From Paris to London: AIRE students take part in the University College London (UCL) Ideas Sprint

Eight students from the AIRE Master’s programme, funded by EURIP, participated in the UCL Ideas Sprint, a social hackathon held on June 10th and hosted by the Students’ Union at University College London (UCL).

During the UCL Ideas Sprint, students had the opportunity to make a real impact by working as problem-solvers alongside local nonprofit organisations that presented them with real-world challenges. Our students contributed to two inspiring projects:

• ReachOut2All: a social enterprise that equips young people aged 13–30 with personal development skills through youth-led mentoring, practical workshops, and educational trips to major organizations to help them amplify their voices and advance in their education and careers.
• Displaced: an organisation that provides early mental health support and racial equity training, co-designed with migrant and racialised communities. It works with local authorities, schools, and youth organisations across London.

Throughout the rest of the week, the students also took part in a variety of activities that allowed them to discover London from a different perspective. They volunteered with the East London Canal Access Network, exploring the city’s waterways using tandem kayaks and paddleboards under heavy rain, to pick litter in the canal. They also joined a guided tour of UCL’s Bloomsbury campus with UCL Student Leaders. Paris and London students had been paired in penpals before the event and had already started building connections, which they continued during the week and have maintained ever since.

In September, EURIP will welcome the UCL students to the Learning Planet Institute (LPI) for a bootcamp in the MakerLab (FabLab) focused on accessibility, biodiversity and social connection. The programme will also include activities to discover Paris.

The AIRE Master’s programme team and its students would like to warmly thank Molly McCabe, Alisha Shah, Cherish Watton-Colbrook, and everyone at the UCL Students’ Union for making this inspiring collaboration possible!

Students share their experiences

“Both UCL and LPI share the same threads of interdisciplinarity and community-centric work, and it is refreshing to learn how we put these foci in practice differently. It was both a fun and meaningful challenge to sit in the shoes of the local organisations to reinvent ways of engagement for ReachOut2All; I hope we were able to plant seeds of change that will help them through the session! London is a vibrant city, and with the company of our UCL peers we were able to experience the rhythm of a city that keeps moving, rich in culture, nature, and people. As we return to LPI, we are rejuvenated with ways to connect better between campus and community for knowledge creation as well as active changemaking and advocacy.” Jodie Loi, M1 AIRE

“This exchange was one of the highlights of my last semester at LPI. It was a great opportunity to collaborate with students from UCL while working on a real challenge presented by Displaced CIC, a London-based community organisation supporting migrant and racialised young people. We spent time learning from their work and then brainstormed ways to reimagine, reframe, and reconstruct their card game designed to encourage storytelling and support wellbeing, with the aim of making it even more engaging, accessible, and supportive for the young people who use it. Beyond the project work, the exchange gave us the chance to connect with UCL students, exchange perspectives, and experience its community-focused approach to learning and research. We share the same vision and way of working through co-designing the future of learning with the youth, which is at the heart of the Learning Planet Institute.” Riu Rodriguez, M2 AIRE

“Volunteering with the East London Canal Access Network was an unforgettable experience for me. When we started the canal-cleaning activity, I honestly didn’t notice much trash at first, and I wondered whether this was really meaningful work or just a fun add-on to the program. But as I spent more time actually looking, even getting a little competitive about finding more than my teammates, I realized there was far more trash in the canal and waterways than I had imagined. I simply hadn’t been looking closely enough. That experience taught me something important, we often overlook the state of our environment simply because we don’t take the time to really see it. I felt grateful for the chance to take part in this kind of cleaning work, because I know it’s not something I would have done on my own initiative. On top of all the activities, it was wonderful to make new friends and have a fun time in London! Learning by doing, and by having fun, is always more meaningful and enriching.” Jimin Cheon, M1 AIRE

“The Ideas Sprint was a fantastic way to connect with the needs of the local community. The opportunity to work with ReachOut2All was truly a special one, as this exchange embodied the best of what it means to be a citizen of change in the most practical way. The ways in which we were given the freedom to ideate and present our ideas to the head of the charity was a highlight for me. This showed that our work would not just remain an idea, but could amount to useful and practical implementation for the foundation. Beyond the work, having the opportunity to be in and around UCL was a great experience as it is one of the best research institutions in Europe. This inspiring realization brought us back to LPI with great enthusiasm to continue to pursue our research with great rigor.” Zoe Zulu, M2 AIRE

“We worked on real problems: helping ReachOut2All reach more young people, and helping make the waterways of East London cleaner. It was inspiring and meaningful to meet these organisations and contribute, however modestly, to their work. It reinforced my conviction that knowledge should not simply be passed to students in classrooms, but can be actively created through collaboration, reflection, and iteration – and we can have lots of laughs in the process! It also highlighted the powerful role universities can play in serving the flourishing and well-being of their local communities.” Volha Vitavets, M1 AIRE