Last December, AEGEE-Amsterdam and AEGEE-Beograd organised the event “Home is where the Heart is – Erasmus+ exchange 2017”. For this reason, they were chosen as the ACTive Local of the Month. We spoke to Amy Treuren, European Affairs Officer of AEGEE-Amsterdam, and Isidora Braljinac, President of AEGEE-Beograd, to find out more!

ACT: Which emotions did you have when you discovered that your local was chosen as ACTive Local of December?

Amy Treuren, AEGEE-Amsterdam: We were of course really happy to hear this amazing news! Thanks a lot! We were also very surprised because we absolutely did not expect to become ACTive Local of the Month.

Isidora/AEGEE-Beograd: We said: “Finally!”, but it is not like we expected it. Anyhow, very grateful and happy. 

Could you tell us little bit more about your event? (Home is where the Heart is – Erasmus+ exchange 2017). How many participants did you have, who applied, programme, goal, etc.

Amy: The goal of the event was to make the participants get in contact with another culture and country and learn about it, to learn about their own culture and country and what this means for themselves and for others. We also wanted to remove prejudices and stereotyping, create intercultural dialogue and create awareness about and stimulate European values. The participants developed different kind of skills, like organisational skills, working in a team, language skills, open-mindedness, confidence etc. We had 20 participants in total,  12 from AEGEE-Beograd and 8 from AEGEE-Amsterdam. Both groups already made a short movie in which every participant and group leader introduces themselves for the other group. During the programme we got to know each others’ culture and country. We did a boat trip, went to a museum, visited the participants’ parents, met and played soccer with refugees, did street interviews, had a European Night. The programme was very varied. The Erasmus+ exchange was co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

Why did you decide to apply for grant and organise that event?
Amy: Our local applies every year for an Erasmus+ grant. Most of the times our application gets rejected, like the 3 years before. So it was quite a surprise for us that our application got accepted.

Isidora: We wanted to try something different and when AEGEE-Amsterdam asked us if we want to be their partner – that was it. 

Could you tell us all steps you did to apply for grant? Did you have any problems?

Amy Treuren: Last year Iris van den Oord, our previous European Affairs Responsibe, applied for the grant. Unfortunately there were too many applications and this one got rejected. We received feedback on the application. We received the advice not to apply for the deadline of the 4th of October, because the chance that the application would be accepted was really small. They only had a small part of the budget left. We decided to still do it and to improve the application of the previous year, this time with extra feedback. I went to a training in Spain to learn about Erasmus+ and how to write an application. I learnt a lot there and this is the result! Close before the deadline our previous partner for the project did not reply anymore and we had to look for another partner. Luckily we found AEGEE-Beograd and they are a great partner.

How do you inform your members about the Action Agenda/Strategic Plan?

Amy: We tell our new members during the introductory period about the Action Agenda and Strategic Plan. Only this is very short, because there is not enough attention for this by our members (unfortunately). Sometimes we share things on our Facebook page so people who are interested can read it. And also we send a European Newsletter to our members every month. Our members can also read about it on our website.

Isidora: We always do a short introduction about it to every new member, from time to time discuss it at our meetings and encourage them to ask us about everything that is not clear to them.

Do you have any activities related to the Action Agenda/Strategic Plan?

Amy: Every year we organise new ones. Last summer our Summer University was related to the focus area Civic Education. Our Cultural Committee organises a couple of lectures every year, with sometimes themes related to the Action Agenda, like gender equality.

Isidora: This year we are cooperating with ACT for our Summer University and we are planning an LTC. Last year we organised a NWM, which included multiple topics related to the Action Agenda and Strategic Plan. Also, there are many other small things in other events we organise. 

Why should other locals organise activities related to the Action Agenda/Strategic Plan?

AEGEE is fun, but it also has its powerful side! 

Do you have any tips for organising thematic activities?

Think about what you would like to organise and about what your members are interested in. Do not think too difficult and be creative.

Can you tell us a bit more about your local? (Founded in, members, active members, committees you have, etc.)

AEGEE-Amsterdam was founded on 26th of March 1986. Since then it has grown to become the biggest AEGEE local with around 550 members, 200 are of them active. We have around 24 committees varying from a party committee to a cultural committee and from a European committee to a social drink committee. There are too many to name them all. Every Tuesday we have our social drink, every week we have activities and we have a couple of trips throughout the year, like two hitchhiking trips, a skiing trip, exchanges, a European members’ weekend and many more. We organise many local activities during the year. We are always happy to welcome you and show you around in Amsterdam so do not hesitate to contact us!

AEGEE-Beograd was founded on the 12th of November 1995. Right now we have 70 members including around 20 active members with FR and PR teams. We are a mostly girls’ antenna and we tend to show that girls can manage to do anything they want. We are all good friends, which makes us an even better team. Come to Belgrade, meet us, you will not regret it!

Characterise your local in one sentence.

AEGEE-Amsterdam: Breaking borders with AEGEE-Amsterdam at local and European level with the help of parties, activities and trips.

AEGEE-Beograd: The best things are in small packages.

Written by Elena Efremova, behalf of Action Agenda Committee

“Why have I done this?” This is the question that comes to my mind every day at 7:34 AM, the time when I leave for my lectures after having about five hours of sleep. The reason is not that I do not like the subject of my studies. It is because I am an Erasmus student.

Pentes de la Croix Rousse

30 years ago, the Erasmus programme was created. Since then, each year thousands of students have had the experience of their lifetime. However, after 30 years of a very successful programme it is high time to consider the difficulties that many students face when going to an Erasmus exchange as a result of its distribution.

As students, we have this idyllic idea of how Erasmus is. Everyone that you know has an incredible experience, few people answer negatively to the question “would you do it again?”. I have now arrived to the conclusion that this is probably because 1) most working class people still do not make it to university and 2) those who do probably never think of doing an Erasmus. I was in this last group until just about my very last year of university.

My mother works as a cleaner, my father is a handicapped, undocumented immigrant and my brother is, like many others, a 30-year-old unemployed Spaniard. As the first person in my family to go to university, I never thought that I would end up doing my last year as an Erasmus, but I convinced myself that I would be able to make it work.

In previous years, I had always denied myself even the thought of doing an Erasmus year. Sometimes, my brother would come and ask me: “Why don’t you do an Erasmus?”. My answer was constantly the same: “What if the grant does not arrive on time? I cannot do that to this family”. At that point, he always conceded.

Hotel de Ville de Lyon

Our little family, whose only income is the ridiculously small salary of my mother and part of my grandmother’s pension, cannot afford to send me the necessary money for my living expenses every month. As an Erasmus student you have a grant (€300 for countries such as France plus €100 on top for people with lower incomes in the case of Spain). Even the most frugal student could never live on €400 per month in a country like France.

The idea behind the grant is that the European Union finances the difference between the cost of living your in home country and in your host country. However, this ignores the reality of many students like me, who struggle to finance our studies in our home countries even if we live in the parental home. Working and studying at the same time, we still have to live with our families until we finish our studies and, in some cases, even after we have graduated.

For me, doing an Erasmus means waking up ridiculously early for having the classes that allow me to go to work in the afternoon, arrive in the evenings to my home, make dinner, eat, do all the work required for university and the NGOs that I am involved with and then going to sleep very late to prepare myself for another quite unwelcome day.

I do not have time to socialise, to go partying, to make new friends, to create memories that I am never going to forget, and not even to learn the language properly. And even if I had the time, I would never have the money to do so.

Mur des Canuts, Lyon

This is tremendously unfair.

I wish that I could go for a beer with my mates every day, that I could arrive home before 7:00 PM, that I could have a reasonable sleep, that I could make friends that will last forever. I wish that, in the years to come, I would be able to say with love “Once Erasmus, Always Erasmus”. But I fear that this is never going to happen.

It is time to rethink Erasmus grants. It is not fair that the difference of money received between someone like me and a person with a wealthy family to support them is only €100. It is high time to ensure that every student can sincerely say “Once Erasmus, Always Erasmus”.

Written by Zahia Guidoum Castiblanque, AEGEE-València

A new project about the Erasmus programme is going to be developed in Rome: Erasmus Generation. Many European students will enjoy a TV series where the actors are not professionals, but normal students and young people like all of us.

The Erasmus programme is the world’s most successful student exchange programme. Over five million students, from across the European continent, have studied abroad in 4000 participating universities throughout 33 countries. Many students around Europe have enjoyed it during their university careers and now someone has put forward the idea: why not create a movie to tell about the life of European students in a foreign country?

The programme will thus be the subject of a new TV series and will be entirely based on the stories that are sent in by European students. Cinecittà 3 (Rome) has embarked on the ambitious task of portraying all the passions, emotions and adventures of Erasmus life in a fun comedy series, which will be about a bunch of students from all over Europe, as they go through hilarious and epic situations. The goal of the series is to present the exciting experience of Erasmus in an entertaining way, all while promoting a debate on European issues, and ultimately, to help as many students as possible to get that dream of living the Erasmus experience through dedicated grants.

The Erasmus phenomenon inspired the Italian film and TV producer, Fabrizio Carlo Muscia. Muscia and the production team researched the presence of Erasmus in film and TV, and were surprised to find almost no references to it, despite its huge popularity among young Europeans and its enormous effect on providing opportunities, building bridges and uniting Europe. Muscia has teamed up with French producer Cedríc Gamelin in order to  start the project.

“Erasmus Generation – The Series” tells about the parallel lives of a unique group of Erasmus students who will learn to appreciate their similarities and overcome their differences through questionable choices and epic situations. On a more intellectual level, the series “Erasmus Generation” wants to create a subtle and funny awareness of European culture, its fundamental values and important political and social differences. Cedric Gamelin, on behalf of the production team of “Erasmus Generation – The series”, remarks: “The writing team will select the most compelling anecdotes and the students, whose stories are chosen, will be invited to take part in the episode, whether that means to be on set for a day, to appear in an episode of the series, or have their name in the credits”.

Many people decided to fund and support this project. Among these are Andreea Anastasiu (Editor-in-Chief OneEurope), who has participated in many pan-European projects, such as Model European Union and Model United Nations, and Ivan Botoucharov (One Europe Magazine Co-Founder and Co-President), who created Europe’s largest citizens European media. He has been involved in many European projects and initiatives, and is leading a campaign to save the Erasmus programme from severe funding cuts in recent years.  Another supporter is Manuel Marin (Former Commissioner of the European Commission), who was the Commissioner responsible for the presentation of the proposal for the Erasmus Programme.

The European Union has been going through its greatest financial, political and social crisis – austerity and lack of growth perpetuate, far-right and far-left parties are on the rise, youth unemployment is rife, negative attitudes towards immigration (both from within and from without the EU) are growing, and disillusionment with the EU itself is at an all-time high. At the same time, the traditional purpose of the EU – Peace in Europe, is taken for granted by many within the Union. “Erasmus Generation – The Series” comes at the right time and with a promising concept – an ambitious project celebrating the greatest single European initiative, which demonstrates the power of freedom of movement and of Europe’s great cultures.

The ultimate goal of the “Erasmus Generation” production team is to establish grants and scholarships for worthy students who want to go on Erasmus. The funds will mostly come from the net profits of the series and will be managed and allocated with the greatest care in collaboration with the European Union institutions and the partners of the project. In addition to One Europe Magazine, the series already has the backing of several non-governmental organisations and over twenty of the most prestigious universities in Europe. Moreover, the founders of the Erasmus programme have personally endorsed the series.

Every student can send his/her story to their website .

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari.

Plenty of AEGEE members have heard about Erasmus+ at some point. However, not many of us have actually gone through the time-consuming application process. The long application form and the large amount of questions and items you need to think about sound like an unreachable objective for many locals and European bodies of AEGEE. And yes – it is hard, it takes a lot of time, but by no means it is impossible! In this article, we will decode Erasmus+ and make it easy. After all, having quite some financial support for your projects is always an optimal thing, isn’t it?

What does the Erasmus+ fund?

• Key Action 1 deals with mobility for young people and youth workers;
• Key Action 2 deals with cooperation for innovation and exchange of good practices – meaning cooperation among youth organisations to run joint projects;
• Key Action 3 is about policy development and support for reforms on youth policy (for instance, the Structured Dialogue).

This article will focus especially on Key Action 1 initiatives, because it is the one that gives more space for opportunities for AEGEE locals, and it is the one that receives the biggest percentage of Erasmus+ funds (long story short, ‘easier’ to get).

The Key Action 1 of Erasmus+ focuses on the development of the individual, meaning YOU as a student/young person. In other words, you attend a training course where you gain a certain set of skills and competences. In this way, it contributes to your personal development and, no less important, to understand other cultures and countries participating in the training course better.

There are three main activities that you can organise under Key Action 1:

• Youth exchanges: an opportunity for students aged 13 to 30 to meet up and address a chosen topic (arts, education, audiovisuals, sports, you name it!), where different methods are used, such as workshops, simulation games and other exercises – all of them prepared beforehand.
• European Voluntary Service (EVS): namely, the opportunity to volunteer for up to one year at an organisation abroad, in order to contribute to its daily work and bring a benefit to the local community. There are many types of organisations and topics which you can participate in for your EVS, ranging from environment, to culture, people with disabilities, media, development, and many more!
• Training and networking for youth workers: these include anything related to your professional development – training courses, seminars, debates, case study trips. If you are interested in boosting your skills, this is the place to be!

You might be thinking: “I want to participate in one of these activities!”…

Picture from l’Auberge Espagnole, the film that depicted the Erasmus lifestyle for the first time.

Great news: it is easier and more accessible than you might think! The most important thing that you need is to get your AEGEE antenna registered in the Erasmus+ database and get the Partner Identification Code (PIC), you can find more information about it in the Members Portal.

Then, you just need to find a training course of your interest! There are a handful of Facebook groups where youth organisations from all over Europe look for partners or participants for their youth exchanges. However, *the* source for training activities is SALTO-YOUTH’s European Training Calendar. Browse all the options that you will find in there, send your mandate (which will confirm that you agree to be a partner of the project), and you are just one click away from starting a journey of a lifetime!

…or you might be thinking: “how about applying with my own project?”

You have an idea in mind for a great project? You need resources? What better idea than to get funding from Erasmus+? The first thing you would need is a theme for your project. In this sense, Erasmus+ funds a wide range of topics, ranging from active citizenship, intercultural learning and preventing discrimination, employability and entrepreneurship, promotion of diversity, trainings, non-formal education, all topics that we, AEGEEans, work with on a daily basis!

Moreover, one of the highlights and priorities of the year 2016 for the European Commission concerns the current refugee crisis. Because of it, projects that promote intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, respect for human rights, and that involve refugees and asylum seekers in some way will be given a “plus”.

Once you have an idea, it is the time to design your master plan and make it happen! First of all, you have to know that your Erasmus+ will not only be “an event” as such, but a project as a whole. Erasmus+ works in a way that you submit a project, and that this project can have one or more activities (what we understand as events/exchanges/training courses as such). Therefore, each project needs to follow different basic stages: planning (including previous preparation in terms of logistics and content, how you will communicate with participants etc.), execution, and closure (which includes the impact, evaluation and PR/communication of the project). And you need to carefully plan all of the stages.

Therefore, when planning it, you need to ask yourself: what are the aim and the objectives that I want to achieve with this exchange/training/conference? Which impact is it going to have? What are all the steps that I need to take in order to make my project happen? How will I plan the PR campaign for my project? How will I select the participants? Some of the questions in the long Erasmus+ application form are quite basic for someone who has a lot of experience organising events, but it is important for you to follow the different quality assurance steps, and use the questions as a ‘check-list’ of things you need to think about when putting your project into practice.

Something that you should really put an emphasis on, and that the National Agencies value, is how you plan to follow-up and disseminate (namely, the PR and communication of the event in social media, in booklets, etc) your project so it has a big impact. Another big “plus” for your application has to do with inclusion: how will you ensure gender balance? Are you planning to include young people with fewer opportunities? Last but not least, you should also consider which tools you plan to use in order to recognise the skills that the participants will gain from your project. There are many certifications available, and you should strongly consider using the YouthPass, a commonly-used European tool to certify these skills.

Partner up!

In a project funded by Erasmus+, you will not be alone! As we explained before, your AEGEE antenna can become a partner in an Erasmus+ project, get involved in it and send participants, right? It also happens the other way around: you need partners to make your own project happen!

The first thing to consider is that you need to partner up with organisations that are similar to yours, and that are somehow related to the topic of your project. For instance, for a project related to social inclusion, you would not really ask an organisation of aerospace engineering students, would you? Therefore, you need to clearly define the aim of your project, and which types of organisations you can partner with. Of course, you can involve and be partners with other AEGEE locals – however, I would strongly encourage you to also find partners that are not AEGEE locals! This will definitely give you a “plus” in the eyes of the National Agency.

There are several ways to find partners for Erasmus+. Search for “Erasmus+ partner” on Facebook, and you will find a handful of Facebook groups where you can promote your project and find others who also need partners. Most importantly, you need to think how to involve these partners: will they be taking care and supporting you with the content? Will they take part in the participants’ selection? How (and how often) will you communicate with them?

That must have been a lot of information for you! Explaining Erasmus+ shortly is not an easy task. Because of this, the Comité Directeur is always available to help and answer all your questions. So, if you have any other questions, do not hesitate to approach me at communications@aegee.org! Another great source of information is the UK National Agency of Erasmus+, or check the information of your National Agency in your own language.

Written by Anna Gumbau, Communications Director of AEGEE-Europe 2015-2016

A lot of students dream about spending one or two semester abroad in a foreign country. And why not? The experience is amazing; you get to meet all these new amazing people from different countries with various backgrounds. You get to go to parties and stay out as late as you want. You can go on trips, see a country and experience live to the fullest. Erasmus life is like a rollercoaster ride. You go up and down, up and down and everything is so exciting. The sad part is at the end of the ride, when you have to get off the train.

When I came back from my Erasmus period in the UK in June of 2013, I was excited to see all my friends and my family back at home. It was nice to show everyone the pictures I made and to tell people about my adventures. It was really nice for about three weeks and that was when I started to miss everyone from my Erasmus. Yes, we still keep in touch via facebook and whatsapp and I email my best friend from my Erasmus weekly but it is just not the same. You can’t go to a party and create crazy masks before going there, you can’t go over to their house and have a movie marathon. You can’t talk about missing your home with them because you are already home (and people might think you are crazy if you start talking about home when you are already home). You are back in your old life, and it feels like a safety blanket and you appreciate it, but it is just less exciting.

Am I overreacting? I might be, who knows? But that doesn’t mean that some people don’t experience a post-Erasmus-depression or The Erasmus Blues as it is called by those who actually went on Erasmus. Anyway I know more who have experienced the Erasmus Blues. For example a friend of mine went to America for a semester in the beginning of this school year. At first she was scared to leave her home but when she came back from America she was just excited as I was. She had such a brilliant time and made so many friends and it was in one word: amazing. I know you may think we are dweeps who spend all their time complaining and complaining is so hipster nowadays. But I honestly think Erasmus Blues (yes, I am sticking with it) is a real thing.

So what did I do to not dwell on the exciting life that I left behind? You simply get up every day and do your thing. I know I sound sappy and yes, I may have mourned for a couple of weeks. I thought quite a lot about the awesome time I had and I spend a lot of time talking to and about my Erasmus friends. But I also went to see my friends from home and since it was summer I spend some time working as well. For me it was important to get out of my house and to experience life again. Honestly some days I felt like laying in my bed all day and not getting up because life just wasn’t that exciting but then again I didn’t experience all of those amazing things by laying in bed. What also helped was making a photo album. I had all these pictures and I figured I had to do something with them so I spend a year making a photo album. It was nice to recall all those memories and put them together in a book.

To conclude my story; my Erasmus experience was amazing and I learned so much about myself during that time. You should try to make the most out of that experience during and after that period. Keep being that open-minded person you were during your Erasmus period and enjoy your memories. In the end the experience was worth the goodbye.

Written by Majka Geerts, AEGEE-Nijmegen

AEGEE-Zaragoza was founded on January 24, 1998. More than 15 years of history, with lights and (some) shades. It is a big antenna with 146 members, a number they are eager to raise every year but do not complain about. Here’s the story of our Local of the Month from December, the organizers from the past Autumn Agora 2013!

Pilar Lop and Sara Alcolea

Former Network Commissioner Pilar Lop is from Zaragoza herself and for her the Agora was even more special having her friends organising such a huge event and she has seen the antenna grow: “It is quite funny to see that, when I joined the antenna was living a small crisis because most of the board that year was formed by new members who came back motivated from Summer Universities and now only a few years later we are a very big family that cannot live without seeing each other.”

Sara Alcolea, who people can remember from the opening ceremony, has been part of the antenna for more than four years agrees and adds “Board members were leaving Zaragoza so it was a kind of a critical moment for the antenna. I think the time we appeared was like water flowing again in a dry river. Without control. But they managed to lead those “crazy newbies” and we quickly “got the flow”. Since then, the antenna has been growing and growing even more every year. Nowadays we are a huge antenna with a high number of active members (35) and I have to say remembering all the paths travelled during these years makes me very happy and proud.”

For her one of the highlights was realising that after all the work done, all the time spent, effort and dreams they can say “we have been able to organise an AGORA!” and confesses that during the event she had some great moments when she forgot the rush, stopped and thought to herself: “Wow, this is really happening”.

When asked about how AEGEE-Zaragoza celebrated having organised such a big event, Sara affirms that the celebration also happened during the event. “Celebrating the success (after solving the problems, of course) every day and night kept us full of energy and motivation. That was also a very good point of the ZarAGORA team. The motivation was always high. Even if tired, you would always get smiles and hugs from the team and some participants that were around.” Beatriz Nasarrre was the President of the antenna the past year and for her there were two highlights: The first is the difficulty which was cleaning all the food elements (trays and cutlery) because it seems so easy but it was a really hard task impossible to do it alone by the cleaning team, so we had to help them and when finished, we were really exhausted. The second moment of difficulty was the closing ceremony, where we could be happy of our hard job and see how people said thanks about that. It was a very beautiful moment.”

 Jonathan del Castillo Gil has been in AEGEE-Zaragoza for ten years and has been a part of two very different Agorae in his city. With the Expo in 2008 the whole city was positively refurbished and equipped and he says that people face Europe in a more active way making it easier to involve government, University, companies and media. He adds; “2003 organisers are still for me real Heroes. They had to solve a lot of last minute problems like hosting cancellation. We all remember that Old Agora as something crazy and fun as we did a lot with really few things. They have been following closely the organisation of Zaragora to help us to improve ourselves giving valuable advise. Both Agorae have a warm place in our hearts.” In those ten years Jonathan has really seen the antenna grow having survived hard conditions in the past; “In Zaragoza we imposed a horizontal structure to make sure everyone feels important. We worked hard to integrate every personality and promote them to squeeze their skills to improve AEGEE-Zaragoza. In my case I had to be a tough dictator when I became president in a year of a complicated collapse. I love excess and performance and I think everyone accepted “that theatrical icon” as a way of Team-building. Most of the brilliant minds that produced this Agora come from those hard times.”

The main organiser of ZarAgora, Chema Rueda, repeated the importance of strong friendships; “The most important is the fact that the people who will work together know each other perfectly because we believed that this makes people work together in a better way.” Jonathan highlights the new members: “We all had our respective obligations and precise tasks to fulfill, but everyone was always aware of helping wherever it was necessary. I was impressed by all the newbies, really young people, with few months’ experience as members of AEGEE and no idea about the craziness exploding in an Agora. They put in all their energy and positive feelings, always smiling to raise the project and keep this idea of doing it transparent and perfect.”

Celebration at the spa

Of course organising an Agora had to be celebrated and when Sunday came and cleaning of the Congress Palace had finished almost the whole team went to the spa to relax and have lunch together. “It was a really cute moment because the whole team was with a very big smile on their faces after such a big success of the event. Nowadays, we are thinking about doing a big meeting for all the organisers, but we are waiting for the final result of the event to see if we can do something more,” Chema tells The AEGEEan.

In terms of finances the question is still up in the air about how much money AEGEE-Zaragoza will lose. The support from the more than 30 sponsors was determinant for the great success for the event, however, it does not keep the Aragón antenna for paying for the event. “As far as we know, there are some other European student associations that work on the European level to get some important grants from Europe to organise their statutory events. Why don’t we do that also, since we do a lot of effort for other things at European level? Why doesn’t AEGEE apply for European grants to organise their statutory meetings? That’s the question I asked myself every morning when I woke up lasts months seeing the economic problems we had. Maybe there are other important things to do on the European level instead of working on these basic needs,” Chema raises an interesting question. Maybe the ZarAgora organisers can help AEGEE-Patra with the upcoming Agora with sponsors’ advise. Chema assures that the help that AEGEE-Zaragoza received from Márton Demeter (main organizer of Autumn Agora Budapest 2012) and Alexander Sieber (main organizer of Spring Agora Rhein-Neckar 2013) was very important and of course AEGEE-Zaragoza wants to help the Greek organisers to get their success in the same way!

The new board of AEGEE-Zaragoza

Last year, AEGEE-Zaragoza had a very large board (16 members, plus advisory board) but this year they decided to have a small, agile and efficient board instead (five members, plus advisory board). Javier Aguerri was recently elected new president of AEGEE-Zaragoza and he is full of motivation after being treasurer, IT responsible, Local Events and ZarAgora organizer. He agrees that it is a challenge to take over after the large board from the past term, that did an exceptional job. But he also feels very fortunate of the pool of fantastic and numerous new members of whom many were helpers at the Agora.

The running group of AEGEE-Zaragoza

As many other antennae across the Network, AEGEE-Zaragoza works with the Erasmus students and have increased the activities this year. Following the tradition, once the University starts they organise the famous “Erasmus Welcome Week” with the aim to make members and Erasmus get to know each other and so that together they can discover the different traditions of the autonomous region of Aragón and also Spain.

It is especially good for involvement of the new members: “It helps a lot as it is very useful for the members in order to learn how to organise and be in charge of events and activities. All this knowledge acquired with this Erasmus activity has been very useful to face big events such as the Agora,” Beatriz says. Members of AEGEE-Zaragoza sweat every week in salsa dance lessons or with the newly created running group that faces the wind every week. Two years ago AEGEE-Zaragoza used to organise language exchange activities but they were cancelled, but as a new great step forward they are trying it again and so far it works out great! Additionally, AEGEE-Zaragoza also travels all over Spain through organising several trips each semester. All of these activities have a coordinator and, depending on the needs of each activity, more people to organise them. But the board (especially the Local Events responsible) supervise everything and their problems are discussed in the weekly meetings of AEGEE-Zaragoza and the mailing lists, so everybody is more or less up-to-date and can participate when they wish.

Some of the members of AEGEE-Zaragoza

Fresh from organising the Agora, AEGEE-Zaragoza is ready to host a new event; this time a Local Training Course (LTC). Public Relations & Fund Raising responsible in the board Carlota Castel is one of the coordinators of the event and says “The situation in AEGEE-Zaragoza right now is quite unusual. We have a lot of relatively new members who have only experienced two events: their first Summer University as participants and their first Agora, as organizers. Now it is time for them to learn more about AEGEE and to become active members who are able to organise projects by themselves, so most of the workshops are related to the practical part: How to organise a project, how to use social networks properly, how to use online banking and more” It is an LTC that is organised in Zaragoza every year and always a success in terms of team-building and also a great help to clarify the ideas and improve the skills of the new members.

From left: Beatriz, Sara, Carlota and Pilar promoting AEGEE-Zaragoza

What Javier is eager to focus on with AEGEE-Zaragoza is to ensure that the newest members are well prepared when they will be the ones in charge of the antenna. The LTC is one tool to achieve this result but also frequent workshops about different topics (basic knowledge of accounting, video and text editing, PR… etc) that will boost everybody’s aptitude to work in AEGEE.

Another important aspect of PR for Carlota is to continue the excellent relationship with the University and make them and the members know that AEGEE-Zaragoza is much more than a Summer University project. There is no doubt that AEGEE-Zaragoza puts in a lot of effort for promotion. This can be seen by the high number of members and also the fact that fresh from the Agora, two days, they promoted the antennae at a student’s fair at the university and promotion will be intensified in a few months in connections with the SU application period where posters, presentations of AEGEE, flyers, stickers and hopefully drawing even more attention to the antenna! In terms of FR the idea is to keep a good communication with the sponsors of the Agora, especially Lindt who made the event a lot sweeter!

Structured Dialogue event in Zaragoza

AEGEE-Zaragoza had two European Level events in a short period of time: European Structured Dialogue in July and the AGORA  in November. That left them exhausted but they are already planning the Summer University and a weekend event in spring. Ending the interview Javier informs The AEGEEan about his ambitions “Finally, it is just a very innovating idea and I still have to talk with my board about it, but I may propose to the antenna to organize another European event (but not an Agora) in the next year. Maybe something like a European School or a Network Meeting. We will see!”

It will be interesting to see what AEGEE-Zaragoza comes up with next, Jonathan Gil predicts the future to be very bright saying “The close future of AEGEE-Zaragoza has its roots in the Zaragora. I’m sure 2014 will be probably the best year of the antenna.”

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

Landing in a city you do not know, exploring the cultural and administrative habits of a foreign country and

Eva – the Belgian girl part of the AEGEE-Maastricht board.

all this time – searching for new friends. It is not a rare case when in such a situation AEGEE has come in extremely handy with helping people integrate faster and better in a new environment once they have started their education abroad. But sometimes those people get even more thirsty for AEGEE emotions and even though they don’t (in some cases) speak the local language, they prove that we could be united in our diversity. Those are the non-native board members that once more show us that in AEGEE dreams don’t have limits and you just have to decide you want something! Examples turned out to be so many so I just caught some of them to find out what an added value this experience is bringing to them.

Beata Owsiana is from Poland and joined AEGEE in 2010 during her Erasmus in Brussels. She liked the opportunity to go to Summer University and grabbed her chance. ‘Once I had decided to move to Brussels in order to continue with my Master studies I decided to become more active’ – she adds. – ‘Since I study HR Management I decided to join the newly created at that time HRC and few months later AEGEE Brussels/Bruxelles was looking for motivated people to join the board, so I presented my candidature as HR Responsible.’ Now Beata is already the President of her antenna and the driving motor of many local activities. In terms of difficulties due to her nationality she confidently responses: ‘Brussels is really a multicultural city and even previous boards showed it. There have already been several presidents from out of Belgium and most of the core team consists of great people with different cultures of grown-ups who came to Brussels to study, work, or do an internship, etc. and built the network of new acquaintances. AEGEE is good for that. Sometimes it seems to be hard to get along together since we have different characters and moreover we are a multinational team with different backgrounds but still goal is the same: AEGEE expansion :). But as always in AEGEE – it is not only us who are giving to the network, because very often – efforts pays back. Beata also confirms it when I ask her what she likes most of being in AEGEE while studying abroad:

Beata: AEGEE is a family on which you can always count and hat is extremely precious, especially where you are abroad.

Beata: AEGEE has given me a loooot! I came here without knowing anyone. I remember when I came to my first AEGEE party in Brussels where I knew only one girl from Facebook who came at the end of that party. I felt super alone there for like half an hour but then it turned to my best evening of my Erasmus ever! I became a part of a big family. Family on which you can always count and that is extremely precious, especially when you are abroad, far away from your family and best friends and some “strangers” offer you a huge amount of help/support/love just because you are part of the same network. AEGEE is an amazing label!

I hear the same inspiring motivation from the Belgian Eva Billen who is currently secretary of AEGEE-Maastricht. ‘The thing I like most about being in AEGEE in general is that it does not matter where you are, if you are studying abroad or still in your own hometown. For sure you will meet new people with new insights and you will go on an amazing adventure together.

The thing I like most about being in the board, is that I have learned how to work closely with a group of people. I have grown more confident, not just as a person, but as part of a team that strives towards a common goal’.

The Spaniard Jero Galiana shares us a little different experience for his participation inthe board of AEGEE-Munchen. ‘When I started the communication language in the antenna it was mostly German. Back then the majority of the active members were Germans as well as almost all board members. My German back then was not so good, therefore it was needed to communicate in English. Well, next two years many non-German speaking members have joined the antenna so we have created a big international atmosphere.’ The same experience was shared by Ekaterina Malysheva, who after four years in AEGEE-Moskva she joined AEGEE-Valencia. ‘I am learning Spanish – She told us – but the guys and I prefer to talk in English, it’s an international language and the main language of AEGEE’ . Obviously both Ekaterina and Jero managed to find their way to become board members. Jero even became Vice-President in 2011, now holding the position of regular board assistant.

When I ask them what they like about being board members Ekaterina answers immediately: ‘To be a board member gives you a unique opportunity to see the antenna from inside, to take part in important decisions and organize the events, to belong to the close group of friends who share your ideas and interest. And it is double interesting if you have this experience abroad. It gives you a new experience and a lot of fun!’ . For Jero the viewpoint already changed since he is not a student anymore but still he emphasizes:  ‘AEGEE gave me so much and became an addiction to me. It is not something you can just leave.’

It is surely still an addition to us so let’s keep re-creating Europe in the way we would like to see it and keep remembering that everything is possible.

Written by Liliya Buyukliyska, AEGEE-Sofia

This is the slogan of a big group of Italian young people all over Europe who decided to protest against the negation of the vote abroad. They can’t vote on the Italian General Election 2013 (which is taking place on the 24th and the 25th of February 2013) because they are abroad, taking part in mobility programmes such as Leonardo or Erasmus, or they are overseas for working experience or to study. People in these circumstances are not listed in the General Register of the Italians living abroad (AIRE); this status which would have permitted them to vote is gained only after living abroad for a period longer than one year.

Italian youth met each other through social networks one month ago, and created a page on Facebook to coordinate a very singular protest. They are divided in 25 European groups (Brussels, Madrid, Paris, Toulouse, Valladolid, Tenerife, Heidelberg, Cork, London, Lisbon, Potsdam, Vigo/Pontevedra/Ourense, Seville, Edinburgh, Berlin, Amsterdam, Marseille, Lyon, Valencia, Barcelona, Hannover/Gottingen, Dublin, Warsaw, Tours, York, Granada) and one South American group also (Sao Paolo, Brazil).

On the 23rd of February they are going to place a polling station in each town of their group to simulate their election in order “to give a moral slap” to their institutions. “They prevent us from voting…but we will do it anyway!”. This is their message.

They want to show that they are a many people and that maybe their vote would change the result of the election.

This creative reaction is proof that young people really want to be active and have their say.

For now they are trying to reach other Italian people, spreading flyers to share on social network, in the streets, in places and events where they can meet their young compatriots.

They are also sharing a simultaneous campaign for voting online, that is taking place the 24th and the 25th of February. It has not legal value (neither has the voting casted at the simulations), but it is useful to estimate how their vote would have count and to show their real will to make their voice heard.

With this article, we would also like to reach more Italian young people scattered all over Europe to let them know about the initiative and to give them the opportunity to take action, to join the groups in their city, or even create their own group.

The person who is writing is firstly involved. My name is Monica Riccio, I am 24 years old. I am from Napoli and I am doing an internship in AEGEE Europe, the European Student’s Forum. I am very active in my town, engaged in many projects for active citizenship and cooperation.

When I decided to join this initiative I was searching for Italian youths who were as astonished as me hearing the news that we couldn’t have the right to vote abroad. In that moment I started to contact Italian youths in Brussels, using social network, to organize a mobilization. Then, surfing the net, I found a page (https://www.facebook.com/italianiesclusidalvoto) which was created for the same purpose. Now it is a page that we use to inform and coordinate the initiative.

At the moment I’m leading the Belgian group with other three Italian girls (Eleonora, Marta and Claudia) and with the support of AEGEE-Europe. But we need to be more and more to raise our voice. So, if you have some friends doing Erasmus, Leonardo or experiences like these in Brussels or all over Europe, please spread the word and contact us so they can also participate in our initiative.

For Brussels add on FB: Elezioni Italiane a Bruxelles  http://goo.gl/SWnC2

For other European groups: http://www.facebook.com/events/453149821405565/?ref=ts&fref=ts

For the online vote: https://iovoto.evoting.it/registrazione/