European Commission social policy expert Kornelia Kozovska recently returned to American College of Sofia (ACS), from which she graduated in 1999, to talk to the school’s 11th graders about the European Union.

Kozovska, who studied political science and economics at Bryn Mawr College in the United States before receiving her master’s and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Bologna, visited ACS as part of EU Back to School. The initiative is an effort to teach young EU citizens about the European project in an intimate and relatable manner, according to a press release. The program reached 58,000 students across all 28 member states last year.

“The moment of time you’re born into this world affects you,” Kozovska said. “Joining the protests on the streets daily after school alongside my ACS teachers and classmates in 1996-97 surely set me up for studying political science. I can’t wait to find out how your generation, born into a visa-free world, sees things differently.”

Kozovska both told the students about the EU and asked what they knew, eager to hear from them what they thought about the union, according to the release. She also told the students that she would deliver their personal messages to EU leaders.