After several new contacts in Russia and Belgium, on the 19th of December it was announced that AEGEE-Europe is also expanding to England with a new contact in Manchester. The AEGEEan spoke to Pablo Palazón, member of AEGEE-Alicante, to find out more about the newest contact!
Pablo Palazón
Pablo Palazón got in contact with AEGEE in 2013, when he became a member of AEGEE-Alicante. “I went to a Summer University in Torino and became quite active. I ended up being the treasurer of the amazing Summer University of AEGEE-Alicante last year!” However, when he moved to Manchester last August, he noticed that there is a big need for organisations fostering Europtimism in the United Kingdom. “I was missing my AEGEE life so much that I decided to start working on the recovery of this AEGEE experience”, he says. “I had so many AEGEE friends wiling to visit me in Manchester too that I just needed to give them a good reason to come here!”
Bryn French
After Pablo met Bryn French, a member of AEGEE-Durham living in Manchester, the two guys agreed to found an AEGEE contact in Manchester. They got in contact with Domitille Simon, who founded the European Union Society in the University of Manchester some weeks before, and started to work together. Together with the members that the European Union Society already had, the three are full of plans for the upcoming year. “We want to take advantage of the great opportunities that AEGEE offers, so we would be really happy to send people to European events”, Pablo explains. “We will be focused on recruiting members and activating the ones we already have! We are also planning to organise an event in May and open it to the AEGEE network and our Nordic Stars.”
To attract new members, there are plans to be present at the students’ fair that will take place in January at the University of Manchester. “We will organise interesting local events for members and we also want to have a good Summer University campaign”, Pablo says. “The relationship between the UK and Europe is one that is continually debated here, and we believe we can bring some much needed Europtimism!” Luckily, with help from other AEGEE-locals like AEGEE-Alicante, AEGEE-Dresden, AEGEE-London and AEGEE-Sheffield and support from Jorge Sánchez Hernández and Pablo Hernández, the new contact has more than enough support in order to achieve their plans and bring some Europtimism to the United Kingdom again.
Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen