Civic Learning Programme: Adele Aims to Make Sport Accessible

My name is Adèle, I come from Normandy and I'm in my second year at the Nancy campus, European Union, Franco-German partnership minor. I chose Sciences Po because I had a thirst for knowledge and this university offers a student and academic environment that encourages the exchange of ideas. The reputation of the institution and the possibility of spending a year abroad also played an important role, as did the possibility of applying for a wide range of master's programmes when the time came. More specifically, with regard to my choice of campus, it was the opportunity to follow a course focusing on European Union challenges that appealed to me.

I thought I needed to choose a topic that was really personal to give meaning to my Civic Learning Programme. After giving it a lot of thought, I turned to the issue of accessibility to sport. Sport is something that has always been present in my life, without me really realising what a privilege it is. Whether competitive or not, it has contributed greatly to my physical and mental well-being, and its benefits in terms of team spirit, concentration, consistency and self-knowledge have been immense.

However, accessibility to different sporting activities is compromised by a number of factors, including disability and gender. It was important for me to be aware that the benefits I have mentioned are not accessible to everyone in the same way, so that I could then take these biases into account and take action at my own level. It's an approach that I also applied to my community life on Nancy campus, as co-president of the sports student association.

For my first year internship, I wanted to go for an association where I could be useful while remaining in my “comfort zone”. I didn't want to underestimate the impact that the public concerned by the organisation might have on me. It was a relevant choice as I'm not used to or have the necessary skills to supervise disabled people. 

As I've done some ten years of equestrian acrobatics and I'm at ease with horses, I concentrated on centres that offered para-equestrian lessons or equine mediation. I got a lot of positive responses to my internship requests, which just goes to show that this predominantly voluntary sector is always looking for volunteers! For my second-year civic work placement (which runs throughout the school year), I'm volunteering with a parasports club that offers activities such as wheelchair basketball, blowpipe and parkour.

The fairly long duration of the field experiences means that we really have the time to confront our initial prejudices. As far as I'm concerned, the experience was quite difficult and clearly highlighted the extent of the lack of support for voluntary organisations and the undermining of their work, although monumental.

It was rather paradoxical to see the para-athletes training and progressing while not knowing whether the centre would survive until the following year: this highlighted the influence of public policies on the associative fabric, and its members.

Choose a community and an issue that you really care about and where you feel you can make a difference. That's where you'll be the most useful, and where the benefits will be twofold: your time will benefit the organisation for which you're volunteering, and your investment in it will benefit you too.

Impactful.