My time with AEGEE-London has been very brief, so I’m gunning for quality over quantity in this piece. I heard about AEGEE through a friend I made during an equally brief stint in a postgraduate course, and contacted the AEGEE-London team in March of this year. By April I had found myself as the IT director, and my journey had begun! It should be mentioned that this makes me one of life’s rarest of creatures, being both a member of AEGEE and a British citizen.
AEGEE-London has not been idle: we have organised many events in the past few months, put together all the usual social media razzamatazz, and done our best to grow the antenna. I myself have participated in a trip to the Houses of Parliament with Youth UPF (a branch of the Universal Peace Federation, which promotes cross-cultural dialogue), an exchange with AEGEE-Berlin, networking with the Churchill group (a collection of pro-European organisations based in the UK), as well as enjoying the many opportunities for socialising within our growing circle.
Trips, like the one to AEGEE-Berlin, were the main reason I wanted to join this organisation, and I was not disappointed! The host group was extremely warm and welcoming, to say nothing of the activities themselves. From late morning of each day, to early morning the following, we did everything for site-seeing, alternative site-seeing (there’s a difference!), partying, and most importantly socialising. It would be hard to give a particular personal highlight – too many. Most importantly though, despite having visited Berlin some years beforehand, I’d never really experienced the city as I had during those three-and-a-bit days. I can’t wait to host the AEGEE-Berlin team later this year.
AEGEE-London is a growing and vibrant community, which offer a range of activities from the fun, social gatherings, as above, to the less fun, but more edifying forums for debate and discussion, primarily on EU-wide topics. Our group is planning several major events, the first few as an antenna, for the end of this year, namely playing host to AEGEE-Berlin and organising the “European Youth vs. Euro-Scepticism,” in association with the Youth in Action programme and the British Council. The latter event will take place as a training course, focusing on youth issues in Europe. The former event is hopefully self-explanatory! Specific to my role, I would like to put together a purpose built website at some stage, as well as further growing the range of social media available to us.
I cannot stress enough the range of experiences available at AEGEE. We have people from all walks of life, and all ages, looking to experience the most of Europe – and ever so slightly further afield. I am really excited to see what we can do in London over the next few years, and hope more of you can take part in this journey.
Please feel free to reach out the AEGEE-London team at either our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/AegeeLondon, Twitter account @AEGEE_London or website http://aegeelondon.wix.com/aegee-london.
Nordic Stars 