Brussels Conference Oct 11-13

Yes October has been a busy busy month for me, but I am not complaining in the least. I was fortunate (though entirely undemocratically selected) to attend a conference for the fledgling Erasmus Mundus Alumni (EMA) Association in Brussels for 2 days earlier this month. Erasmus Mundus graduate-level scholarships began about 4 years ago (my program is new this year) and now involves nearly 80 programs each with 20-25 scholarship students as well as European nationals who are not on scholarships (partly because EU students pay ridiculously low tuiton for university).

In an effort to network the various programs and provide a support system for news, information, job searching, etc they EMA was formed. The meeting I attended marked the beginning of the EMA's life in earnest as we adopted provisional by-laws and our first EMA President. Each program had an alumnae/i (if possible) and a current student present to represesnt their colleagues in the first EMA general assembly. We heard many speeches from European Commission representatives about Erasmus Mundus programs and their hopes for the EMA (which they are generously providing some funding for).

Here is a pic of the Team Leaders of various work groups. I am now a member of the Newsletter Team.
















It was a busy two days at the meeting with much of the time to network and connect with other scholars taking place in post-conference meeting hours. Here is a pic of the conference hall.