Hi everyone,
Well, this is pretty amazing, we've reached our tenth round of Soliya at the University of Padova, and we also have a record number of students participating from Political Science this semester - 19!! This is fantastic news!
Welcome to our blog space, this is where you will be writing your weekly reflections which will count towards your assessment.
You should be hearing now of your schedule, and the sessions begin next week, on 13th October.
Enjoy!!!
Francesca
Well, this is pretty amazing, we've reached our tenth round of Soliya at the University of Padova, and we also have a record number of students participating from Political Science this semester - 19!! This is fantastic news!
Welcome to our blog space, this is where you will be writing your weekly reflections which will count towards your assessment.
You should be hearing now of your schedule, and the sessions begin next week, on 13th October.
Enjoy!!!
Francesca
Natascia Piasentini
RispondiEliminaDear diary,
Finally, yesterday, I started the Solyia project! I was looking forward to starting it because last year my university classmate told me a lot about this project. He was so enthusiastic that I thought “ next year I too would like to have this experience!”. And now, I'm here!
At the beginning of my first session, I was terrified I would have connection problems and I was nervous about not understanding what other people would say. When I entered the platform there were just 4 of us (the two facilitators, an Egyptian boy and I ) and the others were late.
When all the people of the group were connected, we began the session. My group is composed of 7 people plus the two facilitators. People of the group come from different countries of the world. It's incredible that you can speak with American or Egyptian people at home ! It's amazing what a person can do thanks to technology!
Anyway, first of all, we introduced ourselves with basic information like name, provenance, university... and then we played a game to get to know each other better .
After that, the facilitators asked us to talk about our expectations and our fears about the project. We wrote in the chat box some topics that we would like to discuss, such as equality between women and men, and the relationship between East and West. Personally, I think that it's very interesting to talk about gender difference in various societies. Thanks to Soliya, which tries to bring people from the West and the East, we can exchange our opinions on the roles that women and men have in each Country.
I believe It's very useful to have two facilitators because for example, yesterday, there were some moments, in which nobody spoke and the facilitators helped us to make conversation.
I didn't speak a lot yesterday because I was nervous and... it was the first time and then there's another reason...I'm a little shy. So my goal for next Monday is: to speak more than yesterday.
At the end of the lesson we said goodbye in different languages: spanish, arabic, german...
I'm happy to take part in Solyia!
Natascia Piasentini
Hi Everybody!!!!
RispondiEliminaMy Soliya started and I'm very enthusiastic!!!! Where you can find guys from US, Italy, Egypt, Tunisia talking like old friend in a pub?? Of course yesterday we were shy since there was the first meeting and the facilitator proposed some broken-ice games, but I expect that we will create a very friendly atmosphere.
I was very satisfied also because I didn't have any technical problem and this is a goal for me since I have a bad relation with technology. Unfortunately some people didn't participate because of technical problems and we wait the next Monday to know them. Thus yesterday we were in 5; one girl fro Egypt, one from Tunisia and two students from the US. The Americans guys study in the same University (they connected from the same room); this could be an opportunity to have two different point of view from the same place.
I was surprised because the Tunisian girl studies engineering. Actually I thought that only students from political sciences, international relations, cultural studies participate to Soliya and I'm happy I was wrong.
On sum for the moment the group is nice and nobody appears like the one-(wo)man-show. This is very important for me because I'm shy and I tend to listen more than to speak.
Also the facilitators are very likable; the proposed some funny games in order to know each others and they explained when Soliya started and how the meeting works. Soliya was created after the 9/11....wow!!!! This is a very great example to react to a bad event!!!! not making war, closing the borders or rejecting the others, but opening our mind, speaking with the potential enemies, explaining our reasons and listening for the others.
Since the group is OUR we decided the ground rules and the topic we want to discuss.I expect very stimulating chatting because we chose "hot" topics such ISIS, religion and Israel. I'm interested in these matters and I'm waiting for the opinion of american students!!!
Soliya started very good and I'm sure that with time it will better and better!!!! I will do my best to contribute to the program; thus I want to ready for the meeting of the next week!!!!
Micaela
Hi micaela and Natascia - great, am delighted that you had a good start to Soliya and have also managed to post your diaries - well done!!!
RispondiElimina