Call for student projects: committed support for ambitious initiatives
In 2020, no less than 90 000€ were allocated to about twenty projects. As the second edition of this call is launched, Mathilde Binet, Jeanne Devineau, Alexandra Deniaud, Arthur Tran-Lambert, David Rakoto, Gautier Chamoulaud, Maxime Amans, Marwane Saich and Xavier Lacaille, leaders of winning projects in 2020, tell us about their experience.
Seeing our project supported by Institut Polytechnique de Paris really helped it to take off at an unexpected time. We are now also able to reach a larger number of students through the Institut's communication channels.
The development and stimulation of students: fundamental issues for Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Every year, 8,000 students are active on the campus of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris. 8,000 young people aspiring to learn, to grow and to live up to their potential. The Institut and its five Schools strive not only to offer them a stimulating education based on research, but also to encourage them to carry out projects that will enable them to enrich their curriculum, their soft skills and their social life. As David points out, "the development of students is at least as important as their success in their studies, and, in my opinion, this development necessarily involves community life". From Marwane's point of view, "the excellence of a university or an institute is measured by academic results. But such a dynamic is only possible if all the links that make up our Institut evolve in a framework that is conducive to intellectual, physical and personal development, while creating as many synergies as possible. "Xavier adds: "The five schools must be involved in student and community life because it is the first concrete place where students' human and technical skills are put into practice. Moreover, it allows some students to reveal themselves, to discover their talents as well as their weaknesses". The call for projects responds to these multiple observations: in addition to financial support, the Institut Polytechnique de Paris staff follows each project in order to provide concrete assistance (logistics, communication, etc.).
Bringing the IP Paris'cup project to the level of the Institut has made it possible to concretize the existence of the latter in my eyes. If the academic side is essential, seeing that the Institut is trying to give a soul to this organization by fully involving the students and the associative world to build bridges is very satisfying. It gives a sense of identity and belonging to a French Institute that has a vocation to be recognized and renowned on a national scale but mostly on an international scale.
Acquiring new skills while developing a sense of belonging to an IP Paris student community: a challenge for students
The call for projects is for us more than a boost since it represents 80% of the funds raised. Without it, we could not have hoped to carry out this event. It is often difficult to find funding at the birth of a project, especially with the current situation. Whether in terms of organization, logistics or communication, we have benefited from the help of various actors of the Institut who have greatly facilitated the implementation of the Ekiden.
The observation is unanimous: carrying out an associative project allows to build solid skills in project management, skills that are particularly useful to people who are led to fill strategic positions early in their career.
Mathilde and Jeanne explain that their Health Brochure project is "very professional, for example we had to ask for estimates and to find partners": missions that they will certainly have to carry out in their future careers. Alexandra adds: "Personally, working for the organization of the Comète Film Festival has taught me the importance of rigor in project management, and to add flexibility in my decisions, especially because of the health crisis." Co-responsible for the project, Arthur also insists on the importance of opening up his horizons: "Beyond the organization, this is also a cultural and artistic project that has taught me a lot about a field that seems far from our field of study at Télécom Paris. Watching more than a hundred short films and talking to people in this field (directors, juries, event workers) was a real source of new knowledge about a field I am passionate about and which I might never have had the opportunity to explore otherwise. "
Maxime concludes, "Even if the filming of the festival [FUPS] has not yet begun, its preparation is already a crazy adventure in which we never stop learning from ourselves and from others. "
With this call for projects, we wish to encourage synergies between the students of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris and its 5 Schools so that they can carry out emblematic common projects. Thinking about community life on the scale of the Institut means allowing everyone to benefit from the diversity of the many activities that exist on our campus.
Some examples of projects from the 2020 edition
Comète Film Festival
The Comète film festival is a youth short film festival organized every year by Comète, the audiovisual association of Télécom Paris. Every year, its organizers receive hundreds of short films from young directors under 30, and select those that will be screened in June before a jury of film professionals and, later, during thematic screenings in the schools of the plateau.
Without this call for projects, we could not have conceived such an event with the great diversity of genres offered by the musicians of the five Schools.
EVOLUSOUND
EVOLUSOUND a musical competition involving students from the five Schools of the Institut Poytechnique de Paris. Rock, jazz, pop: the organizers have endeavored to offer the widest variety of musical genres to the delight of music lovers!
Festival Universitaire du Plateau de Saclay
The Festival Universitaire du Plateau de Saclay (FUPS) is a music festival whose objective is to bring together the students of the Plateau de Saclay. The festival will take place remotely: filmed at the Château de Fontainebleau, an ideal setting for this type of event, it will then be broadcast so that a large audience can enjoy it.
Ekiden du Platal
The Ekiden du Platal is a marathon run in relays of 6 people, organized by Télécom Paris' BDS (Sports association) for students and staff of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, and more broadly for students of the Saclay plateau. This is the first edition of an event that is intended to last.
Thanks to the support of IP Paris, we were able to concretely set up the festival which seemed doomed to failure when the year started.
Thanks to the help provided by this call for projects, we have an easier time implementing the project within the 5 Schools.
Flips
Flips is an application for friendly encounters through events (art, sport, music...) which allows to know better the students of IP Paris Schools. It was created by Gautier Chamoulaud and Guillaume Vignolle (ENSTA Paris).
IP Paris'cup
Télécom voile is the project leader for the inter-school regatta of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, the IP Paris'cup, which will take place on the weekend of 12-13 June 2021 in Deauville. This is a sailing competition on a J80 (racing monohull) over a full weekend with two crews per School.
Health Brochure
The Health Brochure will be a booklet listing the health professionals available to students on the plateau and will be made available to the students of the Institut. This project is led by Mathilde Binet and Jeanne Devineau, 2nd year students at ENSAE Paris and respectively President and Treasurer of Fem'ENSAE.
This project has given us a lot in terms of interpersonal skills. We carry out most of the project in pairs, but we have a lot of contact with outside people, such as students from other schools, IP Paris staff and doctors.