AEGEE-Eskişehir was our Local of the Month of December, and the Turkish antenna is in full swing organising local events, but also international ones. It signed the Convention d’Adhesion in 2001 during Autumn Agora Ankara, organising the Balkans Regional Meeting one year later. Their activities are local projects, thematic events, Summer Universities, Network Meetings and weekly meetings on every Wednesday with a focus on thematic topics, and they also organised Autumn Agora Eskişehir in 2007. That is not all: from the 3rd to the 10th of April they will host the Fund Raising European School (FRES), in cooperation with AEGEE-Europe and AEGEE-Academy. We spoke with the president of the Antenna Toygar Öter and the Speaker of the Academy Antonis Triantafyllakis to know something more about the event. Remember, the deadline is on the 2nd of March!

The AEGEEan: Why did you decide to organise the FRES?

Toygar: To be honest, the former board applied for FRES, but I was on that board too and I wanted to have this event very much.  After our General Assembly, where I became President,  the new team adopted this event easily because there was not a European School event in AEGEE-Eskişehir history. Fundraising is a very attractive topic, every member of AEGEE-Eskişehir wants to do fundraising talks because it contributes to the development of the person and I think it is really entertaining. Most of the locals are facing with money and sponsorship issues. Fortunately, Eskişehir is a student city, most of the company knows us. In short, we trust ourselves in raising funds and we want to share our experiences.  When we found such an opportunity, we did not want to miss it.

Who are going to be the trainers of the event?

Antonis: We are lucky to have a team of trainers with diverse backgrounds and knowledge to offer to the event, ensuring an amazing learning experience for the participants of FRES Eskişehir: Daria Andreieva from BEST, Vladislav Andrijako from Euroavia, Antonis Triantafyllakis from AEGEE-Academy and Réka Salamon from AEGEE-Europe.

Can you give us a sneak peek of the program? What will the sessions be?

Antonis: Participants will enjoy an overall coverage of both institutional and corporate fundraising, including all you need to know about grants such as Erasmus+ and how to apply for them, corporate sponsors, how to approach them and maintain a long-term relationship with them, the psychology of marketing and how to apply it on fundraising, how to manage your funds and pretty much all you need to know in order to successfully carry on a strategic fundraising plan for the projects of your local. The main structure will be the familiar one from all AEGEE-Academy European Schools, with the theory given in the morning sessions in an interactive manner and practice being done in the afternoon based on working groups, fully incorporating the group dynamics into the learning process, as you would expect from an AEGEE-Academy training. Most importantly, we will put the FUN into fundraising!

What do you have in store for participants?

Toygar: We provide to participants seven days lodging in a villa (unfortunately we will have no pool), three meals per day, local transportation, sessions in Anadolu University, which is one of the most active universities in Turkey, city tour, parties, lots of fun and surprises!  And you may not believe but it is just for 75€!

What are your experience and your strategy with fundraising?
Toygar:  As I mentioned before Eskişehir is a small and student city. AEGEE-Eskişehir is a very known organisation in university and in the city. Almost every new board goes to meet with the university administration, mayors of municipalities and governor of Eskişehir. They support us as much as possible. On the other hand, we have lots of events in a year and we search different companies for each event.  For example, we carry out our common meetings every Wednesday and we have a tradition which after every common meeting we go to dinner together. We try to go to different places every week. All of this is making us very known in Eskişehir and making things easier in order to get supports. In my opinion, as AEGEE-Eskişehir we have a long history and traditions. Summing up, we take care of our work as a professional also we know how to live it up! Alumni, experienced members or new ones, we are a huge family!

What is the involvement of the Academy?

Antonis: FRES is a European School, so it is kind of a…child of AEGEE-Academy. Like all European Schools, the structure is fully based on non-formal education methodologies, so it is interactive, tailored to the needs of the learners, held in a participatory, learning by doing manner and, above all, fun! AEGEE-Academy coordinates the project, from design to implementation and evaluation, ensures the quality of the content, the harmonious collaboration between the trainers’ team and the local organisers. AEGEE-Academy also guarantees the positive impact of the event.

How is the cooperation with AEGEE-Eskişehir going?

Antonis: AEGEE-Eskişehir is full of absolutely lovable people who are also reliable organisers, so we are very happy to work with them and eager to meet them in the beautiful city of Eskişehir!

How is cooperation with the Academy going?

Toygar: We want to thank them for electing us to organise this event as AEGEE-Eskişehir. They are supporting us as much as they can.

What is the most amazing thing about your local and your city?

Toygar: Eskişehir is a small city, however, it is the best for students in Turkey. Even though it is a small city, it has two big universities. A city with all the opportunities for a student. If you are studying here, you know that you are very lucky!
Apply now here and here by the 2nd of March

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

Non-formal education is really important in our organisation and hundreds of trainings are delivered to our members every year. Trainers are those who share their skills and their knowledge with participants. A group of 13 trainers from different AEGEE locals gathered in Wrocław from the 13th until the 15th of January for the 2017 edition of the Trainers’ Forum. Along with 100 other young trainers from other NGOs, they spent three valuable days discussing, practising and sharing their experiences with training and non-formal education. 

What is the Trainers’ Forum?

Antonis: Officially, the Trainers’ Forum (TsF) is an international conference for trainers and facilitators with various backgrounds. Unofficially, it is an opportunity for any trainer or facilitator, regardless of experience, to get a glimpse into the magic world of trainers, see new topics and approaches in non-formal education, get inspired by the work of other trainers and even form alliances that will have an impact on society.

Zsofia: Trainers’ Forum started out a few years ago, as an informal gathering for youth trainers and, by 2017, it has become an official conference for more than 100 youth trainers from NGOs of many disciplines. It is a great event for trainers to share best practices, reflect on the current trends in non-formal education and build their professional network.

When and where did it take place?

Petra:  TsF took place in a lovely Polish city, Wrocław, in the second week of chilly January from the 13th until the 15th. During these dates, the temperature was low, but coffee and tea breaks and hunting the famous 350 Wrocław dwarfs kept us warm. There were several of them near the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, where we had our sessions, and nearby the dormitories, where we stayed in bedrooms for two and three people.

Who were in the AEGEE “Delegation” ?

Balázs: There were 13 people from all over the Network, namely Anna Ziętkiewicz (AEGEE-Wrocław), Antonis Triantafyllakis (AEGEE-Academy/AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca), Balázs Kovács (AEGEE-Debrecen), Emanuel Knodt (AEGEE-Bamberg), Jorge Miguel Vielva (AEGEE-Valladolid), Jorge Sánchez Hernández (AEGEE-Dresden), Mayri Tiido (AEGEE-Tartu), Noémi Lőwy (AEGEE-Debrecen), Paolo Ghisleni (AEGEE-Bergamo), Paweł Cieślak (AEGEE-Warszawa), Petra Buruzs (AEGEE-Budapest), Urša Svetelj (AEGEE-Ljubljana) and Zsófia Komáromi (AEGEE-Budapest).

Zsofia: It was great that this edition of TsF brought together trainers from several generations and many different locals. This also allowed us to learn from each other and discuss the current projects and challenges in AEGEE.

How was the experience?

Paolo: It was cool! More than a hundred trainers from very diverse backgrounds were a wonderful playground for all of us. We had the chance to experience trainings from both trainer and trainee side. We experimented, discussed, challenged each other. I could not really ask for more.

Mayri: The experience was one of a kind, especially with so many people from a wide range of countries and organisations. When talking to someone new, you never know what their story is, you only know that everybody who was there was a trainer. The days were rather long and intense, but filled with interesting content and discussions. The event gave me a lot, and, as Paolo said, I could not have asked for more.

Jorge: It was an amazing experience. I had the great opportunity to learn and be inspired by different trainers, coming from everywhere in the world. The schedule was quite intense, but we could still find some time to get to know some of the awesome people who were around. It was a great group of folks to talk to. I would love to come back to another edition [he smiles, ed.].

Noemi: It was my first time attending this international event. I was quite happy and proud to see so many familiar faces from AEGEE. I really enjoyed it, as the participants were coming from all over the world and having various backgrounds (students, representatives of youth organisations, professional trainers) made this experience quite a unique one. We had very good discussions and creatively inspiring training sessions in the modern buildings of Wrocław university. I was very happy to have a chance to take part in the Forum, where everyone was open and eager to spread knowledge and learn from each other.

Petra: Being part of the big trainers’ world was fascinating, impressive and inspirational at the same time. Everyone was hungry to learn new methods, tricks and practices. Sometimes I felt that training the trainer is like healing a doctor, a pretty hard, but not impossible task. I strongly recommend attending TsF at least once, it is a milestone in a trainer’s life.

How was its structure? Which sessions took place, what kind of skills were required, what was the outcome?

Jorge Miguel: The event lasted for two days and a half, plus an extra day prior to TsF, dedicated to an Open Training Day (OTD). During the OTD, on Thursday, many trainers delivered training sessions on different topics for local students, as well as other trainers participating in TsF, who wanted to attend those sessions. TsF started on Friday morning with an opening ceremony and team building activities, where the trainers participating in TsF reflected on their personal goals for TsF and set their mindset for the event. Then, for most of the remaining part of TsF, there were nine training sessions or workshops in parallel, among which the more than 110 trainers participating in TsF were distributed. There were more than 100 sessions in total, on a lot of different training-related fields. On Sunday, there was an Open Space where people could suggest new sessions to discuss, on topics they still felt necessary to address. Finally there was the closing of the event, with hopes that new editions of TsF will take place soon. In general, TsF was very diverse, with sessions of all kinds in parallel, trainers coming from different fields and organisations and with very different experiences. Some of them had thousands of hours of experience as trainers, while others were taking their first steps as trainers. Because of that, the outcomes are also very different, depending on each person, but for most, it was a boost of energy and ideas and an opportunity to develop trainers’ skills, discuss training-related topics, create connections with other trainers and think about future projects.

How important is non-formal education in a youth organisation?

Balázs: Everything we carry out in AEGEE is, at its core, based on non-formal education (NFE). We can learn a lot by doing. We can improve ourselves through the experiences we gain, in the form of developing our skills, competences and attitudes. Ideally, we also gain in-depth awareness about these processes and become capable of explaining why NFE, and especially informal learning, matters these days. You can read more about the topic in the “NFE Book” of AEGEE by clicking here or by directly approaching the AEGEE-Academy, our association’s pool of trainers.

Paolo: I am firmly convinced that non-formal education will be a big trend in the future and it will represent the avantgarde of learning processes and educational models. We have the chance to try, experiment and fail, in a way that a formal environment will never allow, and this gives NGOs like AEGEE a unique opportunity. I really hope that we will not miss it.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

The Events Committee now has a new name: Quality Assurance Committee (Q.A.C.). This fits better with its role of improving the quality of the events that are organised by AEGEE locals. They also have a new team, the AEGEEan interviewed them on the recent changes.

AEGEEan: So, you are a new team. What are the roles of the members of the team?

Q.A.C.: Yes, a new team with new ideas and a new approach to the work! The team now consists of a speaker: Antonis Triantafyllakis (AEGEE-Heraklio); plus five Quality Assurance Responsibles: Patrick Scholz (AEGEE-Aachen); Hilde Lahaije (AEGEE-Utrecht); Margarita Simonova (AEGEE-Moskva); Réka Salamon (AEGEE-Aachen); and Andrew Bartolo (AEGEE-Valetta).

The Quality Assurance Responsibles have already split the AEGEE locals among themselves, in order to have a better system to keep track of events and to improve communication with locals. We are planning to create Facebook groups and have one representative from each local for bidirectional communication between locals and the Q.A.C. Our priority for now is to reach all locals and explain why we should focus more on “quality events” and how cooperating with us would have great benefits for them.

What are the reasons behind renaming the (former) Events Committee?

AEGEE means a lot of things for all our members, but for many it is a learning platform for gaining competences we cannot get elsewhere. The Events Committee’s role in this was not very clear to the Network. Non-formal education is an important aspect of our work as an organisation, but that has to meet certain standards. With renaming the Committee, we set a clear aim: we want to raise the quality of events  by putting more emphasis on educational content.

A better organised event with the right logistics and content will produce happier participants. Plus it will help keep a clear overview of AEGEE’s impact on its members and help us having a further recognition of non-formal educational tools, which is one of AEGEE’s greatest strengths.

How exactly are you planning to introduce this new system to the Network? Do you think the locals will be more interested in cooperating with the Committee this time?

We want to establish a constant communication with the locals and the Network Commission is already helping us with this. We are not here to annoy everyone with our forms; but more helping hands will result in making the organisation of events easier. The locals can contact us at any time with their proposed event and we are more than happy to:

1. Aid cooperation with another European Level body (especially in case of thematic events).

2. Help with the promotion of the event (we are thinking about an Events Newsletter).

3. Our guidelines and forms can make planning easier – so locals don’t have to start everything from scratch.

Will locals have to submit a forms and get “quality checked”? And how complicated is this new system going to be?

No more complicated than using Intranet… The locals have to submit the Assessment Form (which will become available on the Members Portal later). Once their event is approved, they can upload it on Intranet and the promotion can begin on EVENT-L  and other platforms. Once the event is over, locals should fill out an Evaluation Form to give us proper feedback on the outcomes which they can also use for an internal evaluation of the event.

Anything else you would like to share with the AEGEEan?

Yes, ‘Quality Indicators’ is just the fancy new term for ‘I can help you with that’. Check out the presentation of the brand new Committee and don’t hesitate to write to us any time.

Written by: Lia Tuska (AEGEE-Kastoria & AEGEE-Sofia)

For sure, the biggest and the most successful project in the history of AEGEE is the Summer University Project (SU).  A project that best fits to our association aim for promoting co-operation, communication and integration amongst young people in Europe. A project that strives for unified Europe, cross boarder cooperation and tolerance.

Is this what you have been thinking when you decided to apply for your last SU?

Is this what you have been thinking when you decided to dedicate your summer vacation for organizing the best SU ever? Maybe or maybe not.

Personally my answer would be NO! Or at least I would not try to express it as for an official AEGEE presentation. When I decide to go to a SU or to organize a SU, the picture in my mind that appears is young crazy people, ready to have great party and to see new places, taste new things experience new feelings or even people!

Well, this was till this summer! When I went in Spain for the collaboration between the “Higher Education Days” (HED) project and the Summer Events of AEGEE-Leon and AEGEE-Tarragona. This was the most not so “formal” way of involving the non-formal education (NFE) into HED project. In a way we decided to try to change our target and to make work more for the understanding of the NFE inside AEGEE but in one cool, provocative and interactive way.

The main idea was an introduction with NFE and its overall understanding by both participants on one side, and labor market and universities on the other side. During the 9 days of the SUs participants had the opportunity not only to see the beauties of amusing Spain and party endlessly under the ESpanish sky (or in some moments water sky), but also feed their brains with values and skills important to a young European worker. Through practical approach they were able to improve their communication skills, discuss about the common stereotypes, intercultural understanding and learn the meaning of cooperation and teamwork. What most surprised me was that the participants were much more than punctual for a SU and moreover – they were actively participating! It was more than a pleasure not only to see locals ready to mix they SU with a project that more or less not so easy to be understand for all AEGEE members, working and asking for HED opinion for little details part of the preselection and organization, but also to see smiling and awake participants (even after the European night) ready to collaborate in our workshops.

Why we choose exactly to use non formal learning? Simply because the NFE aims at giving young people the tools to further develop their skills and attitudes. And somehow this is what is special for the NFE – individuals, participants are the actors actively involved in the “learning” process. What better could be for a SU? What better would be for AEGEE? As this is what we all are keep on developing in one or another way every day inside AEGEE!

As I said in Tarragona   our life is like a school. Every day we take our classes, develop ourselves, enrich our knowledge and virtues.  We get promoted to the next level, the next class, by fulfilling one simple goal:  knowledge, improvement and perfection! But even if we make a  mistake,  we are supposed to  learn  from  it,  to be grateful  for  the  opportunities  and  of course  never, ever,   give  up!  NFE is the final ingredient that gives you the possibility to be full and to feel satisfied with what you are doing, with YOURSELF, to be satisfied with life!

Thank you AEGEE-Leon & AEGEE-Tarragona for changing my definition for a Summer University in AEGEE, for putting much more sense in it!

I do offer you another perspective for this summer HED collaboration, too! Just check it below!

Pavel Zbornik, president of AEGEE-Praha:

“I have some experience with NFE, being on several trainings, organizing SALTO training in Prague and lastly NFE experience from SU in Tarragona. It was nice combination of serious discussion with fun part so involved participants get knowledge in interesting way. Thanks to that I got new information in cultural understanding which enriched me and now I understand bit more to my internationals friends.”

Annika Lüdeking, president of AEGEE-Heidelberg:

“I do think that Non-Formal Education is very important for everybody, especially as we dealt with cultural understanding which is crucial for the teamwork in our network. Everybody learns non-formally already by observing his/her surrounding and by talking to other people and often we need some kind of reflection to fully understand the gained impressions and stories. Therefore we as Aegeeans should support our Higher Education Days and participate in some workshop or lessons provided and pass on the knowledge to our antennas. Personally I would have liked to go deeper and learn even more about have to overcome cultural borders, as we only scratched on the surface during our Summer University.”

Tünde Ress, a member of AEGEE-Piliscsaba:

“My first and only experience with Non-Formal Education and Higher Education Days Project was in the Summer University in Tarragona.  Although we discussed obvious things about this theme, after all it was really interesting and exciting. Because you had to express your thoughts about this serious theme in other language and you could talk about it with young people from other countries and maybe you hadn’t had the chance for it before. Thanks to the team works and games it wasn’t boring at all. I liked the idea that such people gave the presentations about for example stereotypes that actually studied psychology and knew about this things even more.  I have taught a lot about this theme and I’m really glad to have known other young people from foreign countries who participated and showed own culture and habits through these trainings. Totally worth it!”

Eduardo Di Mauro, a member of AEGEE-Tarragona:

“I think that Non Formal education is important because it lets people learn in a way suited to their attitudes. In my opinion NFE is valuable for such a student association like AEGEE, since it is a valid, effective and practical tool for students to teach to other students (more or less of the same age) remarkable matters. (For example last week I wrote to one of the “teachers”, Adela, a question about assertive communication, confirming that the lessons were not useless). It would be great to recognize it but since it does not include any exam, I can understand if institutions fear to give their approval  to that (people could just go to a NFE lessons, never talk and finally get some kind of paper). During the HED experience, the workshops were useful in my opinion, since everybody was giving his contribution, depending on their interest in the subject. It is normal that everybody has a different level of interest, but in this sense it is important to create a group of people that all have the same will to contribute to the workshops.”

Liliya Toneva, a member of AEGEE-Sofia:

“As participant at the Summer University in Tarragona I had the great possibility to learn more about the non-formal education. In my opinion non-formal education is and should be main part of the HED project. Non-formal and informal education become more and more important nowadays. Because we learn everywhere and at all times and this experience leads to additional skills, knowledge and competences. I strongly believe that, all of us in AEGEE should work for the recognition of non-formal and also informal education.

“And maybe we are like example of how it works.”

That was just an example how the participants took active role in their environment and contributed to the local student society. This was just another example how AEGEE promote European Integration ……..and may be something more!

Though I still have the question in my mind when we will realise that we are really build bridges for learning – once with the value of the NFE and twice with its recognition?

by me,

Diana Yolova,

AEGEE member !

written by Diana Yolova, Higher Education Days Project