ERASMUS CHANGING LIVES OPENING MINDS fOR 25 YEARS

Jana
Vitvarová
‘Erasmus gives you a pair of wings’
Home institution:
University of Žilina, Slovakia
Host institution:
National Institute of
Telecommunications, Evry, France
Field of study:
Telecommunications
Duration:
5 months (2000)
‘My parents were my Erasmus ambassadors,’ says Jana Vitvarová. ‘International
contacts were important in both their professions – my father was a computer
science researcher and my mother a French teacher – so I didn’t need anyone
else to explain to me the benefits of going to study abroad.’
In Paris, she relished the business focus at the National Institute of Telecommunications.
In real-life simulation exercises, students worked for intense
three-day sessions to develop project proposals for different companies. ‘Many
of my classmates had already done traineeships and I could see that they had
extra intuition as a result.’
She also valued the requirement to present her work, rather than just hand in
written assignments. Thanks to the experience, in her later work specialising
in next generation networks she found it easier standing in front of a group of
people presenting her work. ‘The presentation skills I acquired have improved
my outputs in teaching, research as well as in business cases.’
When selected as the one millionth Erasmus student from Slovakia in 2002,
she was little prepared for how it would change her life. At the celebration in
Brussels, she met her future husband, a former Erasmus student from the
Czech Republic. Together, the pair moved to Ireland and, after a period in
Austria, are now based in the Czech Republic with their two young children.
‘Erasmus gives you a pair of wings. It’s up to you whether you decide to fly
a long way or just make a round trip.’
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