Origin of the project / activity (country, town, etc.):

Warsaw, Poland

Please try to define max. three catchwords that describe your project / activity:

School, students, contest

Specific target group? For whom is the project / activity designed:

students, teachers, high schools, universities

What is the project about? Short but precise description of the local project / activity:

The idea for the project came in ’90 when Poland was trying to join EU. One of the main topic in public debate was agriculture and how to develop rural areas. For young people from villages that was huge trend to leave their homes and move to big cities. To keep them in their local environment and develop rural areas we decided to organize in cooperation with leading agricultural universities in Poland contest for student from high schools. Their task was to write project how to develop existing farm to transform it in accordance with modern standards. Each edition of this contest began with conference about trends in agriculture. First phase was about to write plan and send it to regional commission at university devoted to particular administrative area in Poland. The best students took part in great final organized in Warsaw. They should present plans and answer for question from central commission. The best plan was awarded by place at university.

Is there anything that needs to be considered if the project / activity is to be copied to another rural area (good practice experience, things that went wrong, etc.):

Place at noble university is not enough for majority of students, so it is recommended to find sponsors and assure attractive prizes. It’s good to reach big group of students to increase competitive and quality of proposed plans. Very often candidates cooperate with teachers, so it’s worth to organize some trainings and additional benefits for their voluntary input.

Are there more sources available for additional information (website, e-mail-contact, etc.)?:  www.schuman.pl