V23E3

Presidential words
Strengthening the EPSA network
It has been just a month since many of us have
participated in our event of excellence, the EPSA
Annual Reception, hosted in the European Parliament
in Brussels. Excellent speakers addressed the
audience with their perspectives on medicines
pricing and a heated debate followed afterwards. It
was a pleasure to welcome you all to the centre of
the European Union and to show you what EPSA
can achieve on the European level. You can get an
insight into the event and side activities around it on
the next pages.
A month has passed and here we are, right before the
start of our biggest event of the year, the 39th EPSA
Annual Congress, taking place in the marvellous city
of Helsinki in Finland. The Reception Committee
worked hard to welcome you to their country,
show you their culture and provide a platform for
sharing knowledge, experiences and networking
for all of us. However, for some of us attending a
Congress of this format would not be possible due
to financial reasons. Throughout the years, EPSA
has developed a solution for that and many students
have benefited from the EPSA Support Fund at
the Autumn Assemblies and Annual Congresses.
This Newsletter features several testimonials from
previous Support Fund receivers.
Nevertheless, before we start the Congress let us
take a look at what happened in EPSA in the last
months. EPSA has been literally everywhere! Our
Team and Trainers had the pleasure to participate
in many of your local events, sharing the EPSA
spirit and hopefully encouraging many of you to get
more involved. The first edition of Trainers on Tour
happened this year between 7th and 19th March,
where pairs of Trainers were travelling around Europe
delivering soft skills trainings to students on the local
level. It has been a great success and the EPSA
Training project reached another milestone this year.
Looking back at 9 months of my mandate and
keeping in mind a few more ahead, with the new
Team 2016-2017 elect by our side throughout the
handover period, I would like to take this point to
thank my amazing Team 2015-2016 for all their
efforts, engagement, motivation and spirit. It is an
unforgettable journey and I am deeply saddened it
will come to an end in July this year.
End of the journey for some will be a beginning for
others. I encourage you all to take up this challenge
and get more involved in EPSA, be it on your local,
national or European level. You will not regret it,
neither will I.
Yours in EPSA,
Katarzyna Świderek
EPSA President
president@epsa-online.org
4 European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association