The European Parliament Ambassador School Programme at USP College
What is EPAS?
The European Parliament Ambassador School (EPAS) Programme is a non-partisan initiative of the European Parliament which aims to improve the political participation and political education of students in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe by teaching them about European values and European parliamentary democracy.
In the programme, students and teachers at schools and colleges across Europe are designated as European Parliament Junior Ambassadors and European Parliament Senior Ambassadors respectively and tasked with organising activities and events which promote the programme and its aims at their schools and in their local communities. At the end of the year, these schools are then recognised as European Parliament Ambassador Schools with their ambassadors receiving official accreditation from the European Parliament for their efforts.
How does USP College fit into all this?
Unified Seevic Palmer's College is a further education college with three campuses in Essex, England, the Palmer's Campus in Grays, the Seevic Campus in Benfleet and the XTEND Digital Campus in Canvey. We have been an accredited European Parliament Ambassador School since 2021. The UK branch of EPAS was launched at Seevic on 29th April 2021. Since then, EPAS UK has grown to include over 13 accredited ambassador schools, with many more schools currently working towards their accreditation in the programme. USP College is proud to have pioneered this growing family of schools in the UK, which is joined by around 2,000 other schools across the rest of Europe.
EPAS at USP College started as a programme exclusive to our Seevic Campus. In 2022, the programme relocated to our Palmer's Campus, before becoming a cross-campus initiative for both Palmer's and Seevic from 2023. At USP College, EPAS is a student-led initiative, with senior ambassadors mainly providing a supporting or pastoral role while the events, activities and implementation of the programme at our college and in our local community are decided by junior ambassadors. To find out more about the role of junior ambassadors, you can look at the What is a European Parliament Junior Ambassador? article over on our digital infopoint, which also brings together all the latest news, events and activities of EPAS at USP, as well as all the important information about Europe and European politics. Our infopoint can be accessed through the button above on our website header.
To become a junior ambassador, students should talk to our lead senior ambassador Darren Cogavin, who works at both Palmer's and Seevic at different times throughout the college week and can be reached through e-mail at darren.cogavin@uspcollege.ac.uk, or our lead junior ambassador Jayden O'Brien, who can be reached through e-mail at 222545@uspcollege.ac.uk. The programme is not yet available for students at our XTEND Digital Campus in Canvey, but we do hope to expand to XTEND at some point in the near future.
Meet our team!
Hey, I'm Darren. I'm originally from Ireland and currently teach A-Level politics and access to HE (education and teaching) at USP College in Essex. I previously worked in adult community education. I am the lead senior ambassador for the EPAS programme at USP College.
I have two MSc in Equality Studies and Rehabilitation and Disability Studies from University College Dublin. I am also a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University. My main research areas are in the fields of the Marxist educational theory and educational inequalities. I also specialise in educational policy, the political economy of education and critical pedagogy.
Hi there! I'm Jayden, your lead junior ambassador. I'm currently in my third and final year at college, where I study politics, sociology and English at Palmer's. I've been part of EPAS since my first year here and now use my three years of experience to oversee the programme at USP College as lead junior ambassador.
In my role, I am responsible for overseeing and supporting my deputies in running and implementing the programme at Seevic and Palmer's. As I have a dynamic disability, I spend a lot of my time outside college, so mainly focus on organising things with Erdem and Sebastian and managing this website and the social media side of things from home, but do work and help out in person whenever I'm well enough to do so.
Hello. My name is Erdem. I'm the deputy lead junior ambassador for Palmer's Campus. I'm British with Turkish heritage. I study politics, history and criminology and wish to work in a governmental job to later pursue a parliamentary career.
My main reason to join EPAS is progress and educating the youth about Europe and the European Union we used to be in. My job responsibility is to assist the other junior ambassadors in organising events such as bringing politicians and other external speakers into the Palmer's Campus.
Hi, I'm Sebastian and the deputy lead junior ambassador for Seevic Campus. I'm 17 years old and am of British, Guyanese and German heritage and I live in Southend. I study politics, geography and economics at Seevic and want to go into environmental/urban geography.
I joined EPAS because I am a strong believer of the European project and I want to spread awareness and knowledge about Europe among young people. As deputy lead junior ambassador for Seevic Campus, I am responsible for co-ordinating events at Seevic and I also help the other junior ambassadors organise events in and outside of college, and also contribute to the EPAS at USP socials.
Where are we?
Unified Seevic Palmer's (USP) College was originally founded in Grays in 1706 by its namesake William Palmer. The college took its current form in August 2017 when Palmer's absorbed Seevic College. Today, the Palmer's Campus in Little Thurrock, Grays is the main campus of the college, while Seevic in Thundersley, Benfleet is the secondary campus, with a third XTEND Digital Campus in Canvey Island. Our two EPAS teams are based from Palmer's and Seevic, the exact locations of which can be viewed in the map below.