Published on 24/01/2022 under News
The following document has been prepared by the President of the session, Mr. Vasilis (Bill) Fragios, and includes ideas and elements that he would like to experiment with in Thessaly ‘22, Regional Session of EYP Greece. If you consider applying, please carefully read through this document.
Academic Vision | Thessaly ‘22
Blooming youth: Investing in future change-makers and fostering collective growth
Welcome Words
Dear potential applicant,
I couldn’t be happier to have you reading this because it probably means you’re exploring the possibility of applying to Thessaly ‘22 - Regional Session of EYP Greece. And why wouldn’t you? This is a historical, innovative event for EYP Greece, as it not only marks the first event the National Committee has held in the area of Thessaly in almost a decade, but it also provides us with a unique opportunity to redefine and advance our approaches.
As we will be tasked with reaching out to passionate young people from many different backgrounds, it is our mission to spread the EYP spirit through humanized and inspiring formats that make us more responsible and active EYPers ourselves.
As the President of the session, I can guarantee a safe and inclusive learning environment where we will all be returning back to basics so we can more effectively introduce them to this new generation of EYPers. At the same time, we will be making a conscious effort to reimagine concepts including but not limited to accessible academics, positive inter/intra-team communication, civic engagement and of course, learning from each other so we can be the Chairs, Vice-Presidents or/and Presidents we all aspire to be.
Just by reading these words, you have already made the collective experience of the session a little richer, by applying your thinking to this idea of “blooming youth”, potentially questioning it or perhaps wishing to help it expand - and that is all I could possibly ask of you.
I certainly hope that you will continue exploring what Thessaly ‘22 has to offer by joining me on this exciting adventure and rediscovering EYP with me!
Sincerely,
Vasilis (Bill).
Vision for Vice-Presidents // Thessaly ‘22
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Diversifying academics // Our main academic goal is to help both our Chairs and our Delegates learn in exciting, creative ways. Academics should not be a chore and this is the type of mentality that begins with the Board. I aim for us to come up with Topics that can easily stir up conversations and provide Delegates with the opportunity to take a look at familiar Topics from different glances. I also strive for us to integrate interactive media into our Topic Overviews, as well as follow-up activities. In the meantime, we will be training each other on different Session elements and exploring how we can advance our module-delivery skills and learn from each other. Why not even bring our personalities into academics and leave our mark? These are just some of the ways we can gamify academics, while it remains to be seen how we can practically strike a balance between being enlightening and accessible - all to be discovered by the three of us as we move forward.
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Bursting the EYP bubble // Inspired by the session theme, I hope we have the opportunity to draw some parallels between what we will be doing in Thessaly ‘22, and what is actually happening outside our lovely bubble. For example, something I’d be really happy to do is hold some pre-session Expert Talks on the Topics - this time aimed at educating our Chairs, as well as ourselves before we enter the Session. This will give us the chance to meet with people who are not EYPers, but have immense knowledge to share with us and can help us see beyond the Committee room. Of course, our journey towards reconciling EYP and the outside world doesn’t end there, but it begins with a willingness to connect and rethink “academics.”
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Developing our interactions // Buddy Groups are a staple of our Session rituals - why not move a step forward? What about having “buddies” around the session for each one of the Officials? What about doing full-Officials’ team meetings? What about making the Buddy Groups an integral part of our work right as we begin the session and working towards our Chairs’ development from day 1? There are so many ways to approach it, but what’s for certain is that we will be consistently doing our best to develop our team, listen to their needs and find ways to make our work representative of our Chairs and their ambitions.
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Sharing responsibility // In my humble opinion, for an academic Board to function, everyone needs to equally contribute to it. Even if it’s everyone’s first time doing it, it does not imply by any means that they have less of a say in what is to be done or how that shall be performed. By retaining open channels of communication, learning from each other and sharing the joys, as well as the burdens of academic work, we can truly excel together and be prepared for whatever lies ahead. To do so, we will be working with a predominantly flat Board structure, as we all co-decide and co-create equally. To give you a small idea on how that will work, we will be sharing the first three points of the vision amongst the three of us (as well as what may come up during our discussions) and each one of us will be responsible for the execution and integration of these different points into the works of Thessaly ‘22.
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