Last week, the Miami University in Luxembourg welcomed Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel as a featured speaker.
The PM addressed the current cohort of students who are completing their semester abroad from the United States.
Bettel was well received and broached a variety of topics, ranging from his political career to the value of friends and being happy.
RTL Today’s very own intern, Ethan Burke made us proud by asking Mr. Bettel a question about his relationship with the press. If you would like to hear more from Ethan, who is currently one of the American students on exchange here in Luxembourg, check out his 16 part series profiling all of the country’s football clubs in the national division.
Miami University in Luxembourg (MUDEC) was honored when Prime Minister Xavier Bettel came to speak to our students at our European Center in Differdange.
The Prime MInister spoke very candidly with our students during his hour and a half visit about his life, his political career, the importance of family, friends and being happy.
The students were extremely engaged and asked questions ranging from which world leader surprised him in a positive or negative way, what he will do after he is no longer Prime Minister, what is his favorite place in Luxembourg to what he is currently reading.
Inspiring is the word most students used to describe the visit. The open and candid way in which the Prime Minister spoke about his challenges and experiences, really impacted the students. He encouraged them never to give up, even when they really feel like it, to change your job/career if you are not happy with your situation and passionate about the work you do and discussed that for him, being gay is not difficult, accepting himself as being gay was the hardest part. He also said that while being gay is not a choice, being homophobic is.
He admires Americans for their willingness to try new things and fail. You learn a lot when you fail and many American trailblazers credit failure to their success. The enthusiasm he shared about many regions in Luxembourg was also contagious and several students discussed wanting to see those places before they depart for the U.S., including the Mullerthal, Esch Belval and Luxembourg City.
The Prime Minister’s visit ended with some photos, and he took many selfies with students who thanked him for his visit and asked more questions as he was leaving.
