Catarina's Story:

Throughout my academic career, I have had some international experiences. Although almost all of them were excellent experiences, I often felt that I was not comfortable being myself, mainly because I had to speak another language. However, as time goes by and experiences accumulate, it is normal for something in us to change, and I can say that the AI & Humanities course at the University of Szeged that I participated in was the event where I feel I connected most with people, talked to them the most, and heard the most about academic, professional, and life paths. And what a great experience it was! This course brought together people from bachelor's to doctoral level and across a wide range of ages. By addressing both the humanities and the more technological aspects, it brought together people from diverse backgrounds and allowed us to have discussions on various topics related to AI. 

I admit that I was often confused and lost because the questions ended up being very philosophical and I am a math’s person. But as one of my colleagues said, this is what university should be like. Moments for reflection and group discussions, capturing our attention for new topics. The goal is not to get the highest grade, but to learn better. Because nowadays, what does it mean to get the highest grade in the class when the test may have been solved entirely by artificial intelligence? In addition to all the conversations and seminars we had that were more related to the course topic, the break conversations (and not only that, but also dinner, lunch, walks around the city, etc.) were also very enriching.

 I feel that because the group that came together was so different, it was great to talk about the different life experiences that each person had. Some had always studied in the same country, some moved to another continent to study, some wanted to return to academia after I don't know how many years working in industry, some are closer to their families, others not so much, some already know about what they want to do in the future, others still discovering, some have already had kids, some with certain dietary restrictions, whether for health or religious reasons,... And what about the misconceptions we have about each country? I don't know about you, but I think this experience of meeting people outside our bubble is wonderful. And to be honest, until today, in these situations, I never felt truly myself when speaking English, but I think this time I managed to be more myself.