For us - Samuel, Marcus, Tom and Maximilian - it was our first experience abroad in the form of an exchange, and we couldn't have wished for a better city than Leuven. When we found out about the offer at our university, there were no major hurdles thanks to the uncomplicated planning, and it quickly became clear who would be joining the trip. Samuel took over the organization of the accommodation and became our driver for the approximately four-hour drive to Belgium.
Leuven immediately impressed us: a compact but lively student city where it is easy to meet new people - whether at the university or over a Belgian beer at the famous Old Market. As part of the Challenges in Entrepreneurship program, we spent a week working on a real business case with sustainable fashion start-up COSH! Our task was to develop a social media campaign for their newly launched app. Even though we personally might have been more interested in other topics, we really enjoyed working with our international team and the students from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Finland and Belgium.
In addition to the content-related work, there were many opportunities to get to know each other better - whether over Belgian fries and waffles, a joint skating trip or a tour of the Stella Artois brewery. Our language skills improved noticeably and the openness of the Belgian students made it easy for us to quickly feel at home. The crowning Degree was a gala dinner party, followed by the final pitch to the company's managers the next morning.
The week flew by, so we quickly extended it by a weekend and took a day trip to Antwerp. We were particularly pleased that the €550 sponsorship covered all our costs and enabled us to have this valuable experience without any financial burden.
In the end, we all agreed that this experience was worth every moment and we would do it again any time.
"Challenges in Entrepreneurship": An exciting trip to Belgium
