Since the beginning of the 9th century, Santiago de Compostela has become one of the most important pilgrimage points of Europe. Saint James' Way has welcomed thousands of pilgrims that have walked through different European routes since then. The gathering of people coming from all over the continent has enabled the confluence of diverse cultures, languages and ways of thinking. The motivation for this project is to build up a common European identity by discovering which bonds can be found nowadays between countries from East and West Europe thanks to Saint James' Way. We intend to experience these bonds by giving students the opportunity of becoming young Erasmus pilgrims in situ. The priorities that we would like to tackle are: "supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences" (Pr1), "open education and innovative practices in a digital era" (Pr2) and "promoting engaging, connecting and empowering young people" (Pr3). They are pinpointed in six main objectives: - Ob1: To build up a common European identity by discovering historical and cultural bonds and by experiencing them together as young Erasmus pilgrims. - Ob2: To promote the acquisition of healthy life habits by researching on nutrition and gastronomy as well as by assessing the benefits of hiking. - Ob3: To communicate ideas, beliefs, research results and other knowledge in English using digital media, such as social networks or project platforms. - Ob4: To foster self-learning and personal autonomy. - Ob5: To work in teams in order for the students to exchange points of views and learn from what other students think and support. - Ob6: To create and strengthen a network with European students by finding mutual interests and concerns. We will work on three topics: Cultural heritage (Tp1), Health and wellbeing (Tp2) and Digital competences (Tp3). Around 80 people from Romania, Slovenia, Portugal and Spain will be directly involved in this project. Each school will select a group of 15 students and 4 teachers. Campus Stellae for Europe (CS4E) is aimed at scholars born in 2004 who are eager to be more open-minded, resolute and resilient people by going beyond their limits through self-learning, shared effort and personal autonomy. In order to deeply dive into cultural and wellness aspects that can move European countries closer, we will use a methodology based on LABs. There will be 5 LABs, each one focused on a specific topic/skill and will contain activities connecting that topic to Saint James' Way pilgrimage. In addition, we will arrange 4 international meetings, where students and teachers will exchange good practices and share their experiences. Time-wise, our project will be carried out in 4 phases: 1) PROJECT LAUNCH. We will promote teachers’ and students’ engagement and will conclude with the 1st international meeting. 2) PAVING THE WAY. It will include the HEALTHY LIFE LAB and the CULTURE & ARTS LAB. Each of them will develop their activities in 4 stages: planning, research, action and dissemination. This phase will conclude with the 2nd international meeting. 3) WALKING THE PATH. It will start with the 3rd international meeting, walking through Saint James' Way, and will continue with the COMMUNICATION LAB, VIDEO EDITION LAB and WEB DESIGN LAB. Actions will be performed in 4 stages: training, planning, edition and multilingual versioning. This phase will conclude with the final international meeting. 4) BROADENING OUT: We will release our final product and disseminate our results. The expected result of the project is to build a guide of cultural and practical tips for young European pilgrims called “CS4E: Young Pilgrims Guide to Find Out Europe on the Way.” It will include both written and audiovisual materiales publicly available in the project webpage and Erasmus+ platforms. Aware of its potential in educational use, we will pay special attention to ICT tools as a vehicle of connecting students and teachers. Moreover, English will be the official and working language of this project, given its condition of lingua franca. We intend for this project to have a long-term impact in students, teachers and management staff. We expect to improve not only our academic and professional competences but also our soft skills such as teamwork and proactiveness. Campus Stellae for Europe will bring us the opportunity to become active members of a European network. That way we will make the most of the expertise of international schools for further exchanges of good practices. Our project will help us to become citizens with a wider European consciousness, and our example and testimony will encourage others to take active part in this kind of initiatives. Summing up, this project will entail an enriching challenge for our educational communities. Thanks to CS4E, our schools will be reinforced, more united and experienced in international initiatives.
PROJECT CONTEXT The motivation for the project Campus Stellae for Europe was to build up a common European identity by discovering which bonds can be found nowadays between countries from East and West Europe thanks to Saint James' Way. Although the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela started many centuries ago, there are people from all over the world who nowadays experience the spirituality, the art, the language and the historical legacy that thounds of pilgrims have contributed in the Way throughout history. So the goal of our project was to provide our scholars with this experience by researching about Culture and Art and by adopting healthy habits in their lives. Therefore more than 80 people from Romania, Slovenia, Portugal and Spain have been directly involved in this project. Each school selected a group of students born in 2004, who were eager to be more open-minded, resolute and resilient people by going beyond their limits through self-learning, shared effort and personal autonomy, who were always guided by teachers and specialists. OBJECTIVES The priorities that we have tackled are: "supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences" (Pr1), "open education and innovative practices in a digital era" (Pr2) and "promoting engaging, connecting and empowering young people" (Pr3). They have been pinpointed in six main objectives: - Ob1: To build up a common European identity by discovering historical and cultural bonds and by experiencing them together as young Erasmus pilgrims. - Ob2: To promote the acquisition of healthy life habits by researching on nutrition and gastronomy as well as by assessing the benefits of hiking. - Ob3: To communicate ideas, beliefs, research results and other knowledge in English using digital media, such as social networks or project platforms. - Ob4: To foster self-learning and personal autonomy. - Ob5: To work in teams in order for the students to exchange points of views and learn from what other students think and support. - Ob6: To create and strengthen a network with European students by finding mutual interests and concerns. We have worked on three main topics: Cultural heritage (Tp1), Health and wellbeing (Tp2) and Digital competences (Tp3). ACTIVITIES In order to deeply dive into cultural and wellness aspects that can move European countries closer, we have used a methodology based on LABs. There have been 5 LABs, each one focused on a specific topic/skill and including activities that connected that topic to Saint James' Way pilgrimage. We have organised our local activities in these LABs: ---HEALTHY LIFE LAB, which has involved activities related to Hiking & Nutrition (Mindfulness was not possible due to the pandemic situation) ---CULTURE & ARTS LAB, which has involved activities related to Architecture & Gastronomy (Music was not possible due to the pandemic situation) ---COMMUNICATION LAB, VIDEO EDITION LAB and WEB DESIGN LAB, which have involved activities related to writing strategies (articles, reports), photo editing, video planning, recording and editing & web pages creation, design and management. In addition, we have arranged 4 international meetings, where students and teachers have exchanged good practices and shared personal experiences. We could meet in person in Romania, Portugal & Spain. We had to organise an online mobility due to COVID-19 that was supposed to occur in Slovenia. These mobilities have enabled the bonds between teachers and students from the countries that were involved in the project, we have got to know each other, we have shared opinions, likes and differences in culture and in our ways of life, we have established the outlines to carry out the project and to prepare ourselves for the pilgrimage to Santiago. We have learnt about foreign languages, specially English, which has been our vehicular language. We have also taken part in activities on eTwinning, uploading pictures, writing posts, participating in forums, joining online meetings about different aspects and sharing traditions and interests. As for dissemination activities, we have written articles for local newspapers and magazines, school web pages, we have shown our experience in the Erasmus+ / international corner, we have posted information in our schools' social media and we have presented our activities to other students and teaching staff. RESULTS AND BENEFITS The result of our project has been a guide of cultural and practical tips for young European pilgrims called “CS4E: Young Pilgrims Guide to Find Out Europe on the Way.” It includes both written and audiovisual materiales publicly available in the project webpage and Erasmus+ platforms. We strongly believe that we have improved not only our academic and professional competences, but also our soft skills such as teamwork and proactiveness. Our schools are now reinforced, more united and highly experienced in international initiatives. It was well worth it.