internet is a powerful instrument to spread your word and connect with people with a small budget. You can spread your knowledge and your ideas. The contra is that the quality of the information is not guaranteed. There is a lot of nonsense, or worse, commonsense, on the web about management of people. Scienceforwork tries to guarantee the best quality through peer reviewing and quality assurance.

What can young Europeans do to stay informed about news?

I think that newspapers and magazines, both as paper or digital version, are still the best way to get a general overview. Then, reading blogs, or directly talking with people is a great way to have different points of view. Reading a foreign or international newspaper is always a great way to broaden your horizon.

What would you say: Which information channel is becoming more and more important today?

I would say internet, but I think that this answer already belongs to the past. Internet means many different things and we need to understand this difference. I am really interested in the new forms of media communication that are being developed. One of the latest? Infographics! They summarize lots of complicated content in few images and are incredibly effective.

Do you believe there is a change how young people perceive news and build opinions?

Yes, there is. And I think that it is especially connected to the fact that it is much easier to reach people from other countries and cultures. With the diffusion of internet and English as lingua franca, the influence of national politics on the way how information is presented has become less strong.

Thank you for the interview, Davide!

You are welcome!

If you want to know how you can participate as author for scienceforwork and get more information, you can download the complete interview here.

About the interviewee:
Davide Cannata, Spotlight Europe
Davide

Davide (24) participated at the “My Europe” workshop in Milan, Italy in 2012. He studies Work, Organizational and Personnel Psychology at University of Bologna in Italy.

 

Why We Need to Raise Awareness for Personal Data Protection

Posted on by Manfred Pohl
Manfred Pohl, Spotlight Europe
“Every internet bully is a weakling.” (picture: Remix by Spotlight Europe)

Smartphones have developed into a constant companion in our daily lives. Everything that we consider important while we are on the go is saved via a simple swift movement of our fingers. It only takes a couple of seconds to take a picture with the built-in camera and to upload it on a social network platform. There, friends and family can see where we are and what we are doing.

It has never been easier to produce data about our lives and to make them visible to our social environment. We may do so in the belief that this data belongs to us and that we can decide at any stage of its distribution which parts we are going to make public and which not.

Many do not know, however, that this is a fatal error. Your data can be used against you by people you possibly do not know. It is by no means a pleasant feeling when strangers possess something that belongs to your private life – but sadly this happens all too often in real life and the crucial point is that people too easily trust in smartphone technology.

Smartphone with apps, Spotlight Europe
Devil in the detail. (Flickr: Highways Agency/licensed under CC BY 2.0)

It starts with used smartphones that are being resold on the internet or in small shops. Sellers trust in the delete function and believe that all their data – photographs, mail accounts, passwords, social media apps – are entirely wiped out from the device. That is not true at all. It is easy to recover data, regardless of how and where it was deleted. In fact there are specialized shops that offer this very service. Still, you do not need to be an expert as there are a lot of instructions and free recovery programmes on the internet that promise to reclaim deleted data.

In some particular cases this possibility seems to be a fortunate method – e.g. when the police is using the recovered data to find a culprit or if you accidently deleted some important pictures from your smartphone. On the other hand, this technology conceals its criminal potential. Data thieves may blackmail the former owner of the device or use the information for other criminal purposes.

That is only one side of the security problem when our personal data is concerned. It is not only through used smartphones that information may end up in the wrong hands. If a picture for example is shared on the web, you cannot foresee its possible circulation. It may reach people who use it for discrimination or for their personal amusement. You believe that you legally own the right to your picture, but in fact you have lost the power to decide who uses it and to what end.

“Data is being shared all too carelessly”

Especially cyber bullying has become a big issue among adolescents nowadays. Data is being shared all too carelessly with false friends. The victims often feel helpless and even blackmailed when they lose their power to decide upon the use of their data or when making the effort to bring back information to its correct context.

We need to raise awareness among the youth that their data is vulnerable at any moment and that they therefore should reconsider what they truly want to share about their lives and what not. Many social platforms offer easy settings to protect the privacy of shared content. As for the smartphones: To be on the safe side, throw them away or spam them several times with useless data.

And what could be the motivation behind these cyber bullies to spy on other people’s lives and to use their private data to harm them? Is it the disability to deal with the problems of one’s own daily routine? Is it frustration, aggression or even both?

There may be much guessing. It is a fact, however, that someone who bullies in the cyberspace is a weakling.

About the author:

MP1Prof. Dr. Manfred Pohl is the Founder and Chairman of Frankfurter Zukunftsrat, the think tank that organises “My Europe”. more…

Young World-Wide-Minded Europeans towards the EU Political Union (1/2)

Posted on by Camilla Crovella
Scene of a plenary session in the European Parliament, Strasbourg, Spotlight Europe
The author is expecting from the European leadership to work closer together politically. Only this way can human rights be efficiently secured and defended. (Flickr: European Parliament/licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The elaboration of a one and only idea concerning what to ask of the new European leadership is neither simple nor univocal. So stated, it is important to underline that this aspect is not a negative point at all: Europe is a complex reality and this should be the heart of a new process of evolution towards a political unification.

Indeed, a crucial aspect concerning the Old Continent is nowadays its ability and strength to fit and keep the balance with the more and more worldwide operating economic powers. For this reason it is important for all the institutions to cooperate in order to push Europe in the middle of the 21st century globalised world, not only in economic terms. From this point of view, there is a key theme which is too often undervalued and forgotten in our realities: Human Fundamental Rights, in general, and, more in depth, immigration.

“The best way to guard Human Rights would be to reach the Political Union.”

I cannot avoid thinking that, for what concerns our own continent, the best way to guard Human Rights would be to reach the Political Union. In building this conviction, I was strongly inspired by the work of a group of people and in particular by one of these, Ursula Hirschmann. As a young Jewish and socialist she was forced to leave Germany when Hitler gained the power and Ursula decided to follow her husband, a political prisoner of Fascism to Ventotene Island in Italy. There she met Altiero Spinelli and Eugenio Colorni and together they wrote what is considered today as the theoretic basis of EU, the Ventotene Manifesto.*

They faced the biggest tragedy and violation of human rights that the world had ever run through, World War II. Consequently they affirmed that only a Federative Union could be the solution against racism and any other kind of cruelties that had happened. They stated that the birth of a single huge European Nation would have been the only way to guarantee to every man “[…] An area of free choices as wide as possible in order to allow the highest development of their personalities”. In addition to this I always like to recall an Ursula Hirschmann’s sentence: “I have nothing but my chains to loose in a united Europe. That’s the reason why I am a Federalist”.

Man walking past European flags in the European Parliament, Brussels, Spotlight Europe
Europe´s compexity should be at the heart of a political unification. (Flickr: European Parliament/licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Like this small group of freedom and democracy defenders dreamt, so do I. I am convinced that reaching the Political Union would be the best way to guarantee equal respect for human rights and equal possibilities to succeed to every EU citizen.

Sadly, the idea of Union they portrayed seems nowadays a bit more difficult to achieve. Indeed, the current crisis which is compromising the economic situation of many countries has dramatically damaged the relationships between the European nations. We find ourselves in front of an evident separation between economically weak countries (such as Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal etc.) and stronger countries, being together for what looks just like a matter of money.

“The European nations should concede their power to continental institutions.”

What I would ask the new EU leadership to do would be to cooperate not only to support the common currency and finance to defeat the crisis but also to work in order to reach a political unification. The latter is the only one which could observe a real equality of respect for fundamental rights among every EU citizen and third-nationals staying on the European territory. In order to reach the Political Union (which would mean only one parliament, one government and one juridical system), all the European nations should necessarily concede their power to the continental institutions. Consequently both the monetary and the fiscal unions are nothing but small steps on the way to the political union, already drawn at the time on Ventotene.

A particular institution, not belonging to the frame of the European Union but to the one of the Council of Europe that should acquire a stronger influence, is the European Court of Human Rights, so that a wider and wider space to guarantee human rights across national borders could be reached.

*Spotlight Europe background information: The complete text of the Manifesto can be read and downloaded here.

About the author:
Camilla Crovella, Spotlight Europe
Camilla – Author at Spotlight Europe

Camilla (21) is a member of the Eustory Alumni Network and writes articles for online magazines. She studies Law at the University of Turin.

“I Still Have the Dream to Go Home One Day”

Posted on by Clara Hachmann
Two women sitting near the Black Lake, Montenegro, Spotlight Europe
Two different ladies with a different background – yet they both still long for their home countries. (Flickr: amira_a/licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Clara: Where are you from? How long do you already live in Germany? What motivated you to come?

Biljana: Originally, I am from Kosovo. I fled to Germany about 15 years ago, due to war in my country. It wasn’t safe anymore for me in my home country.

Karina: I am from Montenegro. My husband and I were pursued due to our political convictions and so we decided to flee to Germany about 17 years ago.

Clara: How did you come?

Biljana: Since I had the right to come to Germany as a war refugee, I came by plane. Although I came legally, the bureaucratic process was really hard and took me an enormous amount of effort and time.

Karina: I am what you can call an illegal immigrant, but actually, once I arrived, we were all treated the same way. For me, the bureaucratic process was also really tough. Since we were classified as numbers, we felt quite humiliated. We kind of feared the administration, because they could decide if you stay or if you have to return where you came from. At that time, I always feared opening my mailbox, because I thought there could be a letter telling me I have to go back. And I know I wasn’t the only one having that fear.

Clara: Have you had difficulties with the language?

Biljana: The switch from Montenegrin to German was really difficult, because both languages are quite different. I still have some difficulties nowadays, although I have lived here for 15 years now. Additionally it was not mandatory to learn German at that time as it is now. There weren’t free German courses. We had to learn everything on our own.

Clara: What was your economic situation before you came? How did it change?

Karina: In fact, I had a good life: I liked my city, I liked my job and I had a good income. When I arrived in Germany, everything changed for me. Although the German and Montenegrin cultures weren’t so different, I couldn’t speak German and therefore I was only able to do the most basic jobs. That was a big economic and professional crash for me.

Clara: How did the Germans receive you?

Karina: In fact, the Germans were quite different. There were Germans who were very nice to me. They gave me help and shelter and they helped me to integrate.

Biljana: There were also people who weren’t nice. One day my son was on a school excursion and there was one bed, which was broken and nobody wanted to sleep on it. So, the teacher decided, that my son had to sleep there, although there was no reason except for the fact that he was a refugee.

Clara: Was it worth for you to come to Germany?

Karina: Yes, I think so. I still have the dream to go home one day, but my children live here and I am quite integrated today. So I can say, I have a new and normal life, which I definitely wouldn’t have had if I had stayed in Kosovo.

Biljana: If you ask me, I’m still not sure, if it was worth it. I still dream a lot of my home country and I still want to go back there. But it was not possible to stay in Montenegro during the war. And so things happened like they did. I can’t change it today. But sometimes I regret having left my home country.

About the interviewer:
Picture Clara Hachmann_small, Spotlight Europe
Clara

Clara (18) participated at the My Europe workshop in Munich, Germany, in 2013. She is involved in the work with the Youth Council for the Future.

Laura G. from Madrid

Posted on by Clara Hachmann
Call- button with a nurse figure on it, Spotlight Europe
Laura found a job as a nurse in Germany – a profession still demanded there. (Flickr: Nat/licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Due to great unemployment among the youth, many young people from Spain have decided to come to Germany to find a job. Laura G. (name changed as requested) is a young women from Madrid, who was fed up of not finding a job in her home country and decided to try her luck in Germany. She agreed to share her experience with me in this interview:

Clara: What motivated you to move to Germany?

Laura: After finishing my schooling to become a nurse, I waited two years for a job in Spain. A friend of mine (also a nurse) had already moved to Germany and told me there was still work left. As I couldn’t wait for a job any longer, I decided to move to Germany.

Clara: How did you get to Germany?

Laura: I saw an announcement on the web, proposing such a travel. First I contacted a company in Spain, which then contacted a company in Munich. I worked in this temporary employment agency in Munich as a nurse for a year, then changed for a private hospital. The whole organisation of this change cost me a lot of effort and time.

Clara: Did you have great difficulties with the language?

Laura: Since I’ve never learned German at school or anywhere else while I was in Spain, it surely was quite difficult. I began to have German classes three weeks before my departure, but it wasn’t enough.

Clara: Has your move been a big change in your life?

Laura: Yes, since I moved alone. My whole family still lives in Spain and even though the support they give me, I miss them a lot. Also, you have here a different culture, different weather…

Clara: Do you feel integrated now?

Laura: The people are really nice here and give their best to make me feel integrated, but since my German isn’t that good, I cannot say that I am perfectly integrated now. I can’t go to the Bank, the doctor or the hairdresser without having difficulties to express myself and I think if you really want to feel integrated you have to do all these things without major difficulties.

Clara: Was it worth it?

Laura: It surely was worth it! I now have a great job with great colleagues and friends. I am really satisfied with my decision to move here!

This interview was translated from German to English

About the interviewer:
Picture Clara Hachmann_small, Spotlight Europe
Clara

Clara (18) participated at the My Europe workshop in Munich, Germany, in 2013. She is involved in the work with the Youth Council for the Future.