The European School Network (ESN) is a high school network in Europe that organises student membership opportunities and international exchanges for a week or two.
Key Features of ESN:
Safety: All school coordinators meet each other every other year. Thus, by building personal relationships, trust and friendship is improved. When students from Finland take part in the student exchanges, we know for sure that they are in the best possible hands. ESN exchanges have been running for over 8 years, and the experience has always been very positive.
Affordability: The "basic exchange" concept of the network is reciprocity - a student from Finland is exchanged with a student from a member school in the destination country, who in turn wishes to come to Finland. The host family accommodates the Finnish student in the destination country and the visiting student is accommodated with here with a Finnish family. The only cost involved is for the airline ticket.
Ease: The real strength of ESN is the ease of organising the exchange. Some exchange organisations have a lot of red-tape and bureaucracy, central money collection, program design and non-local organisation. ESN does not have anything like this, so things are done simply and quickly. The exchange schedules can be freely agreed upon according to the needs of the students involved.
For more details about the European School Network, please see their website or talk with a coordinator at the school.