Filippo Schena

Feb 1, 2023

Right after the celebration for the first time this year, on January 24th, of the World Educational Day commissioned by UNESCO, let’s get to know Uniplanning, a consulting service for Italian students interested in pursuing their academic career abroad. It is a pleasure and an honour for the Venice Diplomatic Society to have been able in recent years to count on the support of so many students not only being well-prepared but also very sensitive to the theme of supporting the educational paths of their peers and their personal development in general. An excellent example of that is the one we are offering below, thanks to an interesting interview with our dear friends Antonia and Matteo.

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“Galehaut was Harvard National Model United Nations 2018” I would say in Italian, because this is the very experience where they met and got to know each other… unexpectedly. Let me introduce to you two of my former MUN fellows Antonia and Matteo, both cafoscarini and startuppers. Antonia graduated having studied PISE Matteo studied Economics and Management instead. They both have impressive curricula studiorum, having had many international exchanges covering the entire globe. It is this very personal experience which has inspired their new business: Uniplanning (https://www.uniplanning.org). What’s that? It consists in a consulting service for Italian students aspiring to study at a university abroad – be it their Bachelor’s or their Master’s (or both, why not!). Don’t wanna spill the tea and spoiler: so, listen to Antonia’s and Matteo’s story carefully, and be inspired by their ambition.

1. How did you come up with the concept?

We got the idea from our personal experiences. After spending a year of high school in Switzerland (Antonia) and a summer school in Australia (Matteo), we both realized the advantages that a study abroad could give: learning a new language, living in a new culture, relating with people from a country with different customs and traditions, learning to be independent, etc . All this allowed us to grow personally a little earlier than our Italian classmates. After this experience, we therefore decided to undertake an academic path abroad. The only problem was how to do it. We did not have the necessary information to make such a choice; neither of us knew how to inform ourselves. Even asking for help from our professors did not bring any conclusions, as they hadn’t experienced a period of university studies abroad. We realized that we would have had to do everything on our own. It would have been great to have someone who could explain to us the university system of foreign universities and guide us through the process. Unfortunately, we did not succeed in our intent for the Bachelor abroad, however, we did succeed in doing our Master studies in Europe.

2. What are your goals?

Currently, we would like to help as many students as possible to make their desire to go abroad come true. In the long term, we would like to become a real point of reference for young people who dream of going abroad for study, personal experience, work goals, but don’t have adequate support to make such a decision. We do not only aim to help young people in their university application process, but we aim to provide them with counseling which can take into account personal interests, abilities, personal and working goals, especially if they are very unsure about their abilities. Basically, we want to help students who, like us at their age, are confused and do not have the means to make informed choices about their future, both academically and jobwise.

3. The experience that brought you to setting up your business.

We have always liked to look for information about possible school programs abroad, from “semester abroad” while in high school, the Erasmus program in our Bachelor, to the possibility of pursuing a master’s degree abroad. We have always done so for ourselves in these past years, and we never thought it would be useful for anyone else. The idea arose not from a specific experience, but from the fact that we realized that many of our peers asked us for advice on how to get into a master’s degree abroad and that thanks to our advice they succeeded in doing so. Recently, we also had contact with young students from our own high school who have followed our example by spending a year of high school abroad. Some of them contacted us in order to get some advice on how to continue their journey abroad. Helping our peers and friends in their desire to pursue an academic career outside the Italian borders has encouraged us to do this consultancy service. We realized that the Italian school system often does not offer support to students who wish to learn about opportunities abroad. Hence, we decided to try and fill this gap.

4. How much dedication did this project require?

Excellent question. We started working on the service last summer. We literally spent our summer creating content, guidelines, and the website. We called each other for at least one hour a day, as both of us were outside Italy, and we discussed all the parts of the service. Once we both started our masters, Matteo at ESCP in Madrid and Antonia at the LSE in London, we had to slow down a little bit and find a balance between school and work after a period of integration into the new environment. As students, it is difficult to combine the study and the start of a new job activity. Nevertheless, by working every day, in the end we managed to start our business, overcoming the economic and legal obstacles that arose during the initial phase. Although it was a great effort, it was a good experience that taught us many new things and that is giving us several satisfactions.

5. What are your recommendations for our readers?

First of all, do not underestimate yourselves. Do not think you are not suitable for an academic career abroad if you have the desire to do so. Most of the time these are the people who are unaware of their profile for this kind of experience. Practical pieces of advice are: try to be as active as possible in your student life, by being your class or institute representative, by participating in sports activities or literary clubs, or by doing some volunteer work. All these kinds of activities are highly appreciated by foreign institutions. Try to find some opportunities, even short ones, to carry out internships in the sector that interests you the most, since work experience is highly valued abroad. Finally, if you are interested, do not be afraid to contact people who have had educational or even work experience abroad; they can help you by sharing their point of view about the life of a student or worker abroad and they are more than happy to do so.

“Be your own boss”: this is one of the first words Ciara says at the beginning of her song’s video “Level up”. Does it sound simplistic? Possibly it does, but it undoubtedly gets to the point at once. Does it even sound bold? Perhaps, but it is your success – well, satisfaction or happiness somehow more appropriately – at stake. Basically, don’t let other circumstances, other people and their personal experiences decide for you. You are, or you can be at least, the only one truly aware of your own skills, your own goals, your own… dreams. Don’t be scared; just try. , Failure doesn’t exist, it is merely an  unsuccessful experiment. It’s not a loss, but an enriching gain in experience in knowledge and in wisdom. All that has been said may perfectly be applied both to Antonia’s and Matteo’s project and the students they wish to help. So, do you know what Ciara says next in the video? “Level up”. And that’s exactly what Antonia and Matteo want resolutely to tell Italian students: take your academic path to the next level, pack up and go abroad.