When reading Guillermo Gómez Rodríguez’s reflection on his EUdemos experience, what immediately emerges is not only the emotional resonance of his words, but also the depth of a journey lived twice — first in Sardinia in 2024, then in Brussels in 2025. Few students have had the opportunity to participate in both editions of the EUdemos Summer School, and Guillermo’s essay stands as a testament to what this continuity can generate: a long-term, layered growth in knowledge, identity, and European belonging.
Guillermo describes EUdemos as “one of the most enriching experiences of my life”. And behind this almost simple statement lies a transformation that is both academic and profoundly personal. The programme exposed him to political, diplomatic and historical insights, but also to the lived reality of European governance — the one you feel only when you are physically standing before the European Parliament, or walking through the streets of Brussels discussing policy, culture, and identity with peers from across the continent.
His testimony illuminates one of the core ambitions of the EUdemos project: turning knowledge into experience, and experience into citizenship. The encounter with EU law, institutions, and procedures is important, but what truly shapes a young European is engaging with others — listening, debating, sharing, and discovering that European diversity is not an abstract concept but a daily, tangible richness.
Guillermo captures this perfectly when he explains that the real value of EUdemos lies in the friendships formed across borders, friendships that become “core memories I’ll never forget.” For him, these human connections are not secondary to the academic programme — they are its natural extension, the visible proof that learning about Europe while simultaneously living Europe produces a new kind of understanding.
By participating in two editions of EUdemos, Guillermo has lived the project’s mission in full: not only learning the mechanisms of the Union, but feeling part of it. His story demonstrates how EUdemos can function as a stepping stone toward future academic and professional aspirations — in his case, international relations and diplomacy — and, more importantly, how it cultivates a generation of young Europeans who recognise the value of unity, dialogue, and shared responsibility.
In the end, Guillermo’s message is clear: EUdemos is not just a summer school. It is a community — “proud, insightful, close and highly valuable” — that mirrors the very essence of the European project. And his journey shows how, when lived fully, it can shape not only knowledge, but identity.
” Participating in EUdemos — both in Sardinia in 2024 and in Brussels in 2025 — has been one of the most enriching experiences of my life. This project has not only been an unmatched adventure, but also a thrilling immersion into what European diplomacy truly feels like from the inside.
Throughout this journey, I have been given an enormous range of political, diplomatic and historical insights, while discovering extraordinary places and fascinating cultures. EUdemos has been a window into a reality I would love to be part of some day: the world of international relations. Being able to learn and to understand how EU law works, while standing in front of the European Parliament, was an indescribable experience, as was taking a stroll through Brussels exchanging thoughts on a wide rage of ideas with my fellow European companions.
Above all, EUdemos has been a stepping stone toward truly embracing what it means to belong to the European Union at both a social and a personal level. I could not be more grateful for having been given the opportunity to form so many amazing, lifelong friendships all over the continent, with whom I’ve shared core memories I’ll never forget.
Because, while the academic dimension of EUdemos is essential, it’s bonding this way with one another that creates proud, insightful, close and highly valuable communities: the ultimate goal of the EUdemos program”.
Guillermo Gómez Rodríguez: CEU San Pablo Montepríncipe, Spain
