Published on 27/02/2023 under News
Dear reader,
In the last years, jury teams and their essence have changed in a more positive and encouraging direction for delegates, given that the focus has shifted from solely ‘grading’ them to providing them with feedback, infrastructure and support to continuously grow and improve. While this shift is praiseworthy on its own, I still believe jury teams have great potential for more elements that would not change their premise but rather fulfill it. In this brief vision, I will display my views and I truly hope that, if you join the team, you will do so as well in a similar fashion! At last, I would like to point out that I have a strong preference for a common vision created by the whole team so consider this to be food for thought and a simple narrative setting, instead of a concrete vision with set elements.
UNDERSTANDING THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ASSESSMENTS
While we, in most cases, are not acquainted with delegates’ backgrounds, I believe we should be compelled to be understanding and open-minded to people we might not understand or relate to at first. While there are many EYPers to whom EYP was a defining part of their life and persona, it all starts from humble beginnings and somebody noticing someone’s potential. And whereas there is a set of preexisting criteria that defines some qualities in EYP, I have always believed growth to be the crucial ‘unwritten’ one as it can not only define someone’s progress in their EYP journey but more so importantly, in their personal lives.
For this reason, I would like for the jury team to be equipped with adequate and extensive modules focusing on our biases, weaknesses and understanding of the psychology and sociology of groups and individuals. Our role by default cannot be the assessment of an individual out of context but rather how they function in a diverse group of people under facilitation by an impactful figure in this experience, the Chairperson. Finally, though we are not the subjects of our ‘product’ we can impact it immensely, either positively or negatively, thus making us our first project for the aforementioned growth.
‘HEAD OF’ DOES NOT HAVE TO DEFINE THE STRUCTURE AND HIERARCHY OF JURY TEAMS
As stated in the introduction, I do not believe in the hierarchy of jury teams per se, on contrary, this is a team in which diversity brings out the most productivity, knowledge and understanding of our role. That being said, my one concrete wish for this team would be to give everyone the opportunity to define this team as much as the rest. My goal would be for us to function as one compilation of individuals, where each person brings something personal of their interest to the table.
IMPACT OF AND ON THE OUTSIDE WORLD
Last but certainly not least, the longer I am in EYP the more I notice some patterns in real life that helped create EYP as it is but also plenty of patterns we adopted in EYP that could be useful to each of us in our private lives, career, parenthood or whichever path one chooses. In both cases, those lateral skills are often the defining ones and they allow us to develop as people and EYPers. In that sense, I would like for our team to partly abolish typical jurying modules, which are already reduced as is, and focus on useful knowledge we gathered through our personal interests and academia.
I hope these ideas resonate with you at least somewhat and that they will inspire you to apply for this amazing session. If not, consider that there is still plenty of room for your ideas and suggestions which I would happily consider and include in the general overview!
If you have any questions about the session, my vision or questions, feel free to reach out to me on nina.batinic@eyp.hr.
I’m looking forward to reading your applications!
Yours truly,
Nina Batinić
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