Joining the Democratic Education Network (DEN) project has been by far one of the best decisions. I have taken as a young adult trying to figure life abroad. This voluntary student driven initiative made me understand the power of togetherness and dedication through the different projects I had the opportunity to take part in. From our weekly meeting to our annual student conference has been such an educative and fun experience.
The DEN group of 2025 consisting of 50+ students from the UK , Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam as well as academic dignitaries who came together to put up a one week summer school program in London at the University of Westminster which consisted of visiting tourist sites in London , participating in VJ day and a Student led conference which turned out successful. Having students from diverse backgrounds and countries was a very particular adventure because it allowed us to be inclusive by learning other cultures and opening our minds to accept the way of life of others. Haven spoken to colleges from these countries and having an idea of their way of life and ideology, my personal thought was that we are all similar at the end of the day, it’s just boarders that separates us.
The different Speeches and presentation concerning different issues and background stories surrounding the world opened my horizons to the different opportunities and challenges people are confronted to. I got to know that the world does not just end at what I have seen and that there are so many pressing issues that young people like me are aware of and have innovative ideas on how to deal with them for a better generation.
This event allowed us to display our intellectual, employability skills and created an open space to network with experts in different fields and academic dignitaries. From the level of planning where we had to evaluate various situations, and practice our communication and presentation skills beforehand, to the day of event where we had to improvise and step in to make the event a successful one was incredible. I remember when I was contacted 24hr before the conference saying I needed to present something I was not aware of. This made me panic so much because I was scared to ruin the whole event due to lack of preparation because of short notice. Few Hours later, Farhang, our director, came up with something I could do to practice my skills. This made me even more nervous but I told myself I could try and after all if it goes wrong, that not the end of the world…at the end of it ,I was proud of my delivery…long story short, this is just to show how DEN pushes us to go beyond our limits even when we think it’s impossible because with DEN nothing is impossible !!!
Overall, this one-week event was an amazing experience which thought me a lot and allowed me to make friends from DEN as well as from around the world. I also had the opportunity to exchange and network with important people who can add on to my life. I hope to take part in the next DEN Conference to gain more experience, make new friends and build upon my skills.