Make sense 4 future: four students committed to future generations

Last March, four students from the INP Group* - three from Grenoble INP – Ense,³ UGA and one from Toulouse INP – ENSAT - who met while studying at La Prépa des INP in Toulouse and at INP Grenoble, embarked on a four-month tour of European secondary schools to raise awareness about the challenges of energy and climate change among the “next generation”. As one of the aims of the itinerant project was to show that it is possible to travel and reduce carbon emissions at the same time, they travelled mainly by train and other modes of public transport.

The fruit of a year’s work


The four engineering students had been planning the project for over a year: “it was a project during leave from our studies and we wanted to travel with a low carbon footprint and do something we cared about at the same time. We had also heard of the Talent for Future association”.

This association aims to raise awareness among young people about the energy-related challenges of global warming and sustainable development in international French schools "in all four corners of the world". “We really liked the idea of being able to work with younger generations who will surely have a greater impact on the world of tomorrow. Taking action at our own level and raising awareness among the actors of tomorrow is a way of doing our bit and acting against climate change”.
 

Departure as planned in spite of the health crisis


ms4f After two visits to French schools in early March, the team began their trip on 8 March. The journey started with a visit to a school in Ljubljana (Slovenia) on 18 March and then continued in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Pristina (Kosovo), Skopje (North Macedonia), Istanbul (Turkey) and Athens (Greece). The project is due to end on 14 June in Naples, Italy.
“We had to constantly change our route because of Covid-19! We had already had to modify it to avoid northern Europe where the countries are "high risk" and go to North Macedonia instead. In Sarajevo, we gave our talk remotely. It went fine but discussions are always more enriching when you are there in person!

“Because of the health crisis, it can be difficult to reach the schools. Sometimes, like in Ljubljana, we arrived and were able to carry out the visit directly, after an antigen test, of course”.
 

A warm welcome and networking


ms4f “The children are always really pleased; it makes a change from their routine. We led classes and organised games and activities and the pupils could easily relate to us. The teachers were really friendly too: the pupils don’t listen to them in the same way they listened to us.

“We made lots of contacts, in particular through our encounter with the Headmaster of the French school in Sarajevo, who is also Director of the group of French schools in the Balkans. He was very enthusiastic and offered to put us in contact with others in his network. We have now had loads of replies from high schools! This key encounter would never have happened if we hadn’t changed our itinerary, which goes to show that adaptation is good and you should never be discouraged!”

This encounter took the project to a whole new level because, thanks to these new contacts, the four friends decided to extend the project by setting up a partnership with the network of French schools in the Balkans, which extends from Italy to Turkey. This will allow future student teams to follow the same route each year and to improve the project and strengthen partnerships.

Today, although they largely financed the project themselves, the team has received material and financial support from various sources including Fondation Grenoble INP, Lafox town council (Lot-et-Garonne) and Decathlon who supplied Forclaz equipment for the journey. "We are still looking for new partnerships to be able to reach out in as many schools as possible.”


* Project members:
  • Mandy Rundstadler, Angéline Fournadet and Paul Asté, students at Grenoble INP – Ense³, UGA
  • Estelle Nuñez, student at Toulouse INP - ENSAT