"Meeting" CIVIS
When I first stepped into the CIVIS community, I did not imagine how profoundly it would change me. What started as an invitation to participate in a European University Alliance soon became a journey of belonging, responsibility and transformation. Like a big academic family.
CIVIS was never just another project or network. It was a space where voices mattered, where ideas traveled across borders and students like me were trusted to sit at the same table as university leaders and policymakers. I could never have imagined that it would become a defining journey of my academic and personal life, one that reshaped my understanding of community, leadership and what it truly means to be a European student citizen. My first steps felt tentative, but soon I was running, not alone, but alongside peers from every corner of Europe.
Roles and responsibilities: finding my voice
My journey began in October 2022, when I joined CIVIS Student Council as a Student Representative for the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and as a CIVIS Student Ambassador. At that time, I had no clear roadmap of what awaited me. What I found instead was an alliance that believed deeply in student voice.
From there, my roles grew: Secretary of the Student Council and eventually Co-Chair of the Managing Committee. These titles, however, were not milestones of hierarchy, but of responsibility. Each position taught me something new about dialogue, compromise and representation.
Whether coordinating with peers on social media initiatives, contributing within the Student Council or supporting student-led projects and other initiatives, I carried with me the sense that my voice was never only my own. It carried the hopes, concerns and aspirations of thousands of students across the Alliance.
At first, this weight felt overwhelming. Could I truly make a difference? Were my skills enough for something like this? Yet with every meeting, every presentation, every debate, I learned that leadership in CIVIS is never about the individual. It is always about the collective.
Projects and achievements - moments that shaped me
Among the many chapters of this journey, several remain engraved in my memory.
I remember standing in the European Parliament in Strasbourg for the European Student Assembly 2025 (ESA25). Out of more than 2,300 applicants across Europe, only 16 students were entrusted with the role of panel coordinator and I was honored to be one of them for Panel 2 “Greener Tomorrow”.
In that space, history and future seemed to converge. Together with my peers, I led discussions, drafted and debated policy recommendations on climate and environmental policies in higher education. It was more than a conference. It was democracy in action, proof that student voices could shape European futures.
I also remember the energy of the CIVIS Days. In Tübingen (2023), I stood in front of an international audience in person for the first time within CIVIS. That moment marked a turning point for me: the transition from listening and observing, to contributing and taking ownership of the narrative.
In Salzburg (2024), during the CIVIS Days, my responsibilities grew. I represented NKUA as co-chair of the Student Council, engaging in discussions on student-led initiatives and governance. I also took part in designing frameworks that would later give shape to future projects. Salzburg was not only about speaking up, but it was about learning how to turn ideas into structured action.
Finally, in Rome (2025), we achieved a bigger milestone. We brought to life the first student-led project as a Student Council, a dream that had quietly begun to take shape back in Glasgow and grew through months of online meetings, drafts and shared hopes until it became a reality.
The birth of the first student-led project
The story of student-led projects connects directly back to Glasgow (March 24 - 28, 2024). There, during the event “Designing a Framework for CIVIS Student-Led Projects”, I took part as Secretary of the Student Council in an intensive workshop that laid the foundation for what later became a stronger structure for student-led initiatives across the Alliance. There I co-presented the session “Designing Student-Led Initiatives: A Student Conference for CIVIS Values”, where we shared ideas on how students could move from being participants in projects designed for them to becoming true owners and creators of initiatives. For four days, we debated, drafted and envisioned how a student-led project culture could be sustained within CIVIS, a process that later bore fruit in Rome with the first official Student Council project.
These conversations continued long after Glasgow. At the Annual Student Council Meeting in Lausanne (April 29 - 30, 2024), we revisited the ideas first drafted in Glasgow and through dedicated workshops, began shaping them into a more concrete framework for student-led projects. From there, countless online meetings, working boards and virtual info-sessions followed. In these spaces, I found myself increasingly trusted as a voice in the room, helping to shape not only the technical guidelines but also the very spirit of student-led action within the Alliance.
From this long process of discussions, workshops, and online exchanges was born the Creathon “Overtourism: European Problem - Local Perspectives. A Comparative Problem-Solving Creathon about Inclusivity”, the very first student-led project organized by the CIVIS Student Council. For me, it was not simply another initiative. It was the culmination of months of work, reflection and trust built among students across Europe. What had started as an idea in Glasgow and matured further in Lausanne, finally took shape in Rome as a concrete project with real outcomes.
During the Creathon, we invited students from different CIVIS universities to confront one of Europe’s most pressing social and cultural challenges: the consequences of mass tourism on local communities. The format was intensive, creative, and deeply collaborative. Over two days, participants worked in mixed international teams, guided by facilitators, exchanging not only academic knowledge but also personal experiences from their own cities. Together, they mapped the negative effects of overtourism from environmental degradation and housing pressure to cultural loss and social inequalities and then turned their concerns into actionable proposals.
For me personally, watching the participants brainstorm with passion, challenge each other with respect and finally present their carefully crafted solutions was one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire CIVIS journey. It felt like witnessing the very mission of CIVIS come alive: students leading, collaborating and imagining a more inclusive European future. The pride, joy and sense of fulfillment I carried from Rome that day is something words can hardly capture, but it remains with me as a reminder of what we can achieve when students are given both the space and the trust to lead.
Experiencing BIPs
Alongside these headline events were the Blended Intensive Programs (BIPs), which became some of the most formative experiences of my CIVIS journey. Each BIP offered a unique blend of teaching and learning, combining online preparation with intensive summer schools that pushed us to think across disciplines and cultures.
In Tübingen (2022), I joined “Going Public: Social Sciences and Humanities in the 21st Century in Europe”. There, I presented essay “Plastics in the water: When a natural disaster creates a bigger environmental problem”. It was my first chance to bring folklore perspectives into dialogue with pressing environmental issues, an early moment of finding my voice within the Alliance, because I also was in my very first steps with my PhD thesis.
A year later, in Sibiu (2023), I participated in “Going Public: Challenges of Contemporary Anthropology and Folklore”, held in the open-air Astra Museum. I assisted in the program while presenting the assignment “Superstitions and beliefs through humor due to a natural disaster: A paradigm from Twitter after an earthquake”. Speaking in that setting, surrounded by living folklore exhibits, was a powerful reminder of how tradition and contemporary digital culture intersect in times of crisis.
In Tübingen again (2024), I joined “Social Sciences Going Public - Research and Practice with, in and for Society”. This time, my contribution grew both as a student and as an assistant. I presented the workshop “Wildfires and installation of wind turbines in the mountains of Greece: Conspiracy theory or reality?” This program challenged me to translate complex ethnographic insights into discussions relevant for both scholars and local communities.
Finally, in Bucharest (2025), during “Social Sciences Going Public - Research and Practice with, in and for Society” I presented my essay “Ghosts, Glitches and Gods: Pokémon franchise creepypasta and icebergs on YouTube”. Beyond my own presentation, I also guided students and accompanied them in conducting on-site research in Cișmigiu Park, helping them connect theoretical discussions with direct fieldwork experience.
Shortly after, I took part in “Communicating Social Science and Humanities - Mastering methodological challenges and learning how to publish and disseminate findings early on”, where I guided a practical workshop on creating academic posters with Canva. These experiences not only allowed me to merge my doctoral research with practical training, but also gave me the chance to support fellow students in communicating their own work effectively.
Across all these BIP’s, from Tübingen to Sibiu and from Tübingen again to Bucharest, what stayed with me most were not only the lectures and workshops, but the people. I made friendships that crossed borders and disciplines, and I met academics whose advice and mentorship shaped my path as a PhD researcher. Evening conversations over dinner, shared struggles with presentations and moments of laughter in between intense sessions turned colleagues into friends. These connections remain one of the most precious outcomes of my journey through CIVIS.
Lessons learned: the art of listening
If I had to condense all these experiences into one lesson, it would be this: leadership is listening. In CIVIS, I discovered that representation is not about speaking louder, but about making space for others to be heard. I learned to listen to students who had different priorities than mine, to professors whose perspectives challenged me, to policymakers whose language was unfamiliar.
Listening transformed me. It allowed me to build trust, to mediate and to find the threads that could weave us together. I also learned resilience. Meetings often stretched across time zones, projects demanded long nights of preparation and balancing CIVIS with my PhD research was far from easy. Yet, it was precisely in those moments of exhaustion that I realized how much this journey mattered. It was not about perfection, it was about persistence.
Best practices and innovations: co-creation as a guiding principle
CIVIS taught me that innovation does not always come in the form of technology. Often, it comes from the simple but radical act of co-creation. Whether designing frameworks for student-led projects or coordinating other initiatives, we worked in teams where hierarchy dissolved. Professors, administrators and students became collaborators. We learned to design not for students, but with them.
This spirit of co-creation also spilled into academic practice. In the PolyCIVIS Webinar Series “Polycrisis Talks” (April 2025), I presented “Trembling stories, weaving resilience: Folklore Studies and narratives in Natural Disaster discourse”, where I explored how collective storytelling after catastrophes can help rebuild resilience in communities.
Following the webinar, I contributed to the PolyCIVIS Newsletter (June 2025) with the essay “Trembling stories, healing communities: the therapeutic power of narratives in natural disaster contexts”. Engaging with colleagues from across Europe through these initiatives, I saw how interdisciplinarity and inclusivity could generate not just academic insight but also new ways of caring for our communities.
Resources and results: more than a CV
What did I truly gain from this journey? Of course, it enriched my CV and opened professional doors, but the most precious resources were never the ones you can measure or write down in a line. They were the networks of trust I built, friends and colleagues from every CIVIS university, whose voices I still hear whenever I face new challenges.
They were the academic opportunities to test and share my research in international spaces, weaving my work in folklore into the wider tapestry of European civic questions.
And above all, they were the moments of confidence that came from standing in front of European Commissioners or university rectors and knowing, deep down, that student perspectives belonged at that table. This provides a profound sense of belonging that fills me every time I hear the word “CIVIS”.
Challenges: carrying the weight, embracing the gift
No journey is without obstacles. For me, the greatest challenge was balance. Balancing the heavy responsibilities of co-chairing the Student Council with the equally heavy demands of my doctoral research was not always sustainable. There were days I felt torn, stretched too thin between commitments.
Another challenge was navigating difference. CIVIS is rich because it is diverse, but diversity brings friction. Institutional cultures varied, expectations sometimes clashed and compromise was not always easy.
Yet, these difficulties became the most valuable teachers. They showed me that true collaboration is not the absence of conflict, but the art of transforming conflict into growth.
Looking back: a mosaic of moments
Now, looking back at my journey within CIVIS, what I see is not a list of achievements, but a mosaic of moments. The nervous excitement of my first Student Council meeting. The pride of watching students I had mentored thrive in BIPs. The long debates over policy drafts that ended with laughter across Zoom screens. The quiet joy of knowing that, even when it felt difficult, I was part of something bigger than myself.
CIVIS taught me that Europe is not an abstract idea. It is a lived reality, made of students who cross borders, share stories and imagine futures together. And that, perhaps, is the greatest achievement of all.
So, for all of that, thank you CIVIS for everything!
Katerina Schoina, outgoing Co-Chair of the CIVIS Student Council, Ph.D. Student in Folklore Studies - Faculty of Philology, School of Philosophy, NKUA (H.F.R.I. Scholarship)
Interview by Marianna Kontolatou, CIVIS Communicatons Officer UoA
Other civizens:
Christian Möllmann: A "civizen" linking European and African universities
