Recently it was shared with our Network that the host of the AEGEE Olympics is AEGEE-León: a strong and motivated antenna that is already working hard on organising a big event for 200 people in October. The AEGEEan interviewed Daniel Garcia Rodriguez, Local Activities Responsible and Sport Responsible of AEGEE-León, in order to get to know what is going on in the life of their antenna.

Sunny León

The AEGEEan: Can you tell us a bit about your local?  

Currently we have about 100 members, and 35 of us are very motivated and active members who work every week in our sports and local activities, trips with Erasmus, thematic parties, workshops, and participating in AEGEE events in all Spain and Europe. When we talk about each other we say AEGEE-León is like our other family, and at this moment we think that is time to show it to the rest of Europe with this incredible and thrilling project “The first AEGEE Olympics with the SWG”.

You are one of the locals involved with the European Voluntary Service program. How are you involved in it and how has the experience been so far?

We are a young institution accredited in the EVS (since September 2012), as sending, hosting and coordinating organisation. We applied for our first volunteer and fortunately we got someone. She has been with us since February and will be here until June 2013.

As sending organization there were many solicitors. We have planned to send AEGEE-León members as volunteers to other countries during the next year. When you see that all your efforts are paying off, you feel good about it. The EVS is a very important opportunity to get experience, and it is a very good solution to youth unemployment and a strong training alternative in Europe. So we want to continue being in the EVS, and encourage other antennae to join it.

A Sportive version of Leoncio

Furthermore, your mascot is nominated again for the cutest mascot award for The AEGEEans Choice Awards. What makes him so popular, and do you think he will win again?

Yes, we are very proud of Leoncio. We know he will win because he has the AEGEE spirit: he travels a lot, he is a party animal, he is interested in savannah affairs and he seeks cooperation between other mascots.

Also, you are organizing the same Summer University for the third time in a row? What makes your Summer University so special, and what is changed about this year’s edition?

Our two last versions of St. James’ way were really successful, in 2011 we got the first place in the ranking, in the second version in 2012, we got the third position so the results were still amazing. This year it is a Summer Course, not a Travelling Summer University (TSU), so we will try to get even closer to environmental issues. And we want to open it for disabled people, in particular blind people. It is going to be a huge challenge but we are sure we will succeed.

León university

You are one of the locals that use sports a lot in your activities, but maybe not everybody knows about it. Please tell us how you use sports in AEGEE-León?

We use sports as an important tool to connect to our local Erasmus students. These moments of sport are one opportunity to bond with them and to promote the integration and team spirit. This way the Erasmus students can have a nice afternoon with AEGEE-León.

In implementing this, we cooperate closely to our university – they let us use their facilities to play two hours of football every Monday, two hours of basketball every Thursday and two hours of volleyball every Friday. Usually we have around 30-40 exchange students participating in these activities, and AEGEE-León members enjoy playing with them each day. Also, four to five times during the year we organise a world championship of football: one part is general (male and female) and other part is for female teams.

Which leads me to the AEGEE Games – why did you choose to apply to host the first edition of this event?

When we first heard about the AEGEE Olympics inspired games we immediately thought that it could be a very good opportunity to host an interesting sport meeting. Our faith in our strong cooperation with our university because of all the sports we already do with them, and the fact that we have many motivated and active members hoping to organise a good event lead us to develop a very good project.

The motivation of AEGEE-León is very inspriring and The AEGEEan hopes that other antennae will follow their example and focus on the thematic aspect of AEGEE, Working Groups, and strong Summer Universities.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Determining how to make AEGEE a more active organisation thus contributing to combating physical inactivity in Europe is on the agenda of the Sports Working Group (SWG). Part of the key to the answer is to organise events, loads of events to reach as many members as possible.

Let’s move it  – Lets Shake it up  Europe – Sport as tool for Summer University (SU)

If your antenna wants to make this summer more active and healthier, the SWG is here to help you incorporate physical activity and sport in non-formal education in your SU. SWG is a brand new Working Group of 2012, full of eager and motivation, ready to come closer to the Network and combat issues such as racism and homophobia in sports which can all be used in the organisation of a SU. Many SUs have already had the theme of sports last year including Brescia, Madrid, Oviedo, Athens and many more; the SWG hopes to make SUs even more sportive this summer, at the same time incorporating the action agenda of AEGEE in this . At the moment the SWG is in talks with the Scandinavian Dream Summer University, organisers AEGEE-Helsinki and AEGEE-København, as well as AEGEE-Tiranë trying to make their SU more active and hopefully more antennae will use the SWG in their SU.

Using the famous games to organise a motivational event

A few weeks ago the SWG issued its first Open Call asking for a local to host an event inspired by the Olympic Games. The SWG recognises a lack of a motivational event that gathers members from all over the Network, with the aim of cultural exchange, team-building and social activities and it has the belief that sports can create the surrounding for such event. The SWG aims to organise an inspiring as well as motivational event of a duration of four to seven days that could open up for a stronger co-operation between antennae and potentially an opportunity to cooperate with other interesting organisations such as ESN, AIESEC, BEST and more, which could have members interested in taking part in such events as well. The SWG values Youth Participation highly and it has been agreed that having such event where members can network not only within AEGEE but also with other associations will help better AEGEE. Since there is still one more week until the deadline of applying to be host of such event, the SWG will keep all opportunities open and is eager to receive mails tick into their gmail account.

Whether it comes to having SUs focus on inclusion of minorities, or being active in youth participation organising interesting events such as AEGEE Olympics, the SWG keeps developing ideas on how to contribute to combating physical inactivity and on non-formal education through sports with the Action Agenda in mind. Hopefully a strong collaboration between local level and European level will reaffirm the SWG and the Network that the SWG has a great potential working together with antennae from all over Europe.

Written by Sabina Begic AEGEE-Wien, and Patricia Anthony AEGEE-København