Europe is yours: a multilingual project promoting immersion in European information
This large-scale project involved around 170 students working on a stimulating challenge: to produce journalistic content related to a European policy and its local impacts, in French, Dutch, German, and English—a first concrete immersion into their upcoming Master's degree in Journalism.
Launched with a day dedicated to European information issues, the project then expanded into interlingual groups, trained both in understanding European decision-making processes and in creating video formats for social media. Students also had the opportunity to gain an inside look at European institutions by visiting the Commission and the Parliament.
Thirty projects addressing the major concerns of young people emerged, each imbued with remarkable creativity: energy renovation in Brussels via the ERDF, Mercosur issues, ecological transition, sustainable tourism, youth employment, migrant rights, and sexual and reproductive rights.
Eight groups were preselected to present their project during the closing evening in front of a prestigious jury comprising:
- Thomas de Béthune, Head of the European Commission Representation in Belgium
- Mariam Alard, journalist and presenter of the RTBF news, former IHECS student
- Catherine Ray, former senior European official, columnist, and podcaster
- Félix Francotte, former IHECS student and trainer in storytelling and content creation
Three winning projects
- 1st prize: Project on the Copernicus programme in Belgium – Eugénie Brunin, Ariane de Cannart, Thibault Debaugnies, Lou Moens, Juliette Renier, Victor van Oldeneel
- 2nd Prize: Project on the rise of the far right in Europe and Belgium – Juliette Bernard, Alexandre Capart, Julien Gillet, Lina Leyden, Daphné Raes, Urrika Rivera Diaz
- 3rd Prize: Rearm Europe, in French, German, and English – Clémentine Boulé, Eléonore Busto, Adrien Goffin, Noémie Lambiotte, Marie Lecoq
The evening concluded with a convivial drinks reception, allowing students to interact with the jury members.
This pilot project, which forms part of the reform of language courses in B3, demonstrates a fine interdisciplinary effort since it is the result of close collaboration between:
- the Languages Department (Yasmine Alfihri, Georg Brandt, Rodrigo Fonseca Fernandes, and Hélène Sambon),
- the IHECS Journalism Department (Nora de Marneffe and Esther Durin),
- the Bachelor of Journalism from the Erasmushogeschool (Stefan Moens, Aldo Verchuere, and Ria Goris),
- and the Representation of the European Commission in Belgium (Anne Compère), whom we thank for their consistently valuable support in the development of innovative educational processes.
Special thanks go to Félix Francotte for his paedagogical support with the media production.
And that's not all: the students are preparing to present their multilingual project to their language teachers... before another visit to the Council of the European Union on 7th May!
