Winning students of EUNICE escape room visit Brussels

Konstantina Loukani, Marcos Gutiérrez, and Lauryn Williame, students of University of Peloponnese (Greece), University of Cantabria (Spain), and Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, respectively, were awarded a trip to Brussels (Belgium) for their nice scores in Code Europa: The Disruptors’ Dilemma. This EU-themed game was developed by University of Cantabria in the occasion of Europe Day (9 May) and the European Parliament elections (6-9 June) and was open to students of all the ten EUNICE partner universities. It was an experiential-learning initiative consisting of an online escape room in which EUNICE became a supranational spy agency and EUNICE students played the role of spies working to safeguard Europe’s future from rebel gangs planning to sow chaos in the continent.

The winners and the prize

647 EUNICE students participated in Code Europa, solving puzzles, answering quizzes and deciphering codes, and the top three scorers were Konstantina Loukani and Marcos Gutiérrez, already mentioned, as well as Ellie Womsty, of University of Mons (in Belgium), who renounced the award and whose place in the trip was taken by Lauryn Williame, high scorer too.

The travelling students spent a few days last week in the capital of Belgium, accompanied by Prof. Elisa Baraibar, academic of University of Cantabria who was also one of the creators of the game. The agenda included visits to the Parlamentarium, the House of European History, and the ‘Experience Europe’ exhibition centre. On the first day, they were received by the Office of the Government of Cantabria in Brussels, headed by Inmaculada Valencia, who explained first-hand the day-to-day work of these types of European bodies and the impact they have on everyone’s life.

It was “a good experience,” according to Lauryn Williame, which allowed them “to visit all the European Administration,” explained Konstantina Loukani, and “to know how they work and how complicated it is,” added Marcos Gutiérrez. They could also visit the Government of Cantabria Office in Brussels.