ESN Pilsen

Where to find us?
ESN Pilsen
Západočeská univerzita v Plzni
Zahraniční vztahy
Univerzitní 8
306 14 Plzeň

www.esn.zcu.cz
esn@students.zcu.cz

Our university: University of West Bohemia, Pilsen

How many members do we have?
ESN Pilsen has about 90 active members and 73 Erasmus students.

Who are we and what do we do?
ESN Pilsen was created by the International Office of the University of West Bohemia (UWB) and is aimed to provide support for the international students studying at this university as well as for the students of this university making a part of their studies at a foreign university. ESN Pilsen is a non-profit organisation and consists only of students who try to help the international students and make their stay in Pilsen and in UWB more enjoyable. It also integrate the international students with the czech ones.

Every term several international students study at all faculties of UWB. Most of them come within the Socrates/Erasmus programme which is available also for czech students.

The club provides the very first contact between the international and the czech students when the czech student helps the international one with the accomodation and the arranging of other administrative stuff. They present them the university and so on. They try to present them the town, the Czech Republic and the czech character by means of enjoyable and funny form. They organize the presentations of the countries from which the international students are, the visit of some interesting places in Pilsen and the Czech Republic, some trips and other cultural activities focused on the typical czech habits and traditions with the participation of czech students.

Then, it is focused on the support of the czech students going to study abroad by collecting the most information about the studies at the universities abroad. These information are provided by the students who studied abroad and are willing to tell us about it, and then, directly by the international students who study in Pilsen and can serve as the good guides to the studies at the same university in their country.

At the beginning of the year 2007 ESN Pilsen was integrated to the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), unifying the clubs of the similar type around Europe, which enables the cooperation with the other universities abroad and obtaining new experience. This improves the quality of the ESN Pilsen work.

The organisation organizes many regular activities, such as :

• Orientation week (the first week of the international students´stay in Pilsen; presentation of the town, arrangement of the administrative stuff and getting to know the other interantional students as well as the czech ones)
• Trips and excursions around the Czech Republic (Prague, Karlovy Vary, Moravia, Český Krumlov, Karlštejn...) – enable the international students to get know czech culture, national habits and the Czech Republic by means of some trips around this country and Pilsen.
• Sport activities (week-end ski trip, bike trip, tournaments of squash, visit of the Pilsen´s sport fields, paintball,...)
• Evening parties focused on the czech habits (Saint Nicolas, Easter, ...)
• Countries presentations – imrovement of the knowledge of czech students about other countries (europeans and other) by means of regular and gratis presentations
• Language teaching – teaching of some foreign languages by the interantional students (native speakers), conversational courses, completely free
• Ball ESN Pilsen – prepared for the international and czech students, presentation of the czech traditions

Every UWB student of any faculty and any year can join many of our activities together with the international students. It is a good opportunity to improve the knowledge of foreign languages directly with the native speaker and also an area to show one´s ideas and organisational abilities which are required by the future employers.