This year, a total of 3312 SU applicants made their choice amongst the 80 available Summer Universities. Among those, five of them stood out, having far more than 100 applications. It won’t be a surprise that we are talking about AEGEE-Cagliari & AEGEE-Napoli’s ‘La vita è bella: Mediterranean coast to coast’ managed to gather 184 applications, but AEGEE-Peiraias’ ‘Sea Wars: The Port strikes again!’, AEGEE-Catania’s ‘The treasure island vol. III – The origins of the crew’, AEGEE-Helsinki & AEGEE-Tartu’s ‘FinEst Way to Push your Limits’ and last but not least AEGEE-Tarragona & AEGEE-Valencia’s ‘Touch the Sky Under the Mediterranean Fire’ did a great job too! The AEGEEan spoke to the organising teams of this Fantastic Five to find out more about their methods.
Of course, the first thing we were wondering is how these Summer Universities managed to attract so many participants. The Fantastic Five agree that it’s thanks to the unique program they offer, for example exploring the Nordic antennas, Greek islands or the Italian culture, but another important aspect is formed by the good ratings given in earlier years. As AEGEE-Cagliari and AEGEE-Napoli summarize: “We think it’s probably due to what we can offer during the event: wonderful cities full of history and art that appeal millions of tourists each year, fantastic seasides and last but not least our typical folk spirit, that fascinates all people.” AEGEE-Peiraias adds to this: “Our positive thinking and belief that we could make it, along with the dedication and hard work we put in this project resulted in this positive outcome.”
Also, a good use of promotion never hurts, which is a tool the Fantastic Five used extensively. Pictures are a popular tool, but most of the Summer Universities also made a promotional video to share with their applicants what they could expect. AEGEE-Catania showed off their earlier held treasure hunt, while AEGEE-Helsinki & AEGEE-Tartu made a series of videos, AEGEE-Peiraias used video too to promote their SU and AEGEE-Cagliari and AEGEE-Napoli filmed a short summary of what to expect. Next to this, another popular method was the creation of a Facebook page, where regular updates about the Summer University were given.
After the successful promotion, it was time for a hard task: deciding on your participants, while having more than hundred applications waiting. How did the teams deal with this? “We first looked at the motivation letter, since our goal was to select participants who really wanted to be here and who would take part in every activity and opportunity to offer”, AEGEE-Helsinki and AEGEE-Tartu tell us. “Since most of them were pretty awesome, we also decided based on the country of residence to have cultural diversity and we also selected participants by gender, to have an equal amount of boys and girls.” The other three use a similar method, also AEGEE-Catania adds that an original and funny motivation letter together with pictures and a video is the way to get through their preliminary selection.
Asked about their tips for organising teams next year, the Fantastic Five have different tips ready. “We just recommend them, first of all, to be a group of very good friends. Having a strong friendship, with confidence in the people you are working with, is the best weapon for facing a challenge like this one. Apart from that, the team has to be motivated and ready to work during some months, with patience, but also enthusiasm.” AEGEE-Helsinki and AEGEE-Tartu add to this that it’s mostly important to imagine yourself being a participant in your SU. As AEGEE-Peiraias summarizes: “Together we stand, divided we fall. Our good cooperation and the respect and love we show for each other are the main ingredients of our team.”
Since three out of five Summer Universities were done in cooperation, we were also curious what the benefits of joining forces are. “We think it’s a good idea, because it brings the possibility to know the people from another antenna better, learn to work with another group of people who can teach you new things for your antenna and also to spend some days in another city”, AEGEE-Tarragona and AEGEE-Valencia says. Another important reason is having a good chemistry between different teams, which happened to AEGEE-Cagliari and AEGEE-Napoli. Still, a Summer University can also be organized by just one local, as AEGEE-Catania and AEGEE-Peiraias proved us.
Either way, whether you do it alone or together, organising a popular Summer University seems to be a mixture of good and extensive promotion, an awesome team, great plans and a lot of enthusiasm to make it happen. For this summer the plans have already been made, but let’s create magic again next summer!
Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen