A month has passed and so I have decided to write a letter to all the people who worked and participated alongside me in this first edition of the Virtual Exchange project. I hope you will excuse the writing style, as I am currently suffering from toothache and a high fever.

Dear all,
It’s almost been a month since the end of the project “Virtual Exchange”. Do you miss it? I sure do. Even though I prefer to work in a smaller environment, it was an incredible experience for me. Or maybe it was because of this incredible environment. I know that everyone would have prefered real-life meetings, but we were able to overcome one of the most difficult challenges that the pandemic has brought us. I still believe that real-life interactions are the most valuable, but even without realising it, we managed to demonstrate that the power of dialogue (through the internet) greatly exceeds the logistic issues we had to face.
When we started in early February, everybody had to run. On our end of the spectrum as Junior Coordinator, we had to learn how to work with so many of you and how to understand what were your needs. Of course, I cannot say we manage to understand everything, but what I feel is the most important thing is that we managed to grow from every experience. I can assure you there were moments when I thought to give up. But I am sure that some of you had to experience the same thing. How was it for you? I can only imagine the initial sprint that was necessary.
In the past when I was tutoring I have had one main regret, participation. Or rather, participation from everyone. I clearly remember how only the ones who were the most interested in the subject remained, while all the students who actually needed help for studying slowly left. However, here it was different. Almost everyone managed to stay on track and complete this project. This is why I am proud of how things turned out.
We started with the idea of “dialogue”, but we arrived with so much more. From soft skills all the way to democratic participation.
I hope that you guys have received as many stimuli as I.
With gratitude,
Leonardo Ligabue