For many AEGEEans, the idea of a real, serious job may appear alien compared to the fun and inspiration we find in AEGEE. But maybe there are ways to leverage AEGEE to find a job that is (almost) as cool or European? The AEGEEan spoke with our Alumni network, Les Anciens d’AEGEE, about their Career Training for AEGEEans.

AEGEEans are consciously devoting time and energy to AEGEE. It is fun and it contributes to the greater good of a borderless Europe. But are we also conscious about what we gain, both personally and professionally for our future lives? According to AEGEE Alumni, it usually takes a couple of years after leaving AEGEE  until one realises the impact of the experience, and that the spirit actually does not go away. 

“Our Career Training for AEGEEans wants to accelerate that insight, and help graduates make the most of their AEGEE related skills from the outset,” summarises Pierpaolo Vittoria, training coordinator  of Les Anciens d’AEGEE. Our European Alumni organisation realised that supporting AEGEEans in their transition into their first post-AEGEE job is actually a win-win-win idea for AEGEEans, Les Anciens d’AEGEE and AEGEE as it: 

• Strengthens the profile of AEGEEans in their job search and application processes 
• Shows the value of our AEGEE Alumni network 
• Fosters the brand and mission of AEGEE on the European and local levels 

How it works: A modular approach to respond to different needs 

As AEGEEans approach their graduation, and hence their job search, different questions may occur during that phase. Distinct career training modules reflect and respond to these questions, including: 

• Foundational session (creatively labelled ‘A’) on identifying your AEGEE skills and how to leverage them on your CV and in personal branding  
• Job market sessions, focused on how search and selection work for (‘B1’) Private Sector careers or (‘B2’) EU Institutions & EU Bubble careers 
• Development session to plan a European career for the future (consequently named ‘C’) 

“As this is a new offer, we do not yet know the priorities or needs of current AEGEE graduates first-hand, so we have created a pre-registration form,” explains Pierpaolo. The form allows AEGEEans to indicate which sessions they are interested in and in which months they could participate. 

“A demand-based approach just makes more sense at this time”, Pierpaolo adds. He also warns that a match might not always be possible – depending on availability of trainers etc. – but the flexibility of the online format will certainly help. 

Encouraging insight – enabling implementation

While the sessions have a clear outline and will always cover the basics, their content and delivery will have a degree of variability: different trainers from the AEGEE Alumni Community will design and deploy them, and each trainer will customise the format according to their personal skills and background.

 “What the sessions have in common,” describes Pierpaolo, “is that they will focus on the resources of the participants. We want to ensure that they have a chance to identify their unique skills and describe their personal strengths, as to leverage them for their future success”.  

The trainer pool includes Alumni from different AEGEE generations, various industries and a range of job functions as well. This reflects the diversity of the AEGEE Alumni community which naturally emerges from the unique diversity of AEGEE. Pierpaolo himself has been working in the corporate sector for 25 years, and after completing a second degree in Learning Sciences, he decided to volunteer as AEGEE Alumni’s training coordinator. He will connect AEGEE graduates with Alumni trainers and facilitate the preparation of training sessions.

Just one of many things AEGEE Alumni offer to AEGEE[ans]

Many AEGEEans have noted in recent years that Les Anciens d’AEGEE is changing and becoming more connected to and with AEGEE. After its founding, in 1990, the Alumni network was mainly aiming at providing a platform for former AEGEEans to keep in touch and offered on-demand support to AEGEE as well as financial project aids, e. g. via The Continuity Fund or the FATF. 

“Talking with AEGEE locals and CD over several years has shown that there are many more areas where Les Anciens d’AEGEE and AEGEE can be connected in a valuable way,” says Michael Stuber, Strategy Director and Acting Co-ordinator of Les Anciens d’AEGEE. He is the mastermind behind a multi-stranded portfolio that includes different offerings for AEGEE and AEGEEans including: 

• INSPIRE sessions that help motivate AEGEEans by showing the value and impact AEGEE has had on individuals and their professional and personal lives 
• LOCAL support for AEGEE in maintaining and growing their membership and their local Alumni groups – or re-founding former locals 

• Mentoring for active AEGEE members and career training for AEGEE graduates to support their personal and professional development 

All these activities rely on the interest and participation of us, AEGEEans, and we can all stay informed about and connected to Les Anciens on various channels so we do not miss an invitation or announcement: https://linktr.ee/lesanciens 

If you are an AEGEEan that graduates in 2022 and interested in the described Career Training, you can 

• Find more information on this website https://www.anciens.org/support-for-aegee/career-training/ or 
• apply to participate with this Pre-Registration Form: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYMHfKaYR-jP_Gd4Ac-RNKOaUhtCo8WEvMZXvvksEPewierQ/viewform?pli=1

To this date AEGEE had a huge impact on many generations of young Europeans. But what happens when these people grow up and leave AEGEE? In the online event AEGEE-Inspire, co-organized by the areas Wild East, Teddybearea and Rainbow area, members of AEGEE’s alumni organization Les Anciens d’AEGEE (LA) explain how AEGEE has impacted their lives and still does today.

About 30 participants are eager to listen to the stories the speakers, Adil Atiser, Ana-Maria Cociorva, Alberto Alonso, Else Cerezo-Weijsenfeld and Fabian Brueggemann have to tell, moderated by LA Board member, Michael Stuber. All of them are former AEGEE-members and are now part of Les Anciens d’AEGEE. The alumni network started about 30 years ago as a group of friends. Today open to any former members of AEGEE. 400 of them joined Les Anciens so far to deliver, among others, professional support to current AEGEEans and engage in pro-European activities.

Today the speakers talk about their unforgettable AEGEE-experiences. “I don’t know if I would have ever travelled without AEGEE,” states Ana-Maria Cociorva. People, back home, always told her that the world was a dangerous place but her first AEGEE-event in Naples changed this view forever. She realized that she had to see different places and thus decided to move for her Master’s programme to Sweden where she promptly became the president of AEGEE-Lund. “I basically owe my last 12 years to AEGEE,” she says. AEGEE also changed the life of Alberto Alonso. He visited his first event in 1994 and after that became an active member. He organized summer universities, learned how to find sponsors and took part in many events. To some of them Alonso even hitchhiked. And even though he disconnected with AEGEE for many years he believes that Les Anciens is a good way to stay in touch with the organisation. “The spirit is still here,” he laughs and the moderator, Michael Stuber, wholeheartedly agrees with him.

While AEGEE impacted the personal lives of Cociorva and Alonso, it also inspired Else Cerezo-Weijsenfeld’s and Fabian Brueggemann’s professional careers. Else became a member in 1996 and travelled with AEGEE to what was then known as Yugoslavia. After war broke out in this region she felt that immense injustice was happening and decided to become a human rights lawyer. “AEGEE gave me a more open-minded world view,” she explains. Fabian Brueggemann became a member of AEGEE Münster 16 years ago where he first heard the phrase “Make AEGEE your playground”. This sentence would still inspire him many years later. Today he delivers workshops using improvisation theatre and believes that is “all thanks to AEGEE”. 

When Adil Atiser was a new member of AEGEE Ankara in 1997 he saw the organisation as the most colourful and liberal place in the whole city where “being different was considered good”. Later, he became the president of the antenna for a while and even met his future wife during a summer university in Trieste. He is sure that he couldn’t have mastered many milestones in his life without AEGEE.

After listening to the stories of Les Anciens d’AEGEE, the participants had the opportunity to ask questions and start discussions. At the end of the evening one thing certainly is clear. AEGEE continues to positively impact many lives and has helped generations to better understand the world. The speakers show that even decades after leaving AEGEE the spirit never leaves. 

AEGEE has been a huge part of so many of our lives. But what happens when we graduate and step into the professional world? For those who still want to contribute to making the dream of a borderless Europe real, an excellent opportunity is to become one of Les Anciens d’AEGEE. Created in 1990 by former members, it maintains links across generations of AEGEEans and with AEGEE itself. The AEGEEan Magazine invites Les Anciens members to share their experiences and to inspire readers. In this chapter, we let Dorian Selz inspire us with his story! 

Hi Dorian, thank you for your time. To start off, could you please tell us a bit about yourself.

Hi I’m Dorian Selz and was a member of AEGEE Geneva for five years.

What is your best AEGEE travel experience/story? 

Travel from Basel to Brussels the year the borders came down. Unbelievable at the time in the 90ties to travel uncontrolled, say from Germany across the bridge to Strasbourg without border checks. Unbelievable at the time given the history enveloping these regions.

What is the main impact AEGEE has had on you personally?

AEGEE has taught me Europe, it has provided me friends for life throughout Europe! This includes yearly holidays in Greece with my friend Dimitris and his family. From a professional perspective, AEGEE has provided a wonderful springboard to a entrepreneurial career ever since

How do you see European developments?

Positive, albeit takes time. The challenges are a disjointed continent speaking confusingly instead of with one voice.

What is the biggest challenge for AEGEE today?

The biggest challenge I see for AEGEE today is a fractured Europe.

What is your idea of and ideal Europe? 

A united colourful and engaging Europe

What’s the next European country/city you’d like to visit and why?

London for business

To close off, any words of wisdom to the younger generation?

Do your thing

AEGEE has been a huge part of so many of our lives. But what happens when we graduate and step into the professional world? For those who still want to contribute to making the dream of a borderless Europe real, an excellent opportunity is to become one of Les Anciens d’AEGEE. Created in 1990 by former members, it maintains links across generations of AEGEEans and with AEGEE itself. The AEGEEan Magazine invites Les Anciens members to share their experiences and to inspire readers. In this chapter, we let Marcus Khoury inspire us with his story! 

Hi Marcus, thank you for your time. To start off, could you please tell us a bit about yourselve?

Marcus ‘with a C’ Khoury: Hello AEGEEans, readers of the AEGEEan and editing team. I joined Les Anciens in around 2000. I have been living now in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates since 2008, in between I have lived for two years in Casablanca and for another two years in Jeddah. I miss the time I have lived in Brussels. Even though most of the time during my active years in AEGEE Europe were spent less in Brussels, but traveling all over Europe. I am passionate about reliving these experiences with great old friends from the past days. But also, and that is the beauty of Les Anciens, with many people I may have seen or known only by name during AEGEE times, or may be not even at all, and, instead, really made friends with them many years later through Les Anciens

When a typical AEGEEan thinks about a member of Les Anciens, one often thinks of something far off into one’s future. What’s your take on this perception?

Marcus: I would heartily share with those who would think “not now, maybe sometime far off into the future”, take a look at it now, enjoy it to the fullest now, make the best out of it for yourself and for your friends now. The AEGEE spirit, the hunger for travels throughout Europe and beyond, meeting up with great people in exceptional situations from outside of your regular comfort zone, your own mother tongue, fulfilling your ideals of cross-border cooperation, gaining experiences and making connections for your professional life, none of that has to stop. On the day you finish your studies, say goodbye to your student life, and start working. You are always free to continue to live out and pursue that great AEGEE spirit within Les Anciens

Les Anciens has been undergoing changes lately, do you have plans to make it more attractive for younger people?

Marcus: Of course Les Anciens (in spite of the ironic connotations coming with the name) has to be and actually already is attractive for younger people. We keep joking tongue in cheek that we are not a club of  old Dutch and German men drinking beer. The hassles resulting from world travel as a result of the Covid 19 outbreak have actually brought forward the great diversity in generations and nationalities when Les Anciens started offering more and more online activities.

What are some of the new things you have started or that you are planning?

Marcus: We definitely want to continue to reach out to AEGEE, not to impose ourselves on you. You will enjoy and are enjoying AEGEE as you choose to and that is great, without us telling the younger generation how it has to be done. We are not at all like that. But having been active AEGEE members ourselves we know how grateful we were when we could pick up the phone and call a lawyer from Les Anciens for some really needed legal advice or just bounce ideas off with a former member who can now help with contacts for speakers.

To conclude, could you share some words of wisdom?

Marcus: Enjoy AEGEE, travel, make many friends, don’t get angry about too many things or feel less professional about what you are doing compared to the real professionals. Having turned professional since 2000, trust me when I tell you so many of the things we did in AEGEE as students, were far better organized than what I have come across in my professional life.

Life of AEGEE members does not end after finishing their active membership. For those who still want to contribute to making the dream of a borderless Europe real, an excellent opportunity is to become one of Les Anciens d’AEGEE. Created in 1990 by former members, it maintains links across generations of AEGEEans and with AEGEE itself. The AEGEEan Magazine invites Les Anciens members to share their experiences and to inspire readers. In this first chapter the newly elected Coordination team has their say.

Hi and thank you for your time. To start off, could you please tell us a bit about yourselves?

Almut Brunckhorst: I was an AEGEE member in the mid-1900s in Hamburg. Already in my studies, I focused on Eastern Europe, and I work on EU external cooperation today, with stations in Russia, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan.

Sygrit Andringa: I joined Les Anciens a few years ago as I was curious what it had to offer to the ‘younger’ generation. As a member of the coordination team, I want to help LA become more attractive for newer generations.

Jan Vlamynck: I joined Les Anciens in 1995 and the network was very helpful in keeping contacts and having the AEGEE spirit transferred into the time of professional live. After travelling a lot with Les Anciens in 2018 and 2019, I decided to become part of the board of Les Anciens.

Nicole Joesch: Being the event coordinator of the current LA board, I joined Les Anciens in 2009 and became a Secretary General in 2011 for two terms. During this time, I organised two lovely summer events in Copenhagen and Southern Sweden and New Year’s events together with our local members.

Marcus ‘with a C’ Khoury: I joined Les Anciens around 2000. I have been living in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates since 2008 and miss the time I lived in Brussels. I am passionate about reliving experiences with great old friends and people I may have seen or known only by name.

Anne Turunen: I joined Les Anciens a few years ago and became active after the LA GA meeting in Tirana in June 2019. We also organised the LA New Year event in Tuusula last December. I want to contribute to the future training offers and to take part in meetings all around Europe.

Giuseppe ‘Beppe’ di Palmo: I feel just as excited to be on board as in my first SU in 2003 when I joined AEGEE. Since then, I have embraced the AEGEE spirit. I became active both at local and European level, local SU organiser, events participant and Agora and EBM delegate.

Michael Stuber: I joined the LA Board as I wanted to be a European activist again. As a diversity expert and former NGO manager, I see huge untapped potential in the network of AEGEE Alumni – professionally, politically, personally and as a support for AEGEE.

When a typical AEGEEan thinks about a member of Les Anciens, one often thinks of something far off into one’s future. What’s your take on this perception?

Michael: Talking to AEGEEans and Alumni, we realised that as an AEGEE member you are often not aware of the great impact your AEGEE engagement and experience has on your personality and skill set. With the INSPIRE AEGEE initiative and other new formats we want to create more future orientation and a powerful network of European professionals and friends. 

Anne: As the responsible for our trainings and online events I want to encourage AEGEEans to gain knowledge from our experienced Alumni. This can show that also your post AEGEE life can be European, exiting and fun.

Marcus: The AEGEE spirit, the hunger for travels throughout Europe and beyond, meeting up with great people in exceptional situations from outside of your regular comfort zone, your own native language, fulfilling your ideals of cross-border cooperation, gaining experiences and making connections for your professional life – all of that can continue within Les Anciens.

Beppe: No one should see AEGEE only as one element of his or her student era but as an experience that is always present.

AEGEE has evolved over the years since its foundation in 1985. What are some key differences you see compared to when you were an active AEGEEan?

Almut: Until the late 1990s, Europe was an innovative project with a lot of dynamics and AEGEE was supporting this with some crazy ideas – at the time. Today, challenges are different and Europe needs different kind of engagement – which we see reflected in the content, campaigning and networking work AEGEE does today and LES Anciens are happy to both support and profit from.

Jan: Our technical means were so limited in the early nineties…

Sygrit: We see the same in Les Anciens: Many of our members want to keep that special AEGEE spirit and relive it at times – in a way that fits their work, family and personal situations. By offering more formats, also virtual, we will be able to attract a wider audience due to better accessibility, in terms of time and other resources.

Les Anciens has been undergoing changes lately, do you have plans to make it more attractive for younger people?

Sygrit: Les Anciens started as a young organisation and was always inviting the young generation of AEGEE Alumni. However, AEGEEans no longer need Les Anciens to stay in touch, so we are creating new ways to contribute to Europe and benefit in their careers at the same time.

Almut: Another priority for us is to reach out to the many former AEGEEans who live or work in Eastern Europe and other countries outside the borders of the EU. The pan-European nature of AEGEE and our work for Europe is key and we want to strengthen this aspect also inside Les Anciens.

Beppe: We also realise that the impression we made in the past was quite focused on a few activities. As a community of Europeans, we have so much more to offer and we want to show this with a new online presence but also with the online events and campaigns we do in addition.Anne: We are about to start to offer online trainings in which AEGEEans and LA members participate,  mentoring is also on our agenda to make attractive offers. 

What are some of the new things you have started or that you are planning?

Michael: We build upon existing strengths in fostering Personal Relationship across AEGEE generations, like with the INSPIRE formats at the Agora, NWMs and here in the AEGEEan. Another key passion of our members is PRO-EUROPEAN engagement that we will encourage through thematic work with AEGEE and partnerships. New elements will focus PROFESSIONAL networking and development, including for AEGEEans.Sygrit: It is important to note that only since a few years, Les Anciens was officially made the Alumni network for all of AEGEE – so we have a big paradigm shift there that we still need to translate into action and new memberships.

Nicole: We also want to grow our network and presence by encouraging our members to meet locally and regionally all across Europe.

Almut: As a natural gravity, there are quite a few AEGEE Alumni working in European institutions and we have both a formal and an informal network there. 

Jan: And of course, we introduce more online formats, Europe is facing a digital transition that could not have been predicted in the nineties. We have to adopt this fully in order to be accessible.

To conclude, could you share some words of wisdom?

We feel we are not old nor remote enough for wisdom J. However, we realise that the wealth of perspectives and experiences of Les Anciens can inspire, support and sometimes accelerate the further development of AEGEE and of AEGEEans. So, take it as an offer and an invitation to be in touch, talk and collaborate – always in the special AEGEE spirit