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Stanford Bing Overseas Studies Program students visited Estonia

This autumn Vabamu welcomed 40 Stanford University students and staff. We put together a 3-day program that was full of interesting meetings and activities, teaching students about Estonia’s digital society as well as about our recent history.

Global conversations

Stanford Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP) offers the opportunity to study away while remaining enrolled at Stanford. This year, as part of the Stanford Program in Berlin, BOSP decided to take their students to a study trip to Tallinn. Vabamu, together with Stanford Libraries Curator for Estonian and Baltic Studies, Liisi Esse, helped organize the study trip, making use of our vast contacts in the region.

During their visit to Tallinn, the students had a discussion on Estonian history and memory with Vabamu’s CEO Karen Jagodin and historian and Stanford alumnus Kristo Nurmis. Students also met with representatives of NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE), CIO of Estonia, Luukas Ilves and US Ambassador to Estonia, George P. Kent.

As part of the program, students were given a tour of Stenbock house, where they learned more about how Estonia’s ministers and government operate as well as a tour of  E-Estonia briefing center, where students gained a better understanding of what it feels like to live in a digital society. Students also visited TalTech, where they learned about Smart Cities, AI, robotics and so much more.  To top it all off, students had dinners with local Ukrainian students and Stanford alumni.

Does Size Matter? What we can Learn from e-Estonia

Stanford student Divya Ganesan wrote an article about her experience in Tallinn.

The article can be found here: https://divyaganesan.substack.com/p/does-size-matter-what-we-can-learn 

Moments from students’ visit to Estonia (photos by Judita Junkelele)

Vabamu supports international delegation’s visits to Estonia as part of Global Conversation Concierge service. We put together custom-made programs that introduce different Estonian industries and tell our digital success story. You can read more about how you can visit Estonia with Vabamu here.