European Higher Education for the World Studies and Promotion

1
European Higher Education for the World Studies
and Promotion
My Mundus Experience
Mario Aráuz - March 01st and 02nd, 2007.
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Index

• Introduction
• Erasmus Mundus, my gateway to Europe
• My expectation before starting the program
• My fears before starting the program
• My challenges within the program
• My achievements within the program
• Conclusions

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Introduction

• My perception of work market and knowledge
  development
• The importance to have a guide in order to design
  your personal project
• The importance to insist when things do not turn
  out in the way we want
• My background and the way I have seen the future,
  accounts
• The cost of decision making in order to reach the
  goals

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EM, my gateway to Europe

• How did I know from Erasmus Mundus and the IMRD?
• How easy was to get the admission from Erasmus
  Mundus and the IMRD?
• When did I know about my admission, and how was
  the news for me

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My expectations

• The way in which Erasmus Mundus would change my
  life in the future
• I had doubt of everything, except the opportunity
  EM offered to me
• Sharing with multinational and multicultural
  class sections
• Trying to find responses to Nicaraguan
  development process

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My fears

• The fear to face a new world far away, and leave
  behind my love ones

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My fears

• The fear to fail in such a sound programme,
  because I had left studies a long time ago

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My fears

• The fear to cope with at least two different
  cultures and two languages
• The fear of not being accepted by Europeans as a
  student, but as an immigrant

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My challenges

• Retake the work rhythm I left behind when I was
  studying my first degree
• To work hard in order to link the master course
  with a PhD program

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My challenges

• To be courageous enough in order to avoid feeling
  homesick and depressed
• To show people who still living in less
  favourable areas, that everything is possible

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My achievements

• I have managed myself in order to cope with the
  most difficult moments
• The knowledge I have gained in new rural
  development approaches
• I have found out the space for non academicals
  activities

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My achievements

• I have learned how to deal with work groups,
  including classmates and teachers
• I have also setup a network of friends from
  different countries

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Conclusions

• EM, not only my gateway to Europe, but also for a
  world of opportunities
• EM, a perfect means to combine academic issues
  and extra university activities

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Conclusions

• Social injustice can make or break a person, it
  made me definitely
• There is nothing unachievable in this world, if
  one works hard enough

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Thank you very much