With a new year, come new team members or roles for current members, like the two new Editors for our People and Projects and Working Groups sections! Journalist Katja Sontag (AEGEE-Aachen) will be responsible for all our interviews with AEGEE members from now on, while Larisa Smajlagic (AEGEE-Verona) will make sure you hear all the news about AEGEE bodies!
The AEGEEan: First of all, for those who don’t know you yet: can you describe yourself briefly?
Katja: Gladly! Hey everyone, I’m Katja from AEGEE-Aachen and many of you might have met me while I was wearing a polar bear costume. When I’m not advertising my very cool home-local, I am a teacher at a high school in Germany, at the moment teaching English to very annoying but still very lovable kids around the age of ten to 14. Besides that, I’m a cat fanatic, coffee lover, gossiper and chronically suffering from wanderlust.
Larisa: Hello AEGEEans! I’m Larisa Smajlagic (AEGEE-Verona), a 24 year old Bosnian-Italian girl and MA graduate in International Business Relations. I’m truly in love with foreign languages and cultures, travel, people and above all LIFE; optimistic and self-confident by nature on the one hand, windbag, foodie and gestures master thanks to my Italian heritage on the other hand (she laughs).
What have you done in AEGEE so far and what are you currently doing?
Katja: The first time I heard about AEGEE was in January of 2011 at a university event where some students presented this very interesting association. I went to their next social drink and became a member directly. Since then, I have been active on the local level a lot and have been on many European events (many Agorae, two Summer Uiniversities (SU), two Network Meetings (NWM), one New Year Eevent (NYE) and many smaller events such as Local Training Courses (LTC) etc.). Since December, I am not too active anymore in terms of organising events, but I am a member of the advisory board and I hope to be able to still attend interesting events such as the next Agora or maybe another Summer University. Right now, I also spend most of my very precious little amount of free time with the AEGEE people, who are still my best friends.
Larisa: When I read about our great Members of the Month I feel kinda ashamed and consider myself a sort of newbie in AEGEE… (she smiles) My life in our network in fact started only in 2013 and since the very beginning I had a pretty harsh ‘duty’: re-found AEGEE-Verona and be its President. But thanks to my stubbornness and the help of a great group of friends (Angie Zandonà, Maryia Anishchankava, Giulia Recoaro, Cristina Rolli and Martina Liviero) we made it! Verona got upgraded and now we are officially an antenna. After one year of hard work in the role of President of my local, I wanted to step back, but still be part of the board, so I was elected as the Secretary of AEGEE-Verona, a pretty interesting role that made me understand that minutes aren’t just boring stuff but a way to keep track of what your board members do and the future plans of your local. As far as you can see I’m really engaged on the local level, but I still need to explore the European one: that’s why I started with baby steps by taking part in events (three NWMs and one Agora) and by joining The AEGEEan in May 2014.
When and why did you join The AEGEEan?
Katja: I always loved writing and already in third grade, my school certificate said that I had an exceptionally large vocabulary (in German, of course). When I was younger, I wanted to become a journalist, but only until I thought about the working times and heard about the low chances of becoming successful on more than just the local level. So I dropped that thought, but still ended up studying languages. After hearing about the AEGEEan, I wanted to join the team for quite some time, but I was too shy to ask how it was possible. I’m glad I finally did it in June last year!
Larisa: Like I said before I joined The AEGEEan in May 2014. Why? Well, don’t look at me, it’s Bettin’s fault (she smiles). She asked me to do it! Ok, ok, sorry, let’s focus: jokes aside, the reason I decided to be part of this amazing team is that I was always really curious about our network and the best way to get fresh news about it is by joining our magazine. I also joined The AEGEEan because I really like writing and I wanted to improve my English skills. Besides that, I always considered the world of journalism to be amazing and The AEGEEan represented a great opportunity for me to daydream and to ‘act like a real professional’ (she smiles).
What made you decide to apply for Editor of your section?
Katja: It wasn’t even my idea to apply for the job of an editor at all, but Erika’s (our editor-in-chief). She approached me via mail and asked if I was interested. I was a bit shocked and thought about my job, which is pretty time-consuming. But from the moment I read the mail, the thought started growing and it felt just too tempting to resist. The People section seemed the most interesting one for me, because I always found individual fates the most interesting and it is always so astonishing to see how single people can achieve great things and have an impact.
Larisa: I wanted to experience the next step in our magazine after a six month period as a journalist. My goal was to feel ‘complete’ and to gain new skills. Writing is wonderful but supporting the work of my team and doing the best to improve the quality of its articles is really gratifying. I also think that the section of Projects and Working Groups is pretty interesting, because I consider them the heart of our network. In fact it’s thanks to their members’ ideas and engagement that we are able to meet and discuss together about ongoing topics and find concrete solutions.
What can the readers expect from you? What plans do you have for your section?
Katja: One of the biggest priorities, of course, will be the Members of the Month (MoM) and others which have been nominated to become one. Also, there are a lot of other candidates to report about, when for example Agorae are coming up. But I have no doubt that there are more inspiring stories in our network than just those about candidacies and MoM! One other idea of mine was to present our readers a quick look into the future and maybe interview some former CD members or other AEGEEans who now started their jobs within the field of European policies to find out about the opportunities AEGEE offers us for our lives and about the interesting career choices that some former members made.
Larisa: I plan to do my work in the most responsible and correct way. This means that I will learn all the secrets behind the profile of a good editor, support the work of the journalists that will write for my section and of course I will get in touch with the projects and working groups’ members in order to develop new ideas for articles and to keep you all informed by providing you juicy news.
Besides AEGEE, what do you do in ‘normal life’?
Katja: As I said, I am a teacher. And even though I don’t always like to admit it, I pretty much love my job and all the excitement it brings along. Every day is different and there are just so many funny situations. Still, it takes up a lot of time (140 class tests to be corrected next week, yay!) and I struggle with my urge to travel and my need to be around my friends. In general, I don’t have typical hobbies but love to hang out with people to exchange the latest gossip.
Larisa: Is there life besides AEGEE? (she laughs). Ok seriously, let me think about what I consider ‘normal’. I can say that in my everyday life I enjoy spending my time surrounded by the people I care about and laugh and make jokes together. I also love sports, above all football, that’s why in my spare time I write articles and work as translator for an Italian website where you can find news about Eastern European football championships and their new players. Besides sport I also like watching hours of Asian movies and anime. I always admired the far eastern culture and one day I hope to have the opportunity to visit that great side of our planet. Last but not least, I read a lot of books from eccentric, modern writers like Chuck Palahniuk, but also Russian classics like the ones of Dostoevskij and Tolstoj.
What wish do you still have, in or outside AEGEE, that you would like to see fulfilled one day?
Katja: I actually have a bucket list! It is still quite long, which should hopefully not be a problem since I intend to become at least 90 years old. But on top of that list is traveling which always combines my “private” life with AEGEE anyways. I want to see every European country and capital and of course, I have many destinations on other continents in mind. And since we have been talking about writing: I would love to publish a book one day. It would definitely be something funny, but most likely I will never finish it anyways. I am a bit of a procrastinator…
Larisa: My greatest wish is to get my backpack and explore the beauties of our planet. Yeah, traveling around the world from Southern America up to Taiwan is my biggest dream. I want to see different cultures, meet different people and learn different languages. The word ‘different’ is so amazing. Don’t you think? In Italy we say ‘il mondo è bello perché è vario’ (translation: variety is the spice of life) and I absolutely agree with that!
If we were to write an article about you, your life and/or something you did, what would the title be?
Katja: This is a good one. Well, it could be something like “Crazy person in a costume tries to cuddle with real-life polar bears” (she laughs). Or maybe, to be a little bit more serious, something about trying to bring cultures together? About me traveling? We’ll have to wait and see (she laughs).
Larisa: I guess ‘The Explorer’. The reason of the title is related to my personality. As you might have already figured out while reading my previous answers, I’m a really curious person and I have a sort of greed for knowledge: Maybe this is the right path to follow in order to become a real journalist ‘when I grow up’.
Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen