2022/23
Students from SZU (classes 4AHITN, 4BHITN, 4AHWII) have been taking part in the European Youth Parliament Project for a couple of years now. In February 2023 we played a leading role in a Youth Parliament Session that took place in Vienna.
A team of our students led by Todor Lankov (4BHITN) were part of the organising committee. For them the event started on 16th February, when all the committee met up at a school in the tenth district (HLW 10). Everyone on the committee were given precise tasks to do. Todor was the Head Organiser of the whole event and Marco Spellas (4AHITN) was part of the Media Team. For the evening the organising team prepared a scavenger hunt in the first district of Vienna for the members of the committee. Everyone had a great time getting to know the old town and solving the clues.
The delegates arrived at their hostel the next day, when we met up with another student from our school who was taking part, Sebastian Damm (4AHWII). While the delegates were gathering at the hostel, the committee had the chance to visit Belvedere Palace and see some famous works of art such as Klimt’s The Kiss. After the delegates had checked in, all the participants were transported to the day’s venue, the Juridicum site of the University of Vienna. The committee introduced themselves and their respective teams. The day continued with team building activities for the delegates, and for Marco this meant it was his opportunity to take pictures as a member of the Media Team. Throughout the day Todor was working behind the scenes preparing the food and generally working on the organisational side of the session. The day concluded with a podium discussion about media as the fourth pillar of democracy. We had a great day at the Juridicum, who were fantastic hosts.
The next day the committee’s work started off at the Juridicum and this meant not much change for either Marco or Todor. Sebastian and the rest of the delegates started working on their respective topics, however. It was a long day of hard work, but it was also an experience none of us will forget. Although it may seem crazy to most students that we wanted to work on a Saturday, we were working and having magic moments together with amazing people from all over Europe.
The General Assembly on the final day was very special for a couple of reasons. The first one was the venue, the Kuppelsaal hall at the Vienna University of Technology. It is not normally open to the general public and the architecture is very impressive. Marco was excited to be able to take amazing pictures at this great location. Todor’s job was to finish up the planning and organisational side of the session since it was the last day. Sebastian, along with the other delegates, was engaged in fierce debates about the resolutions they drafted the day before.
In a nutshell, the students from our school fulfilled a variety of roles and enjoyed the session to the utmost. Special thanks to Todor for his work as Head Organiser at the session and to Marco for his media work and great pictures.
Written by Todor Lankov
