Lenka Stancelová from AEGEE-Bratislava said about her: “She has lots of great ideas, and the great thing is that she makes them true as well. She is always full of energy, actually I have never met such an energetic person with such a great attitude!” and in June we decided to reward it with the Member of the Month Award. Jana Vedlová from AEGEE-Brno was the main organiser of their NWM – FRaise Your Spirits! that took place from the 30th of April to the 3rd of May.
The AEGEEan: Jana, you are the Member of the Month. How does it sound like? Would you voted for yourself if you could? Why?
Jana: It sounds good, though I am surprised, because I don’t feel like I have contributed to the network massively. But of course it makes me happy that somebody noticed our activity and that I helped to make us more visible! I believe we are doing great as antenna, we estabilished our aims and goals and we are trying to fulfil them through content events like Network Meetings or SUs focused on self-development.
Who is Jana Vedlova? Tell us something about your life.
Jana Védlová is a 26 year old Czech. She has studied Management of Culture at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. She joined AEGEE in April 2011 and fell in love with this great organisation.
She travels a lot and works in an international bar called The Immigrant, she spent one semester studying in Athens, Greece, and another six months working for former AEGEE-Cagliari members in Apply Consulting company (both Erasmus programmes) and participates in many Erasmus+ projects… She is not really looking for a serious boring office job.
And who is just Jana? We want to know you better, so what is your personality, your way to live and to see the world?
Tough one…isn’t it hard to speak about your own personality? I can only say the way I see life and the world is not the way my parents want me to see it. I love new cultures, countries, AEGEE and AEGEE friends and my dog. I am a language freak. I can’t stay too long in one place. So now I am looking for a way to be able to travel all my life and make money at the same time.
What is your experience in AEGEE?
As I mentioned before I joined AEGEE in 2011 and after my first Summer University in 2011 organised by AEGEE-Salerno I immediately became active. I organised some SUs, two NWMs, many local events, I was part of Cultural Working Group where I helped with one project called Cultural Calendar and I participated in loads of different content and fun events, where I met great friends and inspiring people. As all the active members I took part in many Agorae. Being active for almost five years is a long time, the time of my life, and helped me in many ways. I am truly happy that I happened to be introduced to this great youth culture.
One of the reasons you have been nominated MoM is because you did an amazing job at the NMW in Brno. Can you tell us about it?
I wouldn’t say it was only me who did an amazing job, I believe it was all of us! First of all my organisers team: Lucie Ostrá, Petra Védlová and Tereza Mikšíková, very good friends, responsible people and experienced in organising diverse AEGEE-Brno events. We had already done loads of things together, therefore I’m not saying this NWM was a piece of cake, but we definitely knew how to do it already. Secondly our Network Commissioner Tekla Hajdu did a great job preparing the content and outcome and of course all the trainers that took part prepared great sessions.
And what can I say about the NWM? It was held in May, called Fraise Your Spirits, we had 24 participants from different parts of Europe. I would say it was great, lot of new and older members, lot of sharing, interesting input and some workshops were new for me as well. We tried to do our best, I believe we delivered a successful Network Meeting. On the other hand you can never make everybody happy, but you can always try cause there is always space for improvement!
What are your future plans?
My future plans…hmm, as I said, I love travelling and exploring the world, I think I will continue doing that. Next months are bit uncertain, I’m probably going to spend some time in Groningen, Netherlands and in June I am going to Canada for one year! So my AEGEE life is over for now and new adventures are ahead of me. My ideal plan for now would be Canada, a three month trip in USA and then continue to South America… crisscrossing the continent.
Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona and Karina A. Silivas, AEGEE-Udine