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Most European Junior Enterprise Award for Alejandro and his team
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From March 1-3, 2024, Alejandro Herrero Carrera and his teammate Shriya Kaur Chawla attended the JEE Winter Conference 2024 in Brussels. In particular, they were awarded the “Most European Junior-Enterprise 2024” prize in recognition of their involvement in European opportunities, and their cooperation and synergy with international players over the course of the year. Alejandro tells you about their Brussels experience.
What was your objective in taking part in the JEE Winter Conference?
The JEE Winter Conference is the most important event organized by Junior Enterprises Europe, which is the umbrella organization representing, integrating and supporting the European Junior Enterprises network of over 33,000 students from 16 countries. The other four winners in other categories are Junior Enterprises from CentraleSupélec, AgroParisTech, Técnico Lisboa and Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão.
Our aim was to be competitive in every respect, and to become the European benchmark for engineering studies by 2030.
Some key data from the conference :
- More than 400 Junior Entrepreneurs.
- Junior-Enterprises from 17 European countries.
- 6 French Junior Enterprises finalists.
- 3 award-winning French Junior Entreprises.
- Conference partners: Alten, Notion, Amplifon, ABIS, Club of Brussels.
- A conference focusing on sustainability and education, with speakers from the European Economic and Social Committee, the European Parliament and other institutions.
What about the prize you won?
Alejandro Herrero Carrera
We were honored to receive the “Most European Junior-Enterprise 2024” award. This award recognizes our involvement in European opportunities, our cooperation and business development at European level, and our synergies with international players over the past year.
The application process for the awards was divided into two phases:
- The first phase of shortlisting consisted of sending in a comprehensive report detailing our annual work, which enabled us to qualify as finalists.
- The second part took place in Brussels, where we had to make a pitch to demonstrate our achievements against Dauphine Junior Consulting, the other finalist, and in front of a jury made up of JEEurope partners.
Winning this award is key to legitimizing our work and giving visibility to ISAE-SUPAERO and our JE across Europe among young entrepreneurs, corporate partners and European institutions. The work of our international department is important for the sector, because young people are synonymous with dynamism and innovation, and by working on engineering projects for international customers, we aspire to be the European example of the dynamics to follow when it comes to the values of sustainable development and scientific and technological progress in the aerospace industry.
How did the applications go?
The strong point of our application is that, unlike many other Junior Enterprises, we have a 4-person international department focused exclusively on developing our structure abroad, which has enabled us to get involved in a number of high-quality European projects throughout the year. The main problem at our Junior-Enterprise is the difficulty of recruiting and maintaining a sufficient number of competent staff. With only 18 members this past year and an annual rotation of the team, we are finding it difficult to fill certain key positions. What’s more, we’re in direct competition with other Junior Entreprises, which often have teams of over 50 people. Consequently, our aim is to raise the profile of our Junior-Enterprise within ISAE-SUPAERO, in order to attract more members and benefit from additional human resources.
How has the Foundation’s grant helped you?
The Foundation’s funding was used entirely to cover the costs of accommodation, admission to the conference and transport to Brussels, so we’re really grateful for your support.
Taking part in this conference helped us develop our communication skills, as we had to pitch in front of an audience of over 400 people. What’s more, meeting people from different countries with ambitions similar to our own has enriched our network of contacts and enabled us to learn from the excellence of all the people who have done outstanding work this year.
We would like to express our deep gratitude for your generous support in making this conference possible. Thanks to your help, we’ve had the opportunity to represent SUPAERO Junior Conseil successfully: we’re proud to announce that we’ve had the honor of receiving “The Most European Junior Enterprise 2024” award, recognizing our involvement in European opportunities, our cooperation and business development on a European scale, and our synergies with international players over the past year.