Our intellectual program gives our students a broader worldview. Every two weeks, we discuss a new topic. One way we organise this is by asking experts to provide a traditional lecture. For us, a traditional lecture means listening to the expert give a 45-minute talk, followed by 45 minutes of questions and discussion by our students.
Over the years, we have developed different ways to provide our students with more knowledge. Besides our traditional lectures, we fill our biweekly program with guided tours through the city, quizzes, philosophical debates, visits to embassies and museums and many other ways. Our intellectual program is organised by students and for students. This means that we have a committee working the year round to find interesting topics and to email and call experts to ask them for their input.
In recent years we found a new way to engage students in our program. We called it ‘Open Mic’. During Open Mic, students give 10-minute presentations on a topic that interests them. When we first started, students stayed in their comfort zone and presented topics they learned about in their studies. As we organised the Open Mic more, students became more free in their topics. They sought out topics that they wanted to learn about more, and learned as much as they could before presenting their findings to the others in the association. We are thrilled by this development and believe our intellectual program will continue to enlighten many students in the upcoming years.