>Mickey said there will be around 70 students, all understanding English properly, afterwards there will be an exam and they get credits for the Seminar. The title of the session was the title of this blogpost and the person giving the presentation: Agnes Leyrer. Me.
The whole thing started with Mickey organising a conference in Brescia, and he needed a speaker. Since the topic, European identity and Student Associations is close to me, I tought why not? Later it turned out it will be a series of lectures, so on the day it will be only me. For 2 hours. Even later it turned out the seminar will be at 9-11 in the evening (Apparently it is a normal time for a seminar for Italians, well, not for me, especially not being the one leading it… I can only say English is a very difficult language to use after 10 pm publicly ☺)
I was very nervious. I am used to lead interactive workshops or giving short presentations but I never did something like this. (and again: at 9. Pm!! Crazy!) At the end it turned out well of course. In the introduction I was talking about European identity, which is to reach through ongoing integration with the ultimate tool of Cultural Exchange. I distinguished active and passive cultural exchange – passive cultural exchange is when one goes to a museum of foreign country, whereas active cultural exchange is exactly what we are doing in AEGEE and in other students associations – „getting to know each-other” :)
I introduced to my audience JEF – Young European Federalists, ESU – European Students’s Union, ESN – Erasmus Students’ Network and AEGEE of course. Afterwads I took the most important steps of European integration of the last 25 years (since AEGEE was established) and emphasised the role of youth associations in the achievements. The biggest emphasise I set on mobility since according to my opinion it is the best and only real way to build a truly united Europe.
During preparing for the seminar I realised again how great AEGEE is as an association and how much we achieved. Starting with Frank Bianchieri lobbying successfully for the Erasmus Program, having the Y-Vote project at the end of a long list.
I wish for AEGEE that its future will be worth as well to give a lecture about to Fourth year university students, and I just encourage ourselves to act and don’t be afraid to take responsibility and set high goals! …For a Europe truly united…