“Citizens in Action” is a project that not only educates students about Europe’s identity and values, but also brings people together. Participants have an opportunity to meet other students from different countries, as well as get more acquainted with their classmates. One such activity that encouraged team building was finding a name for their group. CM Associations, which created the project's educational path, included this activity to promote mutual understanding and the development of belonging and motivation. Students had great fun brainstorming and agreeing upon their group’s name. Here is what they came up with.

The school in Italy - Liceo Mannucci – decided to start by brainstorming the words they found significant and relevant to them and writing them on the board. Seeing all the ideas on the board, inspired them to put 2 words together leading to two options – Europainters and colourmunity. Through voting, the final choice of the nickname was “Colourmunity” which is a combination of colour and community. Colours symbolise creativity which is a distinctive feature of their artistic school, as well as it must be noted that there are so many colours in the world and they look so beautiful together. The other word – community – was chosen because members of the team collaborate and help each other. 

The other school in Italy approached the task very seriously and had a long debate on the role of Europe in their lives. As students of a large European capital, they feel like active citizens and share values and principles belonging to European culture and tradition. Starting from the study of the founding fathers of the European Economic Community and arriving at a talk about the path that has been taken today, they analysed the advantages of belonging to this European world and felt grateful for the foresight and sacrifices that were made to create a united European Union. The debate led to the nickname – “Colonna Europe” 

The representatives from Greece chose the name “Manesakia”. The word is a combination of the school’s name Manesis (named after Panatuotis Manesis who founded the school in 1968 and who has always felt that we all -students and teachers - are his children) and the suffix – akia which is Greek suffix used to signify something small and cute. Naturally, it was an obvious choice for everyone involved with the school to be called Manesakia, Manesis children. Interestingly, the teacher’s choice – Mane-tizens (Manesis+citizens), which also seems to be a good choice, was not approved by the students. 

The name “The Passionate Oak” was chosen by the Latvian team from Riga State Gymnasium No.3 because each of them is very passionate about their goals and things they want to accomplish. They work together as well as individually, therefore they like to compare each of them to a small branch that together create one great oak. The oak tree is a symbol of strength, endurance, and national identity in Latvia. It is often associated with the country's rich folklore and natural heritage. The oak tree's symbolism reflects the Latvian people's deep connection to their land and their resilience throughout history.

Last but not least, the Romanian partner nickname – “The Little Ones” – was chosen when they were introduced to other schools involved in the project and more specifically to the age of the students from other schools. They are the youngest students involved in the project and the nickname was a natural choice, wanting to reflect both their age and also the pride of being capable of participating in this project and reaching the same goals as older students.

As it can be seen, the ways how students chose their nicknames are as different as the participants themselves. At the same time we all are proud citizens of Europe. 

Written by Riga State Gymnasium No.3 in Riga in cooperation with Info Confinemondo, Liceo Artistico Edgardo Mannucci in Ancona, Scoala Gimnaziala n.1 in Micesti, Kostantina Manesis High school Irakleio in Athens and Liceo Statale Vittoria Colonna in Roma. 

It was November 16, 2022, a cold and rainy day in Riga. Probably it was a lot warmer and sunnier day in Italy, Romania and Greece. We remember us sitting all together and excitedly waiting for the zoom call to start. We were eager to make a good impression but we were also filled with joy to see new happy and beautiful people slowly starting to appear on the screen. Some of them were at school and some of them - at home. It was a unique blend of anticipation and curiosity from everyone. As more faces started to appear our hearts were more and more filled with excitement. It was interesting to see how our cultures, our classrooms and school systems differ from just a 5 minute video and we couldn’t wait to find out more about each of the participants to hopefully form new bonds in future. We talked for a bit, we laughed and waved to each other for the first time. 

Currently we are thrilled to think about the fact that we will meet really soon and exchange ideas and other views. This moment is getting closer and we are even losing patience.

Written by The Passionate Oak (Team Riga)

On 28 and 29 September the staff of the Erasmus "Citizens in Action" project met in Rome for a workshop to coordinate the activities planned in the second year of the project. This event took place in the headquarters of the Vittoria Colonna high school located in the historic center of Rome, and was attended by the teachers of the coordinating school, the Liceo Artistico E. Mannucci of Ancona, of the Rigas State Gymnazium n.3 of Riga, of the Scoala Gimnaziala n.1 of Micesti of Romania, and of Kostantina Manesis of Irakleio, Athens, together with the representatives of the host school, the Liceo Colonna of Rome.

The meeting was also attended by a representative of the Confine Mondo association of Rome, subcontractor of the project to support the educational activities to be implemented. During the meeting, the guidelines for drafting the text "Let's give voice to Citizens!" were defined. by the one hundred students involved in the project which will collect opinions and questions from citizens of the different geographical areas in which the partner schools are located. Furthermore, on this occasion the staff took charge of the educational and organizational aspects of the European Citizenship trip which will take the students to Brussels next April. It will be an experience full of meetings with MEPs and European officials which will take students to visit the institutional headquarters and will culminate with the unprecedented Rebirth Ceremony for a renewed awareness of common European citizenship. The most ambitious objective of the workshop was precisely the creation of this Rebirth ceremony for European citizenship, which will take place in the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels for the official delivery of the aforementioned document.

The atmosphere was marked by enthusiasm and a collaborative spirit, in line with mutual belonging to the Union and confirming the importance of the Jean Monnet Action for schools.

We thank the Liceo Colonna for their hospitality and in particular the Director Franca Ida Rossi.