Students participate in foreign affairs competition in Washington, D.C.

Students from the Department of European Studies were among 30 collegiate teams from across the U.S. that participated in the 2023 Schuman Challenge on March 30-31.  Teams of three to four undergraduate students are invited to the competition to respond to a topic impacting transatlantic relations and present before a panel of judges.

The SDSU team featured students Ilias Benbatoul, Marek Fialkiewicz, and Hadil Salih along with faculty mentors Kristin Rebien and Kylie Sago. The students entered the competition with a proposal to establish an EU-U.S. Committee on Indigenous Land Stewardship. The committee would amplify the voices of Indigenous peoples in Northern Europe and the U.S. by including their expertise in biodiversity protection. Their proposal grew from a class project for EUROP-301, Contemporary Europe.

The team presented their proposal to three judges, including a high-ranking official of the EU Delegation to the U.S., a member of the European Parliament, and a diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Finland. The judges praised their presentation for filling a gap in current transatlantic cooperation, foregrounding fundamental human needs, and clarity of their production.