Central to SIB-Utrecht is our intellectual program. Organised by students and for students, trough the intellectual program we seek to promote social engagement, broaden horizons, and foster critical thinking among young people. Our members are students from a wide range of academic disciplines who take an interest in developments both at locally and abroad. But we are also developing outside of our university arena, and our reach spans outside the university and outside the city of Utrecht. Our External Committee, under the supervision of our Commissioner of External Affairs, is working the year round, brainstorming, finding interesting topics and angles, emailing and calling experts, and organizing these activities.
Our intellectual program is build upon three pillars: lectures, workshops, and excursions.
Lectures
Our ‘traditional’ lectures form the foundation of our intellectual programme. One or more experts in the field will educate our participants with their view and knowledge on the theme of the evening. The program covers a very wide range of topics, also covering non-practical topics and recent developments, with the goal to broaden the horizons of those present.
We expand upon this with more interactive formats. Examples are movie lectures, panel discussions, debates (like our yearly political election debates), and Q&A’s. Here we actively encourage the audience to engage with the lecture, by providing feedback, asking questions, and being critical.
Workshops
Teaching should also take a ‘hands-on’ approach in our opinion. You learn the quickest, and gain new experiences through trainings, workshops, and other active learning moments. These are not ‘intellectual’ in the strict sense, but offer new practical skills and insights. A self-defense workshop, learning sign-language, and mental health workshops are some examples of what we do.
The most important element here for us if having fun in learning. We therefore host, among others, trivia nights, pubquizzes, and escaperooms.
A returning activity every year is our Open Mic evening, where students give 10-minute presentations on a topic that interests them. Getting people involved in your passions, while learning valuable presentation skills!
Excursions
In order to expand knowledge, broaden horizons and experience new experiences, we deem it important to take our members outside of the city, and into the rest of the world. We organise excursions to museum, embassies, parliament buildings, cultural centres, and other cities. Here, we seek out new knowledge, perspectives, and expertises from locals. Embracing different surroundings, regional traditions and customs, and differing cultures will create more percipient and knowledgeable world citizens.