The best student ideas within the second round of the ‘Join, Find a Solution’ project were officially announced in the City Hall.
‘The City of Novi Sad and the City Administration for Culture support young high school students. Today, two awards will be given to each school. We, as the city of Novi Sad, support the project because young people need to get involved and find solutions. They have been given the opportunity to change the world and do something beautiful for their school and their environment’, says Dragan Aleksić, Deputy Chief of the City Administration for Culture.
The European Capital of Culture and the European Youth Capital will finance two student ideas from two different categories with a larger budget than last year and include eleven high schools.
 ‘Each school receives two awards, one from OPENS, and the other from the European Capital of Culture. I think all the ideas are very interesting. The important thing is that we constantly support this project, constantly encourage young people and adopt it as a habit. Through continuity, ideas can get better’, said Milica Rašković on behalf of the ‘Novi Sad 2021 – European Capital of Culture’ project.
High school students from Novi Sad voted for the best ideas proposed in the field of activism, culture and creativity, which will help them to improve their environment, i.e. schools.
 ‘Students told us through this project what they really want and we saw what they need. The ideas are very different, they come from the students themselves and fit their specific needs. They mostly tend to make their school space and time they spend there more comfortable and interesting’, said Dobrila Marković, assistant programme coordinator of OPENS.
One of the winning ideas comes from the ‘7 April’ Medical School. Students proposed new cabinet curtains and organising peer education on sexually transmitted diseases.
 ‘I think projects of this kind are very important and this may be the most significant project that concerns high school students. This money we get is one great motivation for students. Facilitation was also very important in this process since young people need to learn how to work in such projects’, says Velibor Maksimov, a medical school student.
Programmes such as Participatory Budgeting are the right way to get young people involved in political processes and learn to become responsible citizens.