Happy Europe Day! As we come together today to commemorate unity and peace across the continent of Europe, let’s look back at what the EPAS team at USP College have done to celebrate the occasion.

Europe Day is an annual holiday observed on the 5th of May and the 9th of May to mark the signing of the Schuman Declaration on the 9th of May 1950 and the founding of the Council of Europe on the 5th of May 1949. The day commemorates unity and peace across the continent of Europe in the aftermath of the two world wars and amidst continued conflict across the world today, such as the war in Ukraine.

Here at USP College, our team of European Parliament Junior Ambassadors have been hard at work organising different projects, activities and events to celebrate the week of Europe Day (read more about that on our EPAS website here).

Our celebrations kicked off on Tuesday, 6th of May, with a very special guest coming into college for a Q&A session with our current junior ambassadors! Ri Goodyear, a Green political candidate and former EPAS junior ambassador at our Palmer’s Campus, came in for a Q&A with current junior ambassadors.

On Tuesday, 6th of May, and Wednesday, 7th of May, our junior ambassadors organised cross-campus film screenings in the immersive rooms. Thanks to USP College’s new membership of the European Film Club, we were able to screen several innovative European films free-of-charge.

In Palmer’s, junior ambassadors set up a cultural face painting stand, where they painted European flags onto customers for a £1 fee. All proceeds from the event then went to charitable causes.

Over in Seevic, Deputy Lead Junior Ambassador Sebastian Rapley Mende worked on a climate action campaign with junior ambassadors Ashdon Cassdon, Jessica Obi, Freya Wiggins and Crystal Holyome. The campaign was done in cooperation with Southend Youth Council, where Sebastian serves as Environment Officer.

Junior ambassadors at both Palmer’s and Seevic also helped organise special celebrations to mark VE Day.

To close our celebrations, six junior ambassadors from Palmer’s and Seevic went on a trip to Westminster and Europe House in Central London with Lead Senior Ambassador Darren Cogavin to attend the annual Europe Day celebrations hosted by the European Parliament in the UK. They joined other junior ambassadors from different ambassador schools from across the UK.

The day began with the annual VE Day commemorations in Westminster, which were held on the same day. Junior ambassadors paid their respects to the fallen of the Second World War. Three of our ambassadors were also lucky enough to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales, the heir to the throne Prince William and his wife Princess Kate.

At Europe House, Lead Junior Ambassador Jayden O’Brien and Deputy Lead Junior Ambassador for Seevic Sebastian Rapley Mende showcased the official website for the EPAS programme at USP College that Jayden developed earlier this year. Jayden gave his advice to other ambassadors on creating their own EPAS websites for their schools.

And with that, this year’s Europe Day celebrations come to a close! However, that isn’t the end of the EPAS team’s activities this year, for our junior ambassadors at Palmer’s and Seevic are already hard at work organising more projects, events and activities for the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more!