The summer school “Delightful Sebria: Empower & Inspire”, jointly organized by the College of Education of Zhejiang University (CoE-ZJU) and Faculty of Technical Sciences at University of Novi Sad (FTS-UNS) was successfully held from July 13th to July 20th, 2020, aiming to facilitate intercultural awareness and learning, and important soft skills, which will empower students and enhance employability in the future. In the face of COVID-19 challenge, professors from Serbia and more than 20 college students from China participated the program via ZOOM platform.

During the short 8-day course, the students deepened understanding of educational and economic cooperation between Serbia and China within the framework of Belt and Road Initiative, had a taste of natural attractions, top brands and sports in Serbia. After that, the program took up the vital topics of a set of skills in the spectrum of communication, presentation, learning style and team. At the practice level, students presented a real situation along with the application of knowledge from the program.  

The course kicked off with an introduction of the profound historical friendship between China and Serbia. Professor Nikola Zivlak, Tanja Todorović and Branislav Bogojević introduced the cooperation, current practices and future development between China and Serbia in the fields of education, economy, and culture respectively.In the second part, Professor Miroslav Vujicić, Professor Djordjije Vasiljević and Professor Jelena Spajić led the students into a journey of traditional culture, tourism industry, famous commercial brands and sports culture of Serbia. Previously, most of the students did not have a deep understanding of Serbia. However, through the comprehensive and detailed introduction to Serbia, the students enhanced their knowledge of Serbia, allowing us to appreciate this charming Balkan pearl.

Professor Jelena Spaji and Professor Maja Stanceti started from the innate characters of communication, and discussed with students how to improve communication skills.Besides, Professor Maja Stanceti guided students to learn better about themselves and fulfill their potential by characteristic tests.Furthermore, Professor Danijela Ćiri shared with students about the tactics to make presentations more attractive and discussed on the topic of how to build a great team.With his years of rich experience being a football referee, Milorad Maži shared with us about what qualities a top leader should be equipped with.  

This online program makes it possible for the students to better know themselves, providing them an opportunity to understand the essence of multi-culture communication, delivering related experience for further cooperation.At the last day of the program, the students made short presentations based on their previous studies, applied the newly learned knowledge to the real situations they encountered and exchanged their reflections. The professors listened carefully to each student's presentation and gave professional feedbacks.  

At the farewell ceremony, professor Bojan Lalic appreciated students’ participation in the China-Salvia e-exchange program. He reminded students that communication skills are of crucial importance for career paths and looked forward to continued cooperation with ZJU.The students from ZJU received electronic certificates from the University of Novi Sad. It not only represents an exclusive commemoration of this fruitful summer exchange camp, but also the friendship between China and Serbia from ideas to action.

By QIU Feng, WENG Xin

College of Education

Zhejiang University