Students
European Studies Student Association (ESSA)
ESSA traditions include monthly brown-bag lunches with BYU faculty and career advisors, an opening social, and a closing banquet honoring graduating seniors and the student-selected European Studies Professor of the Year.
Café Europa
Two times each semester, we invite a panel of experienced professors from around campus to discuss pertinent European topics. Staged as overhearing conversations of people gathered at a European café, topics range from timely discussions of current events to favorite foods to major political issues.
Brussels Internship
As the home of the European Union and NATO and the de facto political capital of Europe, Brussels is a prime location for students seeking meaningful international internships in the political, cultural, and social arenas. BYU students participating in the European Government and Society internship program work at the EU or EU-affiliated think tanks, lobbying groups, and charitable organizations.
Most interns spend their work hours researching and writing on current affairs and learning how governmental policy is shaped in the EU. On evenings and weekends, interns explore Brussels, participate in the international ward in Brussels, and, time and funds allowing, take advantage of the city’s central location to travel to London, Paris, Amsterdam, and other nearby European cities. Brussels interns consequently emerge with enhanced workplace skills, a heightened appreciation for European culture and current affairs, several credits toward a major or minor, and a résumé line likely to open doors for years to come.
Model European Union
For the past several years, BYU Students have competed at the West Coast Model EU (MEU) competition sponsored by the University of Washington in Seattle. MEU is a simulation of a European Council Summit where undergraduate students play the roles of representatives of EU member state delegations, the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the European Parliament. MEU features two concurrent summit negotiation sessions focusing on two issues each year. BYU generally represents three EU member states and each member state has a representative in the two sessions. Approximately six students are selected by the beginning of December each year to compete in the February of the following year.