Giuseppe Formica is the president of AEGEE-Genova and like other candidates, he presents as a new member of the Summer University Coordination Team for the next Autumn Agora in Salerno (Italy). With three years of experience as a member of this young European students association he decided to work at the European level. And like other candidates, from The AEGEEAN decided to get to know him better through an interview.
You’ve been in AEGEE for the last three years, during which you organized a lot of local and international events and you’ve been the President of AEGEE-Genova. What are the main lessons you have learnt from all these experiences and in which sense have they helped you to get to where you are now?
I think nothing to consider as “main lessons” but for sure I’ve learnt many things which help me to see my life in a different way.
You are working for the Health Ministry of Italy, which is a serious career point. How do you plan to combine your job with the new responsibilities of the SU Project Manager and your role as AEGEE-Genova President?
I’ll be President of AEGEE-Genova for 1 month more. Regarding the time to dedicate to SUCT, I have a lot of free time and I love AEGEE so I’ve always found time for it and I’ll always do! At my workplace, I’m very well organized so I have a lot of free time there as well. Sometimes I’ve done AEGEE stuff during my normal working day and I’ll keep doing it if it would be necessary.
Apart from your experience, what do you think are your most important qualities that are necessary for the SU Project Manager position?
Leading a group as a leader and not as a boss is a combination of many factors. Firstly you need passion for what you are doing and for me AEGEE and SU Project are really important. Of course passion is not everything, especially for the role of Project Manager, you need to be well organized, inclusive, pragmatic, and respectful.
You have a very structured and multidimensional approach to the changes in the SU organization, talking about everything from food to hours and promotion. Which of the solutions proposed by you do you think would have the most impact and about which one you are most passionate about?
I’m just passionate about SU Project not for my personal proposals. My proposals could be accepted or not. If they are, we can try to raise SUs in a different and hopefully better way, if they are not we will try to do our best like the previous SUCT have done until now.
To conclude this interview, what are your next objectives in case you would not be chosen as an SU Coordinator?
If I’ll be elected for SUCT I’ll be less involved in AEGEE-Genova. If I will not, more time for AEGEE-Genova!