Anita Kalmane’s story

I won’t be original – also my AEGEE story started with a friend suggesting a Summer University (SU).

 

I was reluctant at first, but then he kept sending and sending me all those SU descriptions, and one really caught my eye because of the topic – it was about medieval times which I was a big fan of back then. So I applied and got selected for a trip with a bunch of unknown people. In the end I went for another SU, but it was an SU after all…

Spring NWM hosts AEGEE-Helsinki open up about their event

Patricia Anthony, subcommissioner of Karolina Mazetyte, interviewed current president of AEGEE-Helsinki Krista to hear about their plans for the upcoming NWM.

Congratulations on being selected hosts for Spring NWM – How do you feel now knowing that you have been selected?

Thank you! Of course with this great honor comes even greater responsibility. We feel that we have do even better than we did in our last NWM that was held in 2010. I was not even a member of AEGEE back then, so personally I have no experience in organizing a NWM. However, we have a great team and many of them have been organizing the previous NWM so I am not worried.

You’ve Applied twice to organise a NWM but why did you apply to host the Spring NWM?

For us it did not matter whether we would arrange the NWM in autumn or spring. We actually applied to host the Autumn NWM 2012 as well but were not elected that time.

What will the participants experience during Spring NWM Helsinki?

Weekend in a cottage seems to be a crucial part of AEGEE-Helsinki European-level meeting. The participants do not only enjoy a sauna and great parties there, but in general the organizers of AEGEE-Helsinki usually enjoy the cottage part the most, in every event. So, we have again booked a huge cottage for us. The program planning is still progress so stay tuned for more information!

Last time we talked with you it was because you had designed a new T-shirt. How is it going with promotion of it and how many have you sold?

AEGEE-Helsinki t-shirt has been a great success among our local members and also AEGEE people outside Finland. We are really glad about that. I do not know the exact sales numbers, but we have over 100 fans in our AEGEE-Helsinki t-shirt Facebook page (address: https://www.facebook.com/AegeeHelsinkiTShirt). I have heard rumors that AEGEE-Helsinki t-shirts have been sold at least to the UK, Russia, Australia, Portugal and Sicily.

Besides planning the Network Meeting, what is AEGEE-Helsinki working on these days?

We have a busy spring ahead since in addition to NWM planning, we already have meetings considering our next SU, Scandinavian Dream. In this Travelling Summer University we will be in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki and we co-operate with AEGEE-København. Also, we have plans to arrange an exchange with some interesting AEGEE antenna (exchange ideas are welcome!) and AEGEE-Helsinki cruise to Saint Petersburg. All of these during this spring. What a great spring coming up!

It for sure sounds that AEGEE-Helsinki has a lot of interesting plans, and you still have a couple of days left to apply for their NWM. What are you waiting for?

Mayri’s AEGEE story

I don’t know if my ’becoming a member’ story is common or not for AEGEEans, but that’s how it happened to me at least. In spring 2010 I was looking for an opportunity to go abroad. I barely knew anyone outside of Estonia, I had never travelled alone and I had never flewn, but I really wanted to go somewhere. On a regular check to Tartu’s events calendar I found the Summer Universities infohour. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend, but I got so interested that I just searched for the information on my own. I became a member of AEGEE-Tartu and got accepted to a Language Summer University in Palermo. Until the SU I was not really interested in AEGEE-Tartu at all, my dream was only to go to abroad.