The fourth edition of Europe on Track, AEGEE’s award-winning project, has just finished a few weeks ago. But already now a new team is working on the next edition, which will take place in 2018! The team of EoT5 is searching for a topic and needs your help. In order to make you understand the project a bit better, the GT spoke with Jorge Sánchez Hernández, who was one of the travellers this year and is part of the team of the next edition.

Jorge at work

GT: Europe on Track has a new Project Team. Who are the members and what do they do?
Jorge Sánchez Hernández: We are Erifyli Evangelou from Athina, Iryna Demianchuk from Kyiv, Jorge Sánchez Hernández from Dresden, Klaudia Chłopaś from Warszawa, Khrystya Lishchynska from Lviv, Kristina Reshetova from Moskva, Luciana Pinto from Napoli, Melissa Carreres from Alicante, Maryam Mumladze from Tbilisi, Ola Miklasińska from Krakow, Spyros Papadatos from Ioannina and Viktoria Schwarz from Dresden. We are now in the knowledge transfer period with the former project team and still setting our internal working groups and task division.

GT: Europe on Track is looking for a general topic for 2018. Did you already get many suggestions?
Jorge: We have already gotten some good suggestions, but we are looking for more! We will then analyse all the topics that would fit the general aims of Europe on Track and then the possibilities for funding and the relevance to the present situation in Europe.

EoT4 in Kraków

GT: Are there some criteria that narrow down what you are looking for?
Jorge: The topic should be of relevance for the European youth, and it should go along the values of AEGEE though it doesn’t have to be related to any focus areas. We could perfectly do topics such as sustainability, culture, food production or languages, so do not be afraid to suggest any topic that you think Europe on Track should work on!

GT: When is the deadline?
Jorge: The deadline is the 16th of July, including that day.

GT: When will Europe on Track take place in 2018 – and what will be the main differences in the concept?
Jorge: We are still discussing this, but the journey should take place somewhere between March and May.

Some statistics on EoT4

GT: Ambassadors have roles like blogger and interviewer, video journalist and photo journalist. What did they produce this year?
Jorge: The ambassadors of EoT4 produced workshops that they delivered in the events of the hosting locals, then during the trip they produced photo albums, videos, interviews and gathered information through questionnaires that is still being analysed. You can see the materials and the ones that are still being developed at our Facebook page.

GT: How was the cooperation with the antennae this year?
Jorge: We had a great cooperation with the antennae and we are looking forward to working with more antennae even closer this time! They are the pillars of this project and without them we could not achieve so much as we have.

GT: Were you also meeting non-AEGEE people like politicians during the trip? And what did they think about the project?
Jorge: Last time the ambassadors did meet politicians, but also random people in the street to interview or other non-AEGEEans that came to the workshops. The project does not aim at having an impact on AEGEEans but in Europe in general through the youngsters living on our continent.

On the road

GT: What did you learn new during the trip?
Jorge: When we put together all the data about trains, questionnaires, people who attended our workshops and interviews, we realized the potential of the project and the fact that we can truly have an impact in Europe and its citizens with our project.

GT: Anything you would like to add?
Jorge: We welcome any idea people might have about Europe on Track and are looking forward to involving more people from our network. You can always message us or send us an email to europeontrack@aegee.org. We will soon start giving out some secrets and tips about the project and how you can become an ambassador for next year, so stay tuned with our page!

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