Summer is here! For most oikos Chapters, this means it’s time for a well-deserved break, a chance to wind down and refresh after an eventful semester behind us. As we reach the halfway point of the year, it’s the perfect time to look back at this period and celebrate the important moments and accomplishments.
oikos Community in Lisbon
What better way to start off this review than with a throwback to the Community Gathering in Lisbon! It checked all the requirements for a memorable meetup – an inspired local chapter, a quality program, and a vibrant host city. In late February, the Ocean brought morning fog, occasional drizzle, and most notably, the oikos Community to Lisbon.
Blue Futures
The Blue Futures Conference at the NOVA SBE campus put the Ocean – an inseparable part of the host city and Portugal as a whole. Visiting oikees, alongside local students, attended the program featuring the leading Portuguese voices in marine preservation. The importance of the Ocean echoed in their sentiments, underlining the necessity of action and pinpointing successful stories from around the world.
The focal point of the conference was the Blue Economy – a model that strengthens the resilience of marine ecosystems, while providing sustainable economic growth, creating jobs, and improving livelihoods. It dived deeper into topics like marine pollution, blue carbon, as well as the legislative implications and challenges.
Community Gathering
The conference was only a part of the oikee experience. The Community gathering prepared by the Lisbon Chapter was the centerpiece – a unique space for oikees to meet up, exchange and learn. Carefully tailored skills labs challenged participants to put their ideas into action through interactive participation in workshops.
Keeping with the broader Blue Futures theme, as well as the local context, these sessions highlighted both the complexity of sustainability challenges and the importance of youth leadership in taking action. They encouraged a regenerative approach in evaluating the interlinks between industries and ecosystems. Furthermore, sustainability remains only one step, and reframing their relationship as a symbiotic rather than an exploitative relationship is the final goal.
We are a community of leaders! Being a leader means continuous learning and growing, and the best way to learn is to share experiences. Whether it’s from a fellow oikee, a young climate activist or a European MP, attending chapter members could take away plenty of energy and motivation from Lisbon. It is what makes the gathering so important. It opened up a space for chapters to share their impact, voice their needs, and our role is to show them they’re heard.
Community Developments
Chapter Accelerator
It was this philosophy that led us to create Chapter Accelerator – a new program unveiled in Lisbon. Over the years, we’ve listened to our Chapters and observed their struggles and concerns. To overcome them, strengthen chapter continuity and our Community’s resilience, we created a year-round program to build our members’ capacities.
We kicked off the Accelerator in March with monthly learning sessions through December, with enrollment on a rolling basis year-round. It supports active oikos chapters in strengthening their leadership, community-building capacities, their initiatives’ impact, and meaningful connection to the global oikos Community.
Since its launch, we’ve hosted 4 sessions, with each welcoming new participants, with a total of 8 chapters represented by the 17 of their leaders. As the year goes on, more sessions are in store each months for the oikos Community.
Whisper visits
The Lisbon meetup is long over, but the ripples that it set in motion gently spread across our Community. One such ripple is the Whisper Visits! Discussing what the Community means to them and listening to the stories of Alumni, Chapter members came up with an idea of informal meetups. The concept is simple – a group of oikees from one or more chapters team up and visit a city with an oikos Chapter.
But why does this matter? Ever since the 2020 pandemic, the travel dynamic has changed for most students. Even six years later, our in-person events don’t reach the pre-pandemic participation numbers. Despite more prominent online engagement nowadays, many oikees expressed their eagerness for in-person conversations. Therefore, the less formal, but more frequent visits presented themselves as a good starting point.
From then on, it didn’t take long to break the ice! Leading by example, oikos International Board Member Zuzia Bielska of oikos Warsaw reached out and got together with local oikees on her visit to Barcelona. Later on, a group of oikees visited Brussels and met up with the local Chapter’s active and alumni members.
Alumni Pathways
Growing Alumni Engagement
We pride ourselves with thousands of alumni who have at one point been a part of an oikos Chapter. This year we’ve undergone an effort to strengthen the connection between alumni and the oikos Community by revisiting the ways for them to engage with our network. In February we started gathering an alumni database which has so far gathered over 90 contacts of alumni eager to engage. This includes organizing in-person alumni gatherings, speaking at oikos events, supporting oikos organizational development and offering students opportunities. Interested, send us a message and we will send you the link!
Alumni Meetups
Whisper visits are not much different from oikos Alumni meetups. Former oikees with a strong connection of having been a part of our Community often plan their meetups on their own initiative all over the world. Over the past few months, we’ve seen an Alumni meetup in Ljubljana. Initiated by oikos Co-president Jule Neumann on her visit to the Urban Future conference hosted in the city that was once home to an oikos Chapter.
oikos International developments
New faces in the oI Team
Over the past few months, we’ve seen an influx of new energy into our team, with a new Board Member joining alongside four new volunteers. Following the Spring Legislative Meeting, Amaan Deshpande of oikos Graz was elected to the oikos International 2026 Board as the 5th member. Dylan from oikos Warsaw joined our team in January as a volunteer, and in the following months, Neaz, Sadia, and Iman joined him.
Spring Legislative Meeting
The Spring Legislative Meeting took place in April. Aside from the previously mentioned addition to the oikos International Board, a few more important decisions were made. Amendments to the constitution introduced changes to the oikos Chapter minimum reporting and engagement requirements, as well as changing the Co-president term from two to three years with a single re-election limit. Furthermore, dormant chapters in Baku, Bayreuth, Cologne, and Witten/Herdecke were officially closed due to prolonged inactivity.
Advocacy & Influence
Achieving our goals is made possible by building strong connections – in person. Our team has travelled around the world meting up with local Chapters and Alumni, but also attending partner events that foster strategic partnerships within the ecosystem.
Global Sustainable Development Congress
Together with HESI-SAG (Higher Education for Sustainability Initiative – Student Action Group), oikos International co-president Patricija Zizyte joined the Global Sustainable Development Congress in Jakarta, Indonesia. The goal was to strengthen the student voice in the conversations of higher education transformation. The week has offered many platforms for engagement, including student-led workshop, Global Student Summit, moderation of Sulitest panel discussion and a seat at the closing panel discussion.
oikos at CLADEA Conference
At the CLADEA Conference “A 360 Approach to Student Engagement: Strategies, Innovation and Impact,” oikos International co-president Jule Neumann represented oikos in discussions on the role of student associations in shaping the future of higher education. The discussion explored how student organizations can strengthen engagement, develop future leaders, and drive positive impact within and beyond higher education.
oikos at Urban Future 2026
The Urban Future Conference brought together thousands of urban changemakers from across Europe to exchange ideas on sustainable cities and climate action. Representing oikos International, co-president Jule Neumann connected with potential partners and supporters, strengthening relationships across sectors while exploring new opportunities to advance youth leadership and sustainability.
We would like to give our gratitude and appreciation to the partners who supported our impact:
