From the landlocked plateaus high in the Caucasian mountains, on the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East and Russia and the borders of Christendom and the Muslim World comes a girl with an unmatched enthusiasm for AEGEE. Now AEGEE-Yerevan’s very own Tereza Tokmajyan is more than ready to become your next Member of the Network Commission. Hailing from one of Europe’s most exotic locations, eternally optimistic and multitalented; what you’ll definitely remember her by, however, is her unbridled spirit.
The AEGEEan: The greatest failure is to not imagine the other as complexly. Tereza, what would you like the other members of AEGEE to know about you?
Tereza: I am a 22-year-old Armenian living currently in a small city called Olhao (if you have some challenges to pronounce it, I can teach you ), in Portugal doing my EVS. I have a bachelor degree in Occupational Therapy (Ergotherapy), but after graduating university I started working as a Social Media Marketologist. Yes, it sounds totally different and crazy but that’s all me.
I like experimenting in different spheres of work, because come on, we are only living once. It can be stupid to have a boring life with no changes in it, and that’s why I became an AEGEEan, an addicted AEGEEan, a crazy AEGEEan. Before, after and during my AEGEE life I was also a member of several organisations in Armenia like APY and Youth Breath which are the observer members of YEU and I was also a volunteer in Red Cross in the department of First Aid, so no worries, I can save your life [she laughs, ed.]
And yes, if you hear people calling me China don’t be surprised, it’s my nickname and it has a long story behind it, but I like it as much as Harry Potter loves Hogwards [she smiles, ed.]
”A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Could you briefly outline your involvement, experiences and history with AEGEE?
It was four years ago, a sunny Armenian morning, when I was invited for the Local Training Course of some organisation called AEGEE which I couldn’t pronounce properly. AEGEE totally changed me, it became a Red Bull 24/7 hours a day in my life. I was like a child looking for the cookie jar. It started with the Local Training Course (LTC), then I was involved in the local Human Resources Committee (HRC) and the next term I became head of HRC and I was re-elected for a second term as well. Since 2011 I am involved in the Human Resources Committee (HRC) of AEGEE-Europe, having organised a lot of trainings, knowledge sharing courses in my local and of course Summer Universities. But so far, this is going to be my first Agora (if watching the Agora online is not counted), and I am sure it will be epic because Gijon was the place I felt my AEGEE spirit getting stronger and lifted when AEGEE-Oviedo and EAP organised a YIA event there. After this I was spamming my friends in Facebook with “Come on people, join AEGEE-Yerevan, we have cool projects, we have summer universities, and it’s the motherland of party animals”.
Why of all positions did you consider to apply for a position in the Network Commission? What do you think, makes you the ideal candidate to be the next Member of the Network Commission?
Isn’t it amazing how we meet people during our AEGEE journey, become friends, family, but in 100-200 years nobody will remember our names anymore and nobody will know we ever existed? But it doesn’t mean that we need to stop, keep our ideas and share it only with locals. We need to move on, go even higher and try to spread our spirit, knowledge and experience with the others. Network Commission is the perfect place for implementing this kind of ideas and it has taken my attention since I was a dummy AEGEEan.
I know that I have a lot of energy to go for this step, to be the one to connect the locals and be the change. For me Network Commission is a big example of the “team” and how the “teamwork” looks like. And I wish to create a network of locals standing one by one, supporting each other and creating a history.
“Life is like a box of chocolates.” What do you expect are the greatest challenges of being a Member of the Network Commission that you’ll get?
Oh, if life is a box and being a member of the Network Commission is grabbing and eating the chocolates inside of it then the challenge is accepted. But to be serious, the main challenge of my entire life is time management, because I want to be everywhere and do everything, and if I will be elected for this position I guess AEGEE will consume lots of my time. But thank God, we have smart phones and e-agents which actually help us organising [she smiles, ed].
But let’s see, I am sure that for the next term Network Commission will have a great team supporting each other, solving all the problems and breaking all the barriers together and of course I want to be a part of it. “Thanks to the people that show me what AEGEE is. See you all at AgorAsturias. Be ready, another type of winter is coming!”
Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen