When we ask AEGEEans to nominate someone who did something important during a specific month, we often received nominations with the same name from five/six people. We never experienced an overwhelming number of nominations like we did with the Member of the Month of March: 25 in total! All with the name Naira N. Pérez Rodriguez from AEGEE-Tenerife. She was the main organiser of the Spring Break event in her local and her devotion towards participants impressed them, but also us. Here you have her honest and brilliant interview!

The AEGEEan: Tell us something about yourself.

Naira: My name is Naira N. Pérez Rodríguez, I’m 22 years old and I studied Law at the University of La Laguna, a warming (but not warm) and lovely city. Now I’m preparing the public examinations for being a judge. I’m in love with the law and the legal world. I know it can sound freaky, but I enjoy studying and arguing about the regulation of our country. I’m in love with the Canary Islands, which I consider a paradise. I was born in La Palma, the beautiful island, the jewel of the Atlantic. I’m in love with the sea and I love to swim: a way to be connected with nature where I can think without interruptions. But, among all, I’m in love with travelling. My trips’ philosophy is that the world is too big for repeating destinations. That’s why I don’t visit the same place twice; except for Turkey, thanks to AEGEE-Ankara, since I fell in love with that country, so I have to go again. I’m in love with music, as a way to express myself. Despite that I have no time for it now. I played drums and violin, but now I compensate with partying. I love to dance, above all, Latin rhythms. As you can see, in general, I’m in love with everything. And really, I’m in love.

How, when and why did you join AEGEE-Tenerife?

My relationship with AEGEE-Tenerife began with the Summer University campaign. Yes, of course, I was captured thanks to it. It was my first year in university and I saw a poster that said “Do you want to enjoy the best summer of your life?” and who could say NO to that proposal? In 2012, my adventure in Europe began with a Summer University organised by AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca, AEGEE-Gliwice and AEGEE-Pilicsaba. However, despite that I got back with too much willingness to get active, I couldn’t do much until I got back from my second SU, organised by AEGEE-Ankara. Just a few months later, I became president of AEGEE-Tenerife and I’m in my second term now. As I always say, AEGEE has given me more than I can give back.

How does it feel to be elected member of the month?

I don’t know how to define it. I didn’t expect it (and it is not the typical sentence of the Oscar’s winners). One of the participants of our European event “Spring Break in the limit of Europe” told me that she had nominated me, but of course, I didn’t expect that more people had done it. I really appreciate this award, but even If I hadn’t received it, just the nominations make me feel proud. I feel how my work has been recognised and, it has been a stimulus to go ahead. The funniest thing is that I almost did not realize that I had been awarded, because the email went to the spam folder and I don’t look in that one usually. Luckily we are in the Summer University campaign and the intranet registration of new members go to that folder too, so I enter it every day.

One of the reasons of your nomination was the event in Tenerife. What was it about? And when?

“Spring Break in the Limit of Europe” was an European event focused on the sustainability and environmental conservation, taking advantage of the endemic peculiarities of Tenerife, one island with an unquestionable and infinite natural heritage. This event was created because one of the basic features of the islands and AEGEE-Tenerife: only a few of the members from this antenna are from Tenerife or they don’t stay on the island during summer. So if we couldn’t organise a Summer University, we had to show our beautiful island in other times of the year.

It took place from the 18th to 23th of March, enjoying the Easter holidays. During this event, participants and a marvelous, fantastic, awesome group of 11 organisers, went, on the same day, to the highest point of Spain (our volcano Teide) and to a beach, changing gloves for swimsuits. We went across the North part of the island by hitchhiking and finished in a butterfly museum. We enjoyed a water park and had lessons about conservation and empowerment of local and natural heritage. We had a debate about the future of Europe and met La Laguna, an university and World Heritage city, and the capital of the island, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. All of that with their suitable doses of traditional Canarian food and party.

People who nominated you said that you were very committed and you gave all for your participants. How important is for you this aspect when organising an event?

Besides a compact and punctual timetable, to assure that the participants are pleased and enjoying the activities, it is one of the most important aspects of organising every event, because happy participants means motivated organisers with the will to work more. This creates an atmosphere where, if something goes wrong, the event doesn’t get ruined. As all the people that have met me know, you are my “dear Europeans”, so for me the human component comes always first.

Did you passed the exam you had the days after the event?

It is a hard question. Actually no, but it is not something to get worried about. For my public examinations, I have oral exams every Monday and Thursday where I have to recite, every time, one of twelve possible lessons, so actually if I don’t pass it one day, I can repeat it the next day. The final exam will be later on. In that moment I’m supposed to not fail, wish me luck.

What are your future plans in AEGEE?

I would like to get active on the regional and European level, as well as participate in an Election Observation Missions. However, I will have to wait until I finish with my public examinations. In AEGEE-Tenerife, I want to organise non-formal education activities, for facilitating and encouraging the training of members and non-members. In addition, after one year fighting with the University, now we can open our new office.

Name one good thing and one bad thing in our association. 

In my opinion, the best of AEGEE is the opportunity of opening your mind, meeting new cultures and getting out of your comfort zone in every activity, event, etc. It is achieving a completely educated person, not only education wise, but personally too. A negative aspect is that (however, sometimes this is inevitable) is the favouristims and cronyism that can be observed in the assignment of particular positions, without keeping in mind the training and background of people. I think that, as a democratic association, we should decrease the non elective positions.

Let’s play a game. Describe yourself by using adjectives that start with the letters that compose your name.

NIMBLE: my mind is always hatching something.

ACTIVE: I can’t stay at home. I always need to have something in my “to do” list.

IDEALISTIC: Ideas move the world and I want to move it.

ROMANTIC: I really love to love, despite maybe I’m not the best loving.

AUTO-DIDACTIC: something totally required in AEGEE.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

Throughout the AEGEE Network inspiring local activities are being organized every year and The AEGEEan decided to honor this for The AEGEEan’s Choice Awards 2014. Therefore five antennae are nominated for the “Most inspiring local activity” category.

AEGEE-Warszawa is nominated for the “Don’t talk to strangers – or do” activity. The AEGEEan interviewed Izabela Rudnicka (the coordinator of the project). “I came up with the idea of the project when applying for a summer school in New York. The essay questions made me think about equality and all my experiences with people disliking others just because of their foreign nationality.” The project consisted of a series of meetings with foreigners living in Poland, talking about their culture and their emigration experience. It was meant to broaden the horizons of people and fight the prejudice. There were mostly AEGEE members involved in the activities, but everybody else was also invited to come and discuss. “We struggled with finding a venue and getting people interested in the project, but we will definitely repeat it. Maybe we can even expand it to include more social groups against which prejudice exists in Poland,” Izabela tells The AEGEEan.

AEGEE-Tenerife has also been very active in the society and is nominated for the promotion of voluntarism and trying to help Tenerife to become the European Youth Capital 2015. The local municipality summoned all youth associations by the end of November 2011 to propose the idea of running for the contest to become European Youth Capital 2015. “Our president, Tayri Campo volunteered to be the youth representative for the project. That year, we were rejected on the first round. However, there was already collaboration among the youth associations and it was us this time who decided that we would like to run a second time, but this time in a more organized way. She was also the youth representative for the next year and the coordinator of La Laguna Youth Forum. So it was a project lasting from November 2011 to November 2013.” AEGEE-­Tenerife boosted the creation of a platform called La Laguna Youth Forum to promote the collaboration among the associations and to make it easy for other young people to participate either in the European Youth Capital Project or in any other of their organizations as they gained visibility. “Some of the things we are more fond of is the promotional video. We created the script and were lucky to know some young professionals in filming and editing who were willing to collaborate. We also had an exchange with AEGEE-Thessaloniki, hosting them here to know about the good practices of Thessaloniki to become the current European Youth Capital in 2014 and them hosting us during the final ceremony in Thessaloniki. Next to that, we had a trip to the European Parliament and the Committee of Regions in Brussels to present our project and look for support.

Several members of AEGEE-Tenerife also participated in the forum as IT managers and designers. “It was a lot of work trying to organize activities among associations as each of us had their own internal activities in the organization so, it was like having the double amount of work. It was also difficult to concentrate all personal objectives into a global one as many people were involved. Concerning data it was needed to do a thorough study of statistics in the municipality to look for the most important needs for young people.” And even though AEGEE-Tenerife did not become the Youth Capital they still gained from the project. “First of all young people are more connected, networking has improved and we have worked together and learnt about what other associations do. This and the platform are the most important things we have gained. Also we have gained more experience about European level projects and learnt a lot about politics for youth on an European Level and the previous Youth in Action programme. We also feel that young people who participated in EYC are much more aware about the opportunities Europe has and what they can do to take advantage of them and develop an active role.”

The AEGEEan also talked with AEGEE-Zaragoza about their collaboration with the Food Bank (Banco de Alimentos). Carlota Castel from AEGEE-Zaragoza says “It was Silvia Sánchez who suggested to collaborate with this project back in 2012. She managed to organise our chaotic schedules so all of us could participate in the activity.” The Food Bank is a non-profit charitable organisation that distributes food to those who have economical problems to put food on the table.

Members of AEGEE-Zaragoza spent the day in supermarkets talking to people about the importance of donating and also collected the food. Since 2012 it has been organized again in December 2013 and it is the reason why AEGEE-Zaragoza is nominated for “Most inspiring local activity”. Up to 20 members of AEGEE-Zaragoza took part in the activity which was published in the Facebook group of the antenna and a lot of rookies were happy to get involved in the activity, even if they didn’t have a lot of time to work for AEGEE itself. “It is good to know that they are there when we are dealing with something important,” Carlota says. The success will of course be repeated next year. “This is an annual event and we are eager to mobilise more members and friends next year.”

AEGEE-Brescia is nominated for the “European Talks” activity, which was an idea by Michele Turati. Every year, AEGEE-Brescia’s team applied for funds from the university in order to let some prestigious speakers come to Brescia to deliver a lecture about different important topics regarding Europe. The 4th edition of European Talks were given once per week and the period was from September 2013 until December 2013. The “talks” are just small conferences. Each talk is divided in two parts: the first is a speech of a invited speaker, the second part is a debate/discussion. Participants have the opportunity to talk with the speaker during the talk. The aims of the “talks” are to examine European topics and problems of students, especially of European citizens.

The super motivated team of AEGEE-Brescia as organizers and many AEGEE members as speakers took part in the activity in the autumn of 2013 (Sabiha Kapetanovic, Alexandra Vilcu, Vytoria Voytsekhovska, Lea Charlet, Karolina Mazetyte, Miguel Gallardo Albajar). Michele Minuti tells The AEGEEan about the challenges: “The speakers are involved in AEGEE projects or working groups and the main challenge was to promote them in Brescia, showing how much AEGEE is full of opportunities. Every year we get new motivated members by this activity.” Despite the challenges, the success of this activity will also be repeated. “We have already requested money from the University for the 5th Edition. Gunnar Eath, Szabina Hellinger, Maria Arends, Veronika Velkovska will be the speakers for the new edition and they will talk about non-formal education, media, Erasmus+ and human rights.”

AEGEE-Zielona Gora is also nominated for organizing “Bone marrows day donation” activity. However, it has unfortunately not been possible for The AEGEEan to obtain information about the activity.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Zaragoza

Will there ever be a statutory event in Las Palmas? That question was asked to the President of the antenna, Carmen Martín, when giving her the great news that the YVote 2014 event-organizing antenna has been chosen as Local of the Month of November. 

YVote 2014 in Las Palmas

The AEGEEan interviewed Carmen to get a deeper inside into the antenna and also talked a bit with the current President of AEGEE-Europe, Luis Alvarado Martínez, as well as the former President  of the Audit Commission, Esperanza Rodríguez, about the antenna.

What is the history behind AEGEE-Las Palmas?

Carmen: AEGEE-Las Palmas was re-founded in 2008 by Hektor Oliva and Rocío Gragera. It existed in the 90’s, but disappeared because of lack of motivated members. At the moment we have 30 members of which 10 of them are active. The experienced members are planning to implement a hopefully effective HR strategy to recruit new members and motivate them, to assure the future of our beloved antenna.

European School 1 in Las Palmas

What is special about AEGEE-Las Palmas?

Carmen: I think that the most important thing is that so far, we’ve always been friends in the teams and usually most of our participants say that it’s noticeable we really love each other. I remember that in the European School 1, that we organised in 2010, they usually asked us ‘How can you be so charming?’ which surprised us and made us happy.

Esperanza: Las Palmas is really far away. There are a lot of people there that don’t feel connected with Europe or even with Spain. Canarians are quite open-minded, since we are used to having tourists and foreigners, and also we have been emigrants at different points in time. But the distance can also create the feeling of isolation or make it hard for us to travel. And yet, there you can see a motivated group of European citizens, willing not only to experience what being European means, but also trying to show the world out there to others. And I can tell you, AEGEE-Las Palmas members are truly citizens of Europe and of the world. We have had (and keep having) members playing important roles in AEGEE, and we also have many other members spreading the AEGEE spirit everywhere! Even when I’m away (even as far as Miami)!

What does it mean to your antenna that you are located quite far away from cities across the Network?

It’s not that bad, we always complain about being far away and not being able to be in other cities by bus or train, but if we really want to go to events, in the end we manage. To travel to other cities in Spain, we always have a discount (50% of the flight tickets for being residents of Canary Islands), and on the bright side this also is something good. Everyone is always willing to come to this exotic place, even if the tickets are not that cheap.

TSU Far Far Away Kingdom III by AEGEE-Las Palmas and AEGEE-Tenerife

Do you have any special collaboration between the antennae in the Canary Islands?

Carmen: Unfortunately the only one we have now is AEGEE-Tenerife (since AEGEE-Lanzarote was downgraded in Agora Zaragoza). Our relationship with AEGEE-Tenerife is very good. Every time we organise a Local Training Course (LTC) we invite them to come. Their first European event was a Travel Summer University (TSU) with us in 2011 and it was great to organise a TSU with our neighbours and try to teach them as much as we knew. Personally, every time I meet them in other events, like Agorae or Network Meetings (NWMs) and they tell me how they’re doing, I feel really proud, since I saw their ‘birth’ and I’m really happy to see how they’re growing and doing a lot of things.

People like the President of AEGEE-Europe, Luis Alvarado, and the former President of the Audit Commission, Esperanza Rodríguez, are from Las Palmas. How do you promote the European Level of AEGEE to your members?

Carmen: I think that their motivation is more internal than external, but of course we always promote the European Level of AEGEE in our antenna. We always let our members know that they can do whatever they like and that also counts for the European Level because of all the Working Groups (WGs), projects, Committees, etc. that we have in our association!

After being twins with AEGEE-Riga would you consider taking part of the twin antenna project again, or maybe become mentor of any other antenna in part of the mentorship program?

Carmen: Sure! It was a really good experience for all of us and we want to repeat it for sure. Some of our members are very interested in the Eastern Partnership Project and maybe a good way to contribute to the Bridging Europe focus area of our Strategic Plan would be to have an Eastern Europe twin antenna.

Personally, I really believe in the mentorship program, I think we could help another antenna grow and become stronger, but it would have to be with an antenna which is close, maybe AEGEE-Sevilla would be a good option.

There has been projects like “Tienes un dia? Involúcrate!” (Got a free day? Take action!) in Las Palmas. How do you strive to contribute to the thematics of AEGEE these days?

Carmen: Right now we are more focused on recruiting and motivating members. Of course, if our HR strategy works and suddenly we have more motivated members, I’d personally like to go on with this project. To contribute to the thematics of AEGEE, we usually try to organise events related to the Strategic Plan, since we’re very interested in them. For us it’s not just something compulsory, but something we’re interested in and would really like to contribute to.

Are you continuing with the European Voluntary Service project in Las Palmas?

Carmen: Yes, we’ll have another EVS volunteer from February to July and one of our active members will be her mentor and will help her.  It is a big help for our antenna because she has a lot of skills related to Graphic design and video editing which can help improve our PR. Furthermore, every Tuesday she’ll go to a different faculty of our university to give flyers about AEGEE. We are really aware that she’ll be here to help with PR, HR, FR and IT but not to do our work.

YVote Las Palmas

You recently organised a YVote 2014 event, why did you decide to take up that particular challenge?

Carmen: When I convinced the rest of my team, the main arguments were to organize something big, something different than a SU and something that could really have an impact in our city and in AEGEE.  Moreover, we were all interested in the project and think it’s important that young people vote in the European Parliament Elections. Organising it was surprisingly easy. We had a lot of support from our University, City Council, we also a Youth in Action (YiA) subvention and some sponsors like Red Bull and Canary important brands. With a great team of six people (plus our media responsible and graphic designer) we had everything done three days before the event, meaning we were not stressed or exhausted (something that usually happens to us, we get tired and stressed right before the events). We were really happy because everything went great and the participants were really interested in the topic. Moreover, the communication and relationship with the YVote team was awesome from the beginning to the end.

How will you work in AEGEE-Las Palmas with the outcome of the event?

Carmen: In April/May we’ll start reminding people about the European Parliament Elections, going again to the radios and trying to organize some local actions, as well as promotion through social networks for people to be aware that the elections will be soon and they really have to take part in them.

Summer University organizers from AEGEE-Barcelona and AEGEE-Las Palmas

You also had a very popular Summer University this year. How was it organising a SU with AEGEE-Barcelona? 

Carmen: It was a really good experience. It was of course stressful sometimes, but really gratifying too. The organisers from Barcelona and Las Palmas were learning from each other all the time! I liked the process of working together mostly online at first; with Skype meetings, Google Drive, etc. and then to meet in person and keep on working together the whole event. In the end we’ve become really close friends  thanks to organising the event together, so I strongly recommend other antennae to do so. In terms of SU 2014 we have some offers with other Spanish antennae but nothing is decided yet so we will keep our cards close a little bit longer.

What local activities do you organise to keep members motivated?

Carmen: Besides using sports, we also have a linguistic tandem every Thursday in a coffee shop with offers for us. After that, we usually go together for some ‘tapas’ and we get to know exchange and local students thanks to these activities. In the future we would like to have weekly meetings followed by dinners or social drinks only for members. It would be great to organize barbecues or days on the beach once per month to have some team building for the new motivated members. 

Do you think it would ever be possible to organize Agora/EBM Las Palmas?

Luis: Oh yes, very possible. I think its just a matter of alignment of factors: human resources of the antenna, institutional will and support and so on. But yes, let me tell you that it is not such a crazy idea. One day, you might all just be surprised!

Carmen: Apart from that, our University insists on the idea of organising an Agora in Las Palmas. We would love to, but we really have to think about it and have the support of all the active members. I think it’s not realistic to do it now, but maybe Spring or Fall Agora 2015, who knows? An EBM would be easier, I think, but we have to think about it and make sure that our University really supports us.

Esperanza – Former Audit Commission President

What will your antenna be working on in the near future? Any special plans for 2014?

Carmen: Besides the HR strategy and another TSU, we don’t dismiss the possibility of organizing a Winter University with another Spanish antenna. The Europen Level also gives exciting opportunities for events with the EuroArab project or related to the Sports Working Group. Let’s see what happens, but I really hope this antenna to keep growing and doing a lot of things!

Ending the interview The AEGEEan asked Esperanza and Luis about how they have seen AEGEE-Las Palmas grow in the time they have been members  of the antenna…

Luis: When I started in AEGEE-Las Palmas, the antenna had just been refounded, so in these years I have literally seen the antenna grow very much from the start. It still amazes me how these people manage to keep motivating themselves, and each time go for something a bit more ambitious. This was one of the clear examples of the Y Vote 2014 Convention in Las Palmas. AEGEE-Las Palmas has jumped from the Summer University type of antenna, to the one who looks for something more, seeks influencing and changing somehow things around. Making a positive impact.

Esperanza: When I joined, AEGEE-Las Palmas was two years old and a small team. However, they were really involved not only at the local level. The members were attending all sorts of European events, joining projects, Working Groups… But in Las Palmas, still most people have no clue who we were. Then, an amazing team, with lots of new active members was formed and we really started to gain recognition! And the fact that the older members had been so active at European level from the beginning, made it very easy for the newbies to follow the same path. We all say that AEGEE-Las Palmas is our baby, and it’s been amazing to see all the progress that it has made in such a short time!

It is indeed amazing all the things that AEGEE-Las Palmas dedicate themselves to and it will be interesting to see the development of the antenna and its projects.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

What would you use to inspire and promote an idea? Do you believe in the uniqueness and great value of people? In AEGEE-Tenerife, we believe we all have a talent and therefore a duty: we should contribute with OUR talents for the improvement of the current situation of youth.

Written by Tayri Campo, AEGEE-Tenerife