Usually, the (official) first point of contact between one cohort and the next is the summer school. Last year, several GLOCAL students from cohort III met up with cohort II in Rotterdam, and got a chance to talk about the program, get to know each other, and make some experiences together in a city that somehow connects to GLOCAL. That was not the case this year – the summer school in Gdansk was cancelled, because of the COVID-19 pandemic (what else?), so the cohorts getting to know each other looked a bit different.

Cohort IV is currently in different places around the world, in different time zones, and have a different first semester in beautiful Glasgow than we (the famous cohort III) had. They have managed to meet up via Zoom and other online platforms, but that is not quite the same as meeting up in person.

The meeting between cohort IV and us – or, some of us – was also arranged via Zoom. We’ve been able to chat a little about the GLOCAL experience website, Silvi spoke about what it means to be a class representative, and Lía talked about the GLOCAL Alumni Association (the GAA). Not the entire cohort IV was there, which makes sense considering the different time zones. Some very dedicated students were awake at 4 am in their local time zone to attend the meeting, others will have to watch the recording of the video at a later time.

What is exactly the same as last year (and, I imagine, the year before) was the enthusiasm of the cohort to get involved and learn new things and get to know different people. Instead of meeting up at the summer school, we sent messages to each other via LinkedIn, Facebook, and found ways to meet up in smaller groups.

We will introduce cohort IV to you soon, so keep an eye on the ‘about us’ page!

Want to know more about the GLOCAL summer school? Read all about the summer school from last year in Rotterdam here!

Author: Tynke Schepers