26 July 2016 — Last Day
Blog post by Eloi Guinjoan, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Today, it is the last day of ICRPS Summer Institute 2016. After two weeks of working on it, all the students have presented their projects in front of the panel of judges. Each student had to identify a policy problem and make a proposal about how to solve it, then comparing to that of another country. In order to have enough time, students presented their projects in two parallel sessions, each panel with different members.
After all students have presented their projects, the faculty announced the 5 students that had the best evaluation. These 5 students were Gemma, Sarah P., Laura, Mikäel and Courtney, and all of them presented their projects in the second round. After that, everybody was allowed to pick 3 of the best of these 5 presentations, in order to declare the best project, which finally has been awarded to: Gemma (1st), Sarah P. and Laura (tie for 2nd).
After the presentations, we are now reflecting on the program as a whole. Working on this project has had a double value for us: on the one hand, we have learned how to design a policy proposal and how to address it. But on the other hand, we have also learned how difficult it is to be a policy maker, especially when you are not an expert in the context that you are dealing with.
We understood how important it is to be critic, but at the same time, we realized in order to have our concerns addressed from a proactive attitude. Today, we saw our unique perspectives came out through each of our presentations, so we can all consider ourselves as winners, because everybody learned from each other.
So, the added value of this exercise was working together, cooperatively. This cooperation created a synergy of exchanging insights, perspectives and idea.
The final lesson is that the important thing is not always the final outcome, but the process itself.