PécsPOD Videocast: How to Make the Most of your Pécs Experience?

A journalistic videocast aired in January aiming to inform current and future students about interesting and helpful aspects about the University of Pécs. The concept of the videocast series comes from third-year Communication and Media Science student, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, André Rocha from Brazil. With his co-host, Kaylee Giles from the USA, they have a number of exciting episodes lined up in the English language PécsPOD series. I asked them about their promising project to promote Pécs.

When did you come up with the concept of PécsPOD?

André: About 2 years ago, after getting super into podcasts (not only from Brazil but also international ones) and realizing there was no such a source of information in this format at the University of Pécs (actually, in Hungary as a whole, if I am not mistaken), I thought: “what if I create one? That would be extremely helpful both for the current students and for those who never heard about this University before, or are searching for places to study abroad”. Then I wrote a message to the coordinator of the English programme of our department, Dr. Tamás Pólya, and, as always, he was attentive and considerate. He asked me to put my thoughts into writing so that he could analyse and understand the concept more thoroughly. Unfortunately (or not, soon you will know why), I had to leave the idea on hold because I got stuck with some other uni stuff, as well as for personal reasons. That is until I found out that later on we would have to take a mandatory subject called “External Internship in Digital Media and PR” anyways. So, as soon as I read the title, that previous podcast idea (originally it was meant to be just a podcast, not a videocast as it turned out to be now) said “hi” to me again. Long story short, I replied saying “hello, my dear, let’s finally give birth to you” in September 2022, when our classes started.

Kaylee: Pécs Pod is really André’s brainchild; I just feel lucky to have been looped in on it. He brought up the idea to me last fall, when it overlapped nicely with the internship class, and I loved the idea and was happy to hop on board. I thought it was a relevant idea and sounded like a fun collaboration.

What was your inspiration for creating this video series?

André: My biggest inspiration was (and still is) my

curiosity, combined with a strong motivation to help as many people as I can.

No wonder I have two other videos on YouTube, in Portuguese, explaining the process of applying for the Stipendium Scholarship, as well as my life in Pécs after a year of living here. The University of Pécs is the oldest University of Hungary, founded in 1367, way before I was even thinking of being born. Imagine how much history it has behind it! There are so many things to explore, so much content to be created about it! I could not just sit still after realizing this huge opportunity that was presenting itself to me, specially being a Communication and Media Science student. That, for sure, would have been such a waste!

Kaylee: I totally agree that it was a great opportunity that would have been crazy to let go to waste, and that is also why I was interested in participating too. I think the videocast can not only serve a great purpose to the potential audience, but also to us by giving us the experience of putting it together. It also reminded me of some stuff I found online put out by other students from the university when I was still making my decision about coming here and remembering how interesting and useful those first-hand perspectives were to me made me more excited to give more of that perspective to someone else.

How often do you plan to post a new episode?

While we are still here (our graduation is coming up soon, in June), we plan to release at least one episode per month. Since we are responsible for dealing with most of the things (content creation, finding guests, scheduling interviews, editing the filmed video and publishing it on social media platforms), it takes some time (not to mention the effort). That is why we cannot do it more often.

What kind of topics would you like to include?

André: The first episode is about the history of our department (which is quite interesting because we explore the fact that its founder does not have a degree in Communication but, instead, in Engineering – quite unusual and intriguing, right?). The second, which will be released next month, is the beginning of a series of successful graduate students from the University of Pécs. Our guest for this episode is Aju Onyemowo, from Nigeria. She earned her MA degree in Management and Leadership at the University of Pécs in 2022 and she works at Morgan Stanley in Budapest as an Operational Risk Coordinator.

For our third episode we will interview Ms. Mercédesz Berzsán, the current International Mentor Program Coordinator at the University of Pécs, to cover the topic: “mentorship program: what the accepted students should expect after receiving the confirmation they will be coming to Pécs”. The fourth episode has not been confirmed yet, but probably will be about curiosities of Hungary and Pécs, as well as why someone should apply to study here. To conclude, the main idea is to cover the most interesting and relevant facts about Hungary, Pécs, the University of Pécs and its community, bringing awareness to whoever is interested to get further information related to these subjects.

What would be your message to the students or future students of the University of Pécs?

André: If you are looking for building up a family, more than just regular colleagues, you should definitely consider applying to study here.

Pécs is a city where the sense of community, in its core, is highly preserved.

We care for each other and now, with Pécs Pod videocast, you will be aware of all the interesting facts and curiosities that certainly will make your experience here even more enjoyable and pleasant. So, stay tuned!

Kaylee: Particularly for international students,

I think coming to a place like Pécs for school is a once in a lifetime experience, largely thanks to the city itself and the people in it.

Studying abroad is an opportunity that I think anyone who is considering it and has the means to do should take. Hopefully learning more about what makes this city special will entice more prospective students to take the leap.

Do you plan to involve other students in the future?

For sure! Since the beginning, when we were writing down the goals of this project in the New Media Project Proposal, we added:

“to leave a legacy where future students will be able to continue with the work, coming up with new episodes”.

We knew the videocast idea was much bigger than us because, we will not be here forever. However, now that the path has been opened, we truly hope the newbies will keep up with the work, making sure that many more people will have access to valuable information that could end up changing their lives, as it has already changed ours.

Is there anything you would like to add?

André: I would like to recommend a book called “Big Magic” by the same writer of “Eat, pray, love”, Ms. Elizabeth Gilbert, which has truly inspired me to not give up on the Pécs Pod videocast idea. By reading it, I was taught how to channel my own creativity, working with the tools I had available to me at that moment. I would also like to thank all the people who invested in me, in my idea, for this project to come to life: Dr. Tamás Pólya, Mr. Levente Radosnai, Mr. Ervin Gűth, Ms. Orsolya Gáll and her crew from UNIV TV, Ms. Kaylee Giles, Ms. Emanuelle Magalhães, Mr. Luís Costa, Ms. Maria Luiza de Castro, Ms. Ammarah Hassen, Mr. Kristóf Kalmár and the guests who happily accepted to be on board so far: Ms. Aju Onyemowo and Ms. Mercédesz Berzsán. Without you guys, Pécs Pod would still be just an idea.

Kaylee: I would also love to thank André for thinking of me to join him in this endeavour that is so close to his heart. I feel honoured to have been selected to have a hand in the project, and I am so grateful for the experience it gave me. It was fun to collaborate with friends and colleagues, and it was definitely a very enriching and unique experience. This was my first time ever doing anything like this, which made it super memorable. I hope it helps anyone who is interested in listening.

Communication PTE YouTube Channel »

University of Pécs YouTube Channel »

Interview by: Mariann Tóth

Photo: Szabolcs Csortos