EDITORIAL
There is something deeply disheartening about spending days and nights sweating to give birth to the best of your papers, only to see them gather dust in some untouched folder along with a stack of notes from your old courses. Within a strong academic community such as EUC, the work that students put into their papers should be rewarded with more than just a number. At a university that not just aims to understand, but also to engage with the outside environment, setting in motion a publishing flow furthermore constitutes a step in the right direction.
It is with these ideas in mind that I, together with a group of academic colleagues and friends, first conceived the idea of an EUC Student Academic Journal (ESAJ); a peer-reviewed journal that aims to publish the best papers written by our students.
Having now the honor to introduce the first issue of the ESAJ to the EUC community, I find myself filled with a deep sense of gratitude towards everyone who has contributed to make this possible. It has been a beautiful experience to observe a humble idea develop into a fruitful cooperation between students and staff at EUC. It is with the hope that the ESAJ can become an established entity at EUC, able to enrich academic life for years to come, that I will be passing on the task of chief editor to Philipp Spengler. My personal experience working together with him tells me he will be a great replacement. I imagine such a journal to continue to allow students who join the editorial board, as well as those interested in publishing, to gain insight into the process of academic publication and to improve their text writing and editing skills.
Never have I learnt so much at EUC as I did while setting up the ESAJ in the past one year and a half. From institutional dynamics and organizational matters, to translation issues (especially when a French, an Italian and a German debate over details of the English language), all the way into ego-management when dealing with the comments of your classmates on your own article. I believe similar lessons have been felt by my fellow editor-friends. Collectively, we have learned the extent to which a small-scale journal can bring another level of meaning and experience to our fellow students. Needless to say, my editing team was practically flawless, with its chief editor (myself) being the only occasional cause of fuss and delay. Hence, I wish to express my sincerest thanks to my awesome team members: Shireen Bhalla, Emilie de Bassompierre, Laetitia van den Bergen, Philipp Spengler and Daniel Xu. A special thank you goes to Gabija Bubnytė, who in addition to editing became the official and much needed designer of our team. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to prof. dr. Wim Hafkamp, and head of department dr. Robin van den Akker, without the support of whom the entire project would have not been possible.
Natalia Derossi, Chief Editor.