Many people want change, but not many people want to change themselves. For instance, if you were offered to travel to a foreign country and not worry about expenses in order to meet your peers from different parts of the continent so you could actively participate in shaping today’s reality for young people, would you do it? Although my family and I had my doubts about pursuing such a grandiose action, I made a decision to follow my own path by accepting such an offer. From 15th to 17th November 2021, I participated in the Emerging Leaders Conference in Brussels, organised by World Youth Alliance Germany and World Youth Alliance Europe.
My trip was quite eventful! Accompanied by seven other people, which constituted the Croatian group, I went to Brussels by plane and, after some minor troubles with the trip, finally arrived at Yooma Urban Lodge where we were accommodated. We quickly seized the opportunity to explore the city and try some local cuisines before taking a deserved rest at the hotel. Or so we thought, since we had to prepare for the conference by reading a certain amount of online articles related to leadership! Luckily, reading and taking notes was never a problem for me, so I finished my task soon and readily welcomed the first day of the conference. After meeting a lot of new people, I was introduced to Myriam Kaufmann (Regional Director of the WYA Europe), Marie-Laure Denoel (Regional Director of Advocacy), and a few other persons who took charge of organising such event, like Magdalena Basic (Regional Director of Operations of WYA Europe). Our first day served as an introduction to the topics of leadership, the European parliament, and what to expect in the next two days.
Those expectations quickly turned to reality as we entered the second day of the conference; after a short trip to Lodzkie House, we had several presentations (both online and in-person) about topics such as youth transitions to labour market, challenges which young people face, education policies at EU level, state of universities, the potential of the young people when engaging in the local community and the debate with decision-makers about the future of youth in the EU.
It would be too long to describe everything we went through, but I can assure you that it was quite eventful! At last, the third day came; the day when we met the members of the European Parliament (MEP). My group and I met the Croatian representative Karlo Ressler in the Parliament itself where we discussed topics related to youth, climate change, refugees, and EU policies. It is quite different when you in person discuss with MEP the challenges that Europeans face right now; I hope that our initiative will bring us closer to solving these problems.
To sum up, the Emerging Leaders Conference was an inspiring event that gave me an excellent opportunity to meet new people and places, learn and discuss the topics which I find important and strengthen me to implement new knowledge and skills in my local surroundings. That is not unimportant if you are willing to change anything about the position of today’s youth.
This precious experience opens new paths for me and new goals to pursue and I suggest to other young people like me to participate in this type of event. You will change yourself for the better and contribute to the youth’s well-being. This is a noble goal, I’m sure you will agree.
Published: December 16, 2021
Written by Sven Toljan, Participant of the Emerging Leaders Conference 2021
