CommunicationPublished on 12 August 2022

When Canadians engage in Swiss wrestling and Germans play lacrosse with Swiss

Great mood, fantastic weather: 32 students from four universities in three countries (Vancouver, Canada; Hamburg and Deggendorf, Germany; and SFISM, Switzerland) took part in a two-week International Summer School in Magglingen. The project, which aims to promote an intercultural exchange between students and teachers, was a complete success.

After being cancelled due to the pandemic last year, the International Summer School whose slogan was “Intercultural Learning in Sport and Physical Activity” was finally held in the first half of August in Magglingen. Theory and practice were well juxtaposed in a varied programme. Various input from teachers at the partner universities Douglas College Vancouver, the University of Hamburg and the Institute of Technology in Deggendorf provided insights into sport promotion in the respective country and into intercultural learning in sport. Personal considerations by the students and seminar topics were combined with practical lessons. In addition to badminton, floorball, canoeing, mountain-biking, hiking, golf, etc. they were able to learn sport types typical of the country: the Canadian students gave an introduction to lacrosse, and the students faced up to the sawdust in the wrestling cellar. Cultural excursions to Bern, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva and an international tasting session, which included new culinary experiences, rounded out the varied programme.

The International Summer School in Magglingen was supported by movetia, the national agency for the promotion of exchange and mobility in the educational system, and by Ellen Leister, Head of the International Office and a teacher at SFISM.

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