Summer Activities


Arnoldas Pranckevicius


District 7150: USA


PERIOD REPORTED - YEAR 2003:

· January - June 2003: 2nd semester of studies at Sciences Po Paris
· July 2003: summer internship at the UNESCO in Paris
· August 2003: summer activities in Lithuania
· September – December 2003: traineeship at the European Parliament in Brussels


EVALUATION OF MY SECOND SEMESTER AT SCIENCES PO


As I look back at my second semester at Sciences Po (February-June 2003), I can say I felt more at home in Paris than in the beginning of my Parisian experience. The French language was slowly but improving, I also greatly enjoyed living in the Cite Universitaire, international student campus created in a beautiful park outside Paris, while every single day of mine in Paris brought a special event, an interesting visit, or a company of good friends…

I came to love this city, to enjoy each free moment spent in park, art gallery, theatre, or just café, chatting with new friends from all over the world. And I can definitely say that this has been the most international experience of my life so far!

Academically it has been a defining semester as well. I finally chose European Studies as my major, since I believe it will prepare me best for a career within the European Union, which is one of the most significant contributors to peacekeeping, peacemaking and peace building initiatives around the world and also is a biggest donor of global development aid. So in fact, via the European studies I found my own approach how I could relate my experiences at Sciences Po to the field of peace and conflict resolution.

In regard to the European Studies program, I am largely satisfied with it. Although in general my Sciences Po studies have been less academically rigorous, intellectually satisfying and academically qualitative than my American university experience, nevertheless the classes in the European Studies have been the best among those I took at Sciences Po. Simply because the French, who have been at the origin of the European integration and still remain the main driving force in it, are good at it. European Studies have deep and sophisticated traditions at Sciences Po, so consequently it is taught well.

I especially liked the class "Système politique et juridique de l'Union européenne", where I enjoyed very carefully and seriously organized simulation of the European Council deliberations. My role was Belgium’s agriculture minister. I was especially surprised at how seriously and enthusiastically the students approached this negotiation, which lasted few weeks. Every day I would receive tens of emails with new and updated amendments, proposals from other students; we had numerous informal meetings to build coalitions, to sharpen our national strategies. It was a lot of fun!

Apart from classes, Sciences Po brought plenty of interesting people to address the student body this semester, including economist Joseph Stiglitz, French Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin, former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, French Minister of Foreign Affairs Dominique de Villepin, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, and many others…

On my own and with friends this semester I further explored the cultural wonders of Paris and France. I tremendously enjoyed visiting the museums of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Auguste Rodin, discovering special exhibition of Marc Chagall and Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny.

I still treasure memories from watching ballet “Nijinsky” at the magnificent Opera Garnier, being enriched by singing of Lithuanian mezzo soprano Violeta Urmana and by the music of National Orchestra of France, directed by La Scala’s legendary director Riccardo Muti at the Theatre of Champs Elysées, as well as admiring the musical “Le Petit Prince.” Moreover, I couldn’t resist the temptation to explore yet more of France, visiting Avignon, Nîmes and Montpellier in the south, and St Malo in Brittany.

Rotary has kept as busy as well. Our group of World Peace scholars spent two great weekends in Normandy and Lyon, where we not only visited and lived with Rotarians, but also further explored the wonders of France.

On May 24th, however, it was our turn to thank Rotary for their kind help. That day at Sciences Po we presented the Parisian Rotarians with a whole-day colloquium on international security issues, which we were organising for several months. Two round tables brought together academic, governmental and non-governmental experts. Among the speakers we invited the Ambassador of the Arab League, one of the directors of UNESCO, former president of “Doctors without borders”, etc. The event, first of its kind in Rotary Center’s history, was enjoyed by most participants.

One has to note, that while the Rotary Center at Sciences Po has been changing during the past year in a positive direction, listening to the needs and criticism of the inaugural Peace Scholar class, and trying to accommodate their requests in regard to the curriculum and the program, it could still be more open and closer to the students.

But overall, I see positive trends. Last year, which was an inaugural year of the program, was the most difficult and challenging one for the existence of the Center, but it was also the most productive and successful one in succeeding in pushing through some needed changes and reforms in the Rotary program at Sciences Po.

GLOBAL EVENTS AND THEIR INFLUENCE IN AND OUTSIDE THE CLASS

However, this semester was also deeply touched by the war in Iraq. As one might imagine, Paris was a very interesting place to be during this time. Not only we were able to witness massive and very animated protests against the war in the streets, squares, and at Sciences Po, but also I learned a big deal about French political and diplomatic culture, which exposed itself vividly in the face of Iraqi crisis.

The Iraq issue raised many emotions in Paris and beyond. I spent endless hours discussing these issues with my colleagues and professors of Sciences Po in class, and outside class, in the bars and cafes. It was a very active intellectual period for all international relations students, indeed.

In the midst of international diplomatic crisis in April I even invited Lithuania’s ambassador to France, Mrs. Asta Skaisgiryte-Liauškiene, to speak at Sciences Po about Lithuania’s and other “Vilnius Ten” countries’ position vis-à-vis the war in Iraq. I further encountered this issue during the visit of Lithuania’s President Rolandas Paksas, who was in Paris in May to warm up ice with French President Jacques Chirac. Since Lithuanian correspondent in Paris was away, I was asked by the national daily newspaper “Lietuvos rytas” to cover this story and get an interview from President Paksas about his visit with Mr. Chirac.

And last but not least, I was very happy to observe in Paris historic moments for entire Europe. In April I joined about 5000 people from all 25 current and future EU countries in French Foreign Ministry Palace (Quai d’Orsay) to celebrate the signing of Athens EU enlargement treaty, while on May 11th I was among Paris Lithuanian community members rejoicing at our Parisian embassy the remarkable result of Lithuanian vote in the EU referendum – even 91 percent of Lithuanian population supported the membership in the EU.

SUMMER INTERNSHIP AT UNESCO

After the end of spring semester I decided to stay in Paris and take up an internship at the UNESCO, the institution that has always attracted my attention. I was delighted to finally have an opportunity to experience this fascinating international organization from within.

Throughout July I assisted Ms Ina Marciulionyte, Lithuania’s ambassador to UNESCO. I was not only dying from Parisian heat, cracking down from jokes we shared with our ambassador over daily lunches, but also receiving the craziest work assignments, like drafting Lithuanian President's letter congratulating UNESCO General Secretary on one very positive UNESCO decision towards Lithuania.

I helped the ambassador in many different ways – from writing diplomatic notes, official letters and press releases, facilitating her communication with Lithuanian Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Culture and Education, the Secretariat of UNESCO as well as delegations of other countries, to organizing and staffing her meetings with other ambassadors and helping in coalition building and other diplomatic endeavors.

One specific project, in which I was involved, was gathering support of other countries towards Lithuania’s bid to become a member of one of the most prestigious committees of UNESCO – the World Heritage Committee. It is this body that decides which natural, historic or cultural sites should become protected by UNESCO as part of world’s heritage.

In order to promote Lithuania’s candidature, I wrote diplomatic notes to at least 80 different countries, proposing specific exchanges of mutual support at the upcoming elections to be held at UNESCO’s General Conference in October. I also scheduled and attended bilateral meetings between Ms Marciulionyte and ambassadors of other countries. It was truly exciting to watch up-close how diplomacy works in the real world. I was most impressed, for example, when the Prince of Cambodia came to our office to discuss mutual exchanges, and I mistook him for a mailman.

Our summer endeavours proved to be fruitful – on 16th of October I received a phone call from Ambassador Marciulionyte, who cheerfully informed me that even 82 countries supported Lithuania’s candidature during the General Conference. Lithuania was proud to be elected a member of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee.

My UNESCO experience served as a great school of diplomacy for me. I had a chance to closely observe the work of the Ambassador and execute some tasks, which went beyond usual responsibilities of an intern. There were moments when I was the only person present at Lithuania’s Permanent Delegation to UNESCO and had to act quickly and responsibly to address the incoming requests.

Also, I had a great chance to learn more about UNESCO and its activities. I would accompany the Ambassador to different events and meetings, where I observed the daily political work of the institution. It was especially interesting to attend special meetings of UNESCO ambassadors, where the issues of Iraq after-war reconstruction were addressed.

I was further impressed by the rapport with Ambassador Marciulionyte – she was very open, down to earth and very attentive. She shared with me her own experiences and some unique insights in diplomatic and political issues. I learned a great deal from her and was very pleasantly surprised when one day she even invited me for a dinner at her home in Paris.

Finally, being in Paris in summer was somewhat special as well. I had a chance to enjoy such events as Paris Jazz Festival or the culmination of the Tour de France. Also, for the first time in my life I witnessed the Bastille Day - July the 14th celebration in Paris. Despite the fact that I was nearly crushed by a crowd of one million people during the military parade at Champs Elysées and the fireworks near the Eiffel Tour, I will never forget this incredible day!

AUGUST ACTIVITIES IN LITHUANIA

In August I headed for a short vacation to Lithuania, however I did not manage to get too much rest there as well. I quickly became involved in the organisation of the International Anti-Corruption Youth Forum, which was held in the Druskininkai resort. During one week we hosted a group of talented students from all over region - representing the youth of Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Poland.

I tremendously enjoyed this event, which helped me to get to know some great young and active people in the region, where corruption still remains one of the gravest problems. During that week I presented lectures on the EU anti-corruption policies, helped organise debates and judged in them, led fun activities at night and brainstormed the writing of the Youth Anti-Corruption Charter, which served as a culmination of our conference.

After the closing of the Forum, all exhausted I finally reached Vilnius, where I was taken into the “nightmare” of the live TV debate on the National Television’s TV3 show “One on One” with Mr. Eugenijus Gentvilas, Liberal party leader, former Mayor of Klaipeda, former Minister of Economy and former Prime Minister... I couldn’t even expect that so many people in Lithuania would watch that show. Next few days I couldn't even walk in the street - whenever I would get into bus, or go to shop, strangers would stop me and start talking about the show. What a scandal!

I tried to take refuge in my old high school in native Panevežys, where I was asked to speak to the upperclassmen on several ocassions and to share my advice on studying abroad possibilities. Also, I was happy to help the 10th graders prepare for an ASSIST (American Secondary Schools for International Students and Teachers) competition for exchange study in America.

I will remind you that it was exactly ASSIST scholarship that first brought me to the United States in 1996 for an extraordinary exchange year at the Montclair Kimberley Academy in New Jersey. Some 50 students in Lithuanian history profited from this remarkable opportunity to spend a junior year in some of the best American private schools.

Unfortunately, the ASSIST closed down in Lithuania several years ago after New York based philanthropist George Soros pulled out his financial support from the Baltic States. However, last year I was approached by the current ASSIST President Mr. Stanley as well as the previous president Mr. Lindfors, who suggested they would like to come back to Lithuania. I helped them get in touch with Dr. Juozas Kazickas, an American-Lithuanian philanthropist, who enthusiastically decided to support the program. Thus, starting August 2004, six Lithuanians each year will be able to spend their 11th grade in the United States!

During August I was also happy to be able to contribute in some small way towards the endeavours of the Lithuanian Debate Society. Namely, I helped prepare Lithuanian National Debate Team for the upcoming Worlds Schools Debate Championship in Peru. It was great fun to revisit my own memories of debating in the World Champs in Israel some six years ago.

Short yet busy month of August in Lithuania culminated with 5OO year anniversary of my native town Panevežys. The celebration, highlighted by numerous concerts, plays and spectacles, dances and fireworks, was indeed a very special experience. But I had to miss the final night of the festivity, since my luggage already faced towards... Brussels!

FALL TRAINEESHIP AT THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT IN BRUSSELS

In September my dream came true – having Europe in my heart I finally was able to experience the heart of Europe itself – Brussels! This came to be reality with my unpaid traineeship at the European Parliament (EP), in the Directorate-General for Information and Public Relations, Visits and Seminars Division, from 8 September to 19 December 2003.

During this time I was based in Brussels, Belgium, however in November I was on a one-week mission to Strasbourg, France, where the EP meets for its plenary sessions. By the way, this traineeship is the longest I’ve ever had. It lasted as long as my former Washington, DC internships at the United States Senate and at the Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty in 2001 put together.

The EP employs each year only up to 70 trainees, choosing from a pool of several thousand applicants from across Europe, thus I was indeed fortunate to have been chosen. Also, this traineeship forms an integral part of my Sciences Po Master degree studies. This one-semester full-time internship at a European institution is a requirement for my major of European Studies, and I should receive 30 academic credits for it, once the traineeship is approved by Sciences Po Avenir.

My primary responsibility during my traineeship in Brussels was to give 1 to 2 hour long conferences in English, French and Lithuanian on the role and functions of the European Parliament, explaining its relations with other European Institutions and in the context of world events for groups of official visitors to the EP, coming from all 15 EU countries, as well as from Eastern Europe and the United States.

As for example, I talked to the delegation of the Washington, DC Mayor, Bulgarian Ministry of Justice group, Lithuania’s Kaunas region’s mayors and administrators, US public officials and media representatives, French lobbyists, British priests, Yorkshire conservatives, Swedish social democrats, Dutch local government officials, Polish lawyers, Slovenian ELSA (European Law Student Association) members, Erasmus students studying in Belgium, MBA students from Universities of Florida and Dallas, etc.

I found this work exciting and responsible. While planning and preparing for my presentations, I studied and researched numerous European issues, such as the proposed European Constitution, the enlargement process, reform of the institutions, etc, and in doing so learned a great deal and deepened my knowledge in the European Affairs.

Giving the presentations, on the other hand, was also very interesting, dynamic and enriching experience. It further improved my public speaking skills and gave me a unique opportunity to get a feel of European public opinion, since I met and interacted with people coming from different countries, different ages, different backgrounds, and different attitudes towards Europe.

Another highlight of my stage was helping in organisation of the European Parliament of Disabled People (EPDP), which on 10th and 11th of November brought to Brussels close to 500 people from 28 European countries to debate issues related to disability. The event was also attended by the highest rank officials from the European Commission, the Council as well as the European Parliament. The resolutions that were passed by the EPDP are expected to substantially influence any future disability policy of the EU.

My work with the EPDP was essentially administrative - inviting, registering and welcoming the participants of the event, as well as solving related logistical problems. This task, which took at least one month to be accomplished, demanded a very careful approach – I had to research the disability of each participant (whether motor, hearing, visual or mental) and communicate this information to respective agencies and EP security in order to be well prepared for the event.

Consequently, based on this information, four types of sign language were used during the event, all documents were printed in the Braille, personal hearing devices were ordered, and enough space created in the Hemicycle to host hundred wheelchairs.

It was an enormous endeavour on the part of the EP to host so many disabled people at one time, but at the end it proved to be a success. This experience not only provided me with substantial organisational and administrative knowledge, but also helped me learn more about disability and disabled people than I ever knew.

On a different note, what I liked about the traineeship is that I was able to work directly with numerous administrators from British, Greek, Finish, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Czech, Dutch and Polish sectors. Since many of them have spent a number of years working in the European institutions, I was lucky to have this opportunity to learn from them and grow as a consequence.

I had never expected that I would get to know my older colleagues so well – together we spent time even after work, at dinners, birthday parties, in concerts and in the cafes. I was very pleasantly surprised when my colleagues invited me for a monumental opera “Carmina Burana”, or when they organised a very sincere and warm farewell gift – an album with their photos and with very nice wishes from each of them.

Although I was the only intern in my Division, I quickly found contact with EP stagiaires from Italy, Britain, France, Hungary, Holland, Ukraine, etc, who were working in other departments, and we spent some good quality time together. We organised trips to other EU institutions and around Belgium, also heading to Maastricht in the Netherlands, where historic EU treaty was signed in 1992. In order to be better acquainted to Belgium, I also joined the trips to Leuven, Gent and Antwerp.

A funny intern story happened during the October IGC (Inter-Governmental Conference), which met in Brussels to discuss the project of the European Constitution. During a traditional Thursday EP stagiaire get-together in the bar “Kitty O’Shea’s”, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder unexpectedly came in, humbly sat in the corner, ordered a beer, and spent an hour resting after extremely difficult summit day. We were quit surprised to receive such a guest at our party and my German friends trainees couldn’t believe they were able to simply walk up to him for a chat.

Indeed, Brussels is an extremely dynamic and vibrant city, which offers a great possibility for international relations students to observe European politics from up-close. I enjoyed being able to witness many important European political events at the European Parliament, including important debates of the Euro-Parliamentarians with the European Commission’s President Romano Prodi, Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen, Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler, and others. I heard EU’s High Representative for foreign affairs Javier Solana, Latvia’s President Vaira Vyke Freiberga, former European decision-makers Mary Robinson and Robin Cook address the house.

During my traineeship in Brussels I was also happy to represent Lithuania on several occasions. Namely, in October I was invited to give an interview to the Brussels TV about Lithuania for their series on the ten new countries joining the EU in May 2004. Another television interview unexpectedly collapsed on me in November, when in the Lithuanian embassy in Brussels I was speaking to the Danish National Television about Lithuania’s upcoming membership in the EU.

Also, my time in Brussels brought me in contact with numerous young Lithuanians, who have just started working for various European institutions. In December I took an initiative to organise a first meeting of its kind between these new Lithuanian “eurocrats” and Lithuanian diplomats at the newly opened Lithuania’s Mission to the EU. This meeting served a great opportunity to get to know each other and to create a useful network for sharing the information and trying to make work more effective on both sides.

Furthermore, during four months in Belgium I tried to remain in touch with what’s happening in Paris and took at least three trips there to attend the events of Rotary Center at Sciences Po as well as to help Jason Levin to organise the welcome of new Rotary scholars in September. I also took one short trip to London to participate in the reception with Mrs. Rebecca Chopp, President of my alma mater - Colgate University.

The only difficulty I encountered during this semester was a financial one. Despite the fact that my traineeship was unpaid, my Rotary scholarship coordinator decided to cut my monthly Rotary stipend by 38 percent, arguing that Brussels is less expensive than Paris. Consequently, I received total of 2000 euros less than other Rotary scholars who remained in Paris.

Later I was disappointed to find out that in fact food prices are very similar in Paris and in Brussels, and I also ended up paying the same rent in both cities. As a consequence, my Brussels account was empty by the start of December and I had to exhaust my savings from previous summer jobs and newspaper work I’ve done in Lithuania.
Despite that, I trust that my EP traineeship will play a crucial role in my future decisions regarding work, but most importantly I will treasure the human contacts I made there and the international friendships that I hope will last long into the future.

ONWARDS TO THE LAST SEMESTER AT SCIENCES PO

As I was welcoming the arrival of the New Year 2004 on the Charles Bridge in magnificent Prague, I caught myself with a thought that this will be a year, which will mark the end and the new beginning. Indeed, our Rotary scholarship experiences in Paris will culminate this July. It is sad and exciting at the same time. It will be sad to leave such wonderful city, its remarkable people and extraordinary experiences behind, but it will be also exciting to finally enter the real world and test our knowledge gained in class against the reality of today’s uncertain world.

But before that I made a resolution to try to exhaust every final opportunity of my soon-to-end student life to gain as much knowledge and experience as I possibly can. Already this January for the last time I joined the international student debate tournaments in Minsk, Belarus and in Vilnius, Lithuania. It was somewhat sentimental to debate on the globalization and democracy issues for the last time in a student debate world, where the exchange of logical thinking and reasoning are guided by very strict rules. I have no doubt that I will engage in debate on many different occasions in my future, but in real life, contrary to the debate community, most of the time there are no rules of the game.

Furthermore, this upcoming last semester at Sciences Po I am looking forward to struggling with difficult but very interesting courses in international law and economics. I also chose a class on space exploration and Europe’s stake in it, at the time when the eyes of many political leaders of the world are fixed on the sky.

But probably I am most excited with an opportunity to participate in the Allianz Summer Academy "Reinventing Europe: New Generation set their agenda," which will bring in July in Bavaria 25 students from five leading European universities, including Sciences Po in Paris. This past fall Sciences Po organised a competition to identify five students to participate in this project and I was fortunate to have been chosen as one of them.

This project is intended to provide a marvellous opportunity for concerned young Europeans to propose their own views on Europe’s strategic direction into the future, with a potential goal to benefit not only European, but global society as well.


To be continued.



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