Last summer the Scandinavian locals, AEGEE-København and AEGEE-Helsinki, organized the Summer University ‘Scandinavian Dream’ that turned out to be the most popular Summer University in 2013, having 242 applications. This is a good reason to get to know these locals in the north of Europe and find out how they managed to have such a successful Summer University, but also to broaden our horizon and learn more about other locals of AEGEE-Europe. Patricia Anthony, president of AEGEE-København, member of the Network Commossion and Incoming Responsible for the Summer University, and Seppo Hälikä, PR-Responsible at AEGEE-Helsinki, let us in on the details about their locals.
Seppo (AEGEE-Helsinki)
The most important question here would be: how do you gather 242 applications for your Summer University? Good cooperation and a lot of original promotion without turning it into spam are the main reasons according to Patricia. Next to that, the fact that this SU was the cheapest option to visit big cities in the north of Europe (Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Nurmijärvi and Tallin) had an important role too. Seppo says it was an unique chance that turned out to be appreciated by AEGEE members. A good new start for the organizing locals, because a Summer University in Sweden or Denmark had not been organized in years. Nevertheless both Seppo and Patricia agreed that they expected their Summer University to be a popular one, having 200 to 250 applications. Mission accomplished!
Just like the Summer University, the cooperation between the two organizing locals turned out to be a success too, even with a 800 km distance between the two cities. Locals in the north of Europe aren’t close to each other and spread over quite a big area, which doesn’t make cooperation easy, but AEGEE-København and AEGEE–Helsinki made it work. The successful example, of their collaboration, will hopefully be followed by other locals in the future, so that there will be more cooperation between our Scandinavian locals.
Patricia (AEGEE-København)
It looks like ‘Scandinavian Dream’ became so popular because of a good cooperation between the two locals, a fantastic program and original ways of promoting it to members. This way, Patricia and Niklas Vaalgamaa (AEGEE-Helsinki) turned the dream they had, while studying in Madrid, a reality in the world of AEGEE. All this was possible even without having a local in Stockholm to make the program, Copenhagen having only a small amount of members and having to deal with a distance of 800 km between both cities. AEGEE clearly made the impossible possible.
Next to making cooperation happen, Summer Universities are also a good chance to travel and meet other people from all over Europe. A fact that members of both locals knew about. AEGEE-København had ten members going on Summer University, whereas AEGEE-Helsinki saw fourtythree of their members travelling around Europe. Both Patricia and Seppo didn’t go on a Summer University, but did explore Europe by doing an internship in Valladolid, Spain (Patricia) or working in Ibiza (Seppo).
Luckily local members who don’t go on a Summer University have enough opportunities to meet new people and have fun in their own town. AEGEE-Helsinki organizes “Masterchef” events on a regular basis, having two teams compete with each other. Next to that they will participate in the Restaurant Day project in November and open a temporary AEGEE-Helsinki restaurant. Also the local organizes social drinks and travels to Stockholm, Tallinn and other cities. Because the local has around forty active members, there are enough people to set up these activities and promote the local. Seppo even sees the possibility to organize a second EBM in a few years.
Board Members of AEGEE-København
AEGEE-København is a far smaller local, having less than ten active members, but that doesn’t mean they are inactive. On a regular basis there are language cafes organized, just as other activities to get to know each other. Next to that the local has plans to organize activities with the Enviromental Working Group (EnWG), because Copenhagen will be the green capital of Europe in 2014. A theme that the local would like to work with. Even though there are already activities organized, Patricia would like to see AEGEE-København have more active members, so they will do their best to promote AEGEE in Copenhagen and the rest of Denmark. The chance that the local will organize an Agora or EBM is still very small though, because it’s hard to find a sleeping place in Copenhagen and it’s forbidden to sleep in gyms (thé place to sleep at Agorae.)
Although both locals organize other activities next to their popular Summer University, the question remains what makes them unique within AEGEE-Europe, an organization spread over more than 150 cities? Seppo says AEGEE-Helsinki is unique because it’s the only local in Finland and they are crazy enough to survive, while AEGEE–København is unique not only because it’s the only local in Denmark, but also because of the many international members they have. Members from AEGEE-København come from Estonia, Italy, Latvia and even China, so the local tries to put a focus on the importance of cultural exchange that AEGEE-Europe stands for.
Both locals and their members are clearly different when it comes to the place of origin, amount of members and activities, but got (and will be) connected by a united goal of promoting AEGEE in their countries and showing other members more of Scandinavian countries. Both Patricia and Seppo also want to see more of Europe, whether it is the Balkan region (Patricia) or London, Portugal, Greece, Czech Republic, Belgium or Malta (Seppo). AEGEE-Europe clearly unites, no matter where you are from or where you are going.
Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen