Merry Christmas!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

JOYEUX NÖEL!!

¡¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

News from Cork

Hello Agris Mundus,
Very warm season’s greetings from Cork.

Regional representative elections

As you know that we are only two Agris Mundus students here in Cork, we held very competitive elections for regional representative.
There were two candidates, myself (Timothy) and Vicente. The first round of elections was very competitive, and it ended with a 1-1 for the two votes cast.
There was a run-off between the two candidates, and this time Vicente emerged the winner, with one vote. The other candidate lost because one of the two votes cast was invalid!
So our regional representative from Cork is Jorge Vicente Asebey from Bolivia.

Teaching
Core Modules
Food Business
Food Business Analysis
Food Business Project
Electives
Food Retail marketing and supply chain management
Advanced Food Marketing
Cooperative Business and the rural economy
Advanced Food Business Management
Food security in the developing world
Food Choice Analysis
Language (Spanish or German)

Teaching for the first semester started on 22.09.08 and ended on 12.12.08. We are 11 students in the Msc. Food Business 1 class. The lectures have been very interesting. We specifically learnt marketing as applied to food covering areas such as Functional foods, organic foods, New product development, Innovation, business planning......etc. For Food Security in the developing world, we formed working groups of five to research on one of the eight millennium development goals and make a presentation to the rest of the class. The presentation contributes 40% and an essay on the presentation accounts for 60% of the final mark. It was interesting for us to practice making presentations.
Towards the end of the semester, we have been very busy with project work. Almost all the lecturers wanted their essays handed in on the same deadline i.e. 12.12.08. But we are fortunate that almost all our exams will be in the summer. We however have one exam on Food retail marketing and supply chain management on 08.01.08. So we will be revising during the Christmas period (on the bad side though). After exams, in the summer, we will go out for work placement to any country, company of our choice to put into practice the theory we had in class.

Cork City
Cork is an old, small but busy city. It is home to over 20,000 students from University College Cork (UCC) and the neighbouring Colleges. It is a city full of students from all over the world. Thursday is especially busy (its official party night for students). Students move all over till dawn, and the beer just flows in taps in the pubs (stop missing; you can pay us a visit...).
Yesterday (Sunday) we had an Erasmus Christmas party. It was fun all through the night.

I have attached some of the pictures with me and my Erasmus friends.

I hope you are all having it the easy way with you course(s) and of course party. If you don’t please get a life and enjoy your Erasmus experience!

Merry Christmas to you all and a happy new year.

From Timothy Abeikis (UCC), Uganda

Regional representative in Catania

Noor-Ehsan Gobindram (gobindram@intnet.mu) from Mauritius became the regional representative of the Agris Mundus students in Catania.
Congratulations and good luck!

Creation of an Agris Mundus Student Association

Since a couple of weeks, the regional representatives of Wageningen (Jens), Madrid (Borja), Copenhagen (Maria), Montpellier (Julie) and our global representatives Linda and Renzo have been meeting online to discuss the possibility of creating an Agris Mundus Students Association.

An association would be helpfull in continuing communication between students and alumni, exchange information between universities, make statutes so that things continue in the same way etc.

First, it is important to know what the students want. For this it would be really helpfull if you answer these questions and send it to your regional or global representative.

1) Do you think we should create an Agris Mundus Student Association?
2) Do you want to be involved in the creation of this association? How would you like to get involve?
3) How much time per week would you commit for this work?
4) What should be the main objectives of this Association? (Name at least three main subjects you consider crucial)
5) What aspects you recommend to include in the mandate of the Association?

We will make a summary of the answers and post it on the blog, so keep checking it to be up-to-date!

Acknowledgment of reception M. Landais

The General Director of the IRC, signed our letter about the scholarship issue to show us that he received it.
Click on the picture to see it in a separate window!

News from Madrid

Hi, Colleagues! How’s life going in the rest of Europe? I would like to give you a taste of what is going on with in Madrid…

There are 23 of us (6 are with Agris Mundus) representing 13 different countries (Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chili, Colombia, Ecuador, USA, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Puerto Rico and Spain) studying in the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid.

In addition to the vast cultural diversity, the variety of professional training within the group is amazing (Agricultural engineers, geographers, veterinarians, economists, administrators, just to name a few). Without a doubt, the range of individuals proves an enormous asset for the exchange experiences. The discussions that develop in and out of class are incredible!

The focus of study is rural development, and we have classes revolving around three key subjects:
Development Planning (EU policies, Rural Sociology, Public Policy Planning, Environmental Management and Sustainable Development).
Projects (Development and Evaluation of Projects, Logical Framework, Business Management, Leadership, etc).
Components of Development (Diversification of Activities, Innovation, Rural Tourism, Agribusiness, Food Security, Social Economy and Employment).

Different from the other M1 students we have to undertake a project (investigation or intervention) during the first year!!!

We have student meetings every Thursday to discuss matters of interest, such as the academic calendar, evaluation of the courses, cultural activities, and so on. We have organized a student committee to oversee and organize recreational activities (parties and trips) and there is also a commission of culture in charge of informing the group of current activities in Madrid.

Life in Madrid is most pleasant; with a charming atmosphere and lively surroundings. The measureless amount of cultural activities, many of which are free, simply add to the attraction. Some of these events are theater productions, movie festivals, guided tours through the Botanical gardens, concerts, museums, etc.

Anyone interested in visiting the Spanish capital could count on many friends willing to show them around the city!

Hasta pronto!!

Maria Fernanda Arraes and Levi Johnson (mafearraes@hotmail.com )

New Agris Mundus Coordinator in Copenhagen

In Copenhagen, Andreas de Neergaard (adn@life.ku.dk) became the new Agris Mundus Coordinator. His predecessor, Henning Hogh Jensen, has left the University of Copenhagen and is now working for the University of Aarhus. The picture you see here was made during the SLUSE course in Malaysia.

Congratulations and good luck, Andreas!