{"id":41998,"date":"2019-05-15T19:09:34","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T18:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/?p=41998"},"modified":"2019-05-15T19:09:40","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T18:09:40","slug":"learning-by-doing-how-aegee-brings-you-forward-in-your-career-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/2019\/05\/15\/learning-by-doing-how-aegee-brings-you-forward-in-your-career-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning by doing: how AEGEE brings you forward in your career (Part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Never underestimate what you do in AEGEE: what you learn here can help you discover new strengths in your personality, hone your skills and boost your career! Let us inspire you. In cooperation with the <\/em>Youth Development Working Group<\/em><\/strong>, the AEGEEan launches a series of career stories which all started thanks to the invaluable experience gained by being active in AEGEE. This week, <\/em>Marije Arentze<\/em><\/strong> presents herself.<\/em>
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Marije Arentze, AEGEE-Leiden<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After my active years in AEGEE and during my graduation phase, I started working at a young Dutch start-up called DROG, a platform that aims to build resistance against fake news and disinformation through research, consultancy, campaigning and education. I was asked to join because of my experience with giving workshops (which I gained in AEGEE), my network among European civil society (which I have because of my work in AEGEE) and my experience with project management (which I gained in AEGEE). When I joined, DROG was very small. There was no team structure, no thought-out business model. There was a loose group of people trying to work together, but neither had substantial experience with (virtual) teamwork. But there was a lot of potential: we were working together with the University of Cambridge on a research project, we were regularly invited to EU institutions in Brussels to give our view on disinformation, and the workshop we developed was very popular in high schools. That is how I started out: as a side-job next to writing my thesis, I travelled the country to deliver workshops in schools on how to build resistance in fake news <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a few months, the opportunity came along to scale up our education program by co-writing an Erasmus+ project proposal. I took almost a month off of writing my thesis and devoted a lot of time to this: we wrote a 90+ page proposal, plus a detailed budget. I asked help from some AEGEE friends, got two partners on board through my AEGEE network (one of which is  AEGEE-Europe itself), and drew upon my vast experience of the EU institutions and the youth lobby to write up a convincing proposal to develop a new education method to counter disinformation. In September, we learned that we got the grant, which meant I had secured a job for myself for two years to come. You can only imagine how awesome that felt.

In the meantime, I had proven my value for the team and the company in several ways:
– I could standardise and professionalise our workshop, turning a nice idea into a saleable product;
– My experience in project management and dealing with partners made projects run smoothly and efficiently;
– I could help my colleague navigate the \u201cBrussels Bubble\u201d, or take his place speaking in panels because I knew it from inside out; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 and there are probably numerous other examples that I won\u2019t even be able to point out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


Apart from that, AEGEE helped me on a personal level:<\/p>\n\n\n\n