This blog post was sent in by Jan Skapa, Founder of the student group Students For Liberty Czech Republic

Soon after the doors of the ESFL Conference in Leuven had closed in March 2013, new doors opened in the Czech Republic. Our group of approximately eight individuals decided to fill the void in the field of liberty that existed in our small country. In March 2013, we established SFL Czech Republic, an independent student group. We really wanted to put our name out there – to start it all off with an event which would grab the attention of a wide range of students, as we didn’t have any member base yet except for a couple of friends.

At the end of March, we started to look for an interesting topic suited for our first event. Soon, bitcoins came up in our discussion. Bitcoins are all over the internet. You can hear about new businesses starting to accept bitcoin, investing in bitcoin-related ventures; people trading, mining, hoarding bitcoins, etc. It is truly a big topic of 2013 – maybe one of the biggest. It was decided pretty quickly that this would be it – the thing people want to hear and talk about. And we were proven right a month later when on April 29, 2013, in one of the biggest lecture halls at the faculty of social studies at Masaryk University in the centre of Brno (the second largest city and the biggest student city in the Czech Republic),  we saw this: (more…)

 This blog post was sent in by Yaël Ossowski, Executive Board Member of European Students For Liberty

OSLO — For three days in the chilly capital of Norway, activists, human rights crusaders, and opinion makers from across the globe convened to discuss the state of human freedom in the world today. The event was about documenting tragedies, removing the stigma of victimization and offering solutions to counter repressive regimes and governments. These individuals met from May 13-15 at the 5th annual Oslo Freedom Forum, in the same city where the first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded nearly 112 years ago.

The Freedom Forum was first conceived by Thor Halvorsseen, a young Venezuelan activist who founded the Human Rights Foundation. At the opening press conference, Halvorssen summed up the case for the Freedom Forum in just a few words. “We can no longer solely rely on governments to protect human rights,” said Halvorssen. “We must bring that message to all those to seek to oppress and limit freedom.” True to this message was the theme of the 2013 conference: “Challenging Power.” Members of Students For Liberty’s European and International Executive Board were on hand to engage with true freedom fighters and advocates for liberty, who strived even in the face of violence and tyrannical rule. (more…)

This blog post was sent in by Baptiste Favrot. Baptiste is a 20 year-old French business school student. He was part of the first generation of ESFL Local Coordinators and is now on the European Executive Board and the Regional Director for France. This is his story.

My path towards spreading the ideas of liberty began in 2011 when I joined a small libertarian group in Strasbourg after reading the Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek. At that moment I decided I was willing to turn ideas into actions. A year later I was in Lithuania in the middle of the summer to attend my first ever ESFL event, the Vilnius Regional Conference, where I met amazing and inspiring student leaders. I discovered that I was not the only person to have this crazy idea that the government should stay out of people’s lives. Little did I know at the time that this was about to catapult me into the liberty movement and lead me to attend the biggest student libertarian event ever organized, the 2013 International Students For Liberty Conference in Washington, DC.

Coming back to 2012, when I returned to Strasbourg I decided to apply for the ESFL Local Coordinator position and start a new student group. In September, SFL Strasbourg was born and since that date we have been organizing monthly debates about liberty. It is all too common that students in France never dare to question the minimum wage, the “soda tax” or the drug war. Our events also allowed us to speak about Frederic Bastiat who sadly, as paradoxical as it may seem, remains unknown in our country.

In October I was thrilled to become a new member of the ESFL leadership as a Local Coordinator. The LC retreat, where we received our training, gave me the opportunity to learn more about what SFL does but it also allowed me to adopt a more professional work method. I met my colleagues from all around Europe and it was an incredible time for me.

One of our proudest moments happened this March when SFL Strasbourg hosted the pro-liberty Member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan. This conference gathered more than 70 students and also provided our team in Strasbourg with a lesson: dare to build the most amazing project. Passion and motivation made it possible for us to host one of the most inspiring pro-liberty leaders in Europe. Why can’t you do the same?

All the hard work we put in during the last year also earned me the nomination for the Student of the Year award at the 2013 ISFLC, which is a huge honor and a confirmation that we are on the right path with our friends here in France. I am now a member of the ESFL Executive Board as the Regional Director for France. ESFL has been one of the most amazing experiences both in my professional and personal life.

Join the family and help us create a freer Europe. Apply here to become a Local Coordinator!

America’s Future Foundation (AFF), the nation’s premier network of liberty-minded young professionals, is expanding its leadership this summer!

AFF will be opening several new chapters this year and existing local chapters are looking to expand their leadership teams. This is a great chance for young professionals to gain valuable leadership experience. AFF also provides an exceptional networking platform, career tools, and opportunities to be published in Doublethink magazine and on the “Free the Future” blog.

If you are interested in bringing AFF to your city, please contact AFF’s National Chapter Coordinator, Jason Riddle at jason@americasfuture.org or (404) 754-4324. Or, if you want to learn more about involvement with an established AFF chapter, please contact one of the local chapter leaders listed below.

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It’s crunch time! There are just 24 hours left to apply for the 2013-2014 Campus Coordinator Program! Get your applications in today!

Don’t miss out on the premier program on organizing for liberty on college campuses. This highly competitive program seeks out strong student leaders to spread the ideas of a free society from the grassroots level by starting new pro-liberty student groups, organizing events to promote the ideas of liberty, resourcing student groups and identifying and mentoring other pro-liberty students.

Over the summer, newly selected CCs go through a comprehensive training program to learn how to grow the student movement for liberty in their area.  Then, during the school year, CCs are given the resources, infrastructure, and oversight to support the campuses in their region.

Interested? Want to learn more? Check out the full page on the CC program here and submit and application while there’s still time!