Not even six weeks have passed since the last presentation of the new Les Anciens members in mid-April. Obviously Les Anciens is more popular than ever – nine people joined AEGEE’s alumni association in this period! Welcome! Our new members represent again several generations of AEGEE – from Idil Göksel, organiser of the Agora Ankara in 1997 to former HRWG speaker Verena Schmidt, who is still a student and just finished her active AEGEE career. Here they are – in alphabetical order:
Aleksandar “Sasa” Vicko (31) is one the most iconic faces of AEGEE-Novi Sad. Most Les Anciens members, who were at the Les Anciens Meeting in 2009, know him from organising the mountain part of the event in Bovec. Others will remember his as one of the main organisers of the Presidents Meeting in Novi Sad in March 1999 together with the amazing Jasna Bogdanovic, a mere two weeks before the Nato air strikes interrupted normal life in Serbia. The long-time board member of AEGEE-Novi Sad, who organised other legendary events like the Conference „National Minorities in Vojvodina“ in 1998 or the PR School in Novi Sad in 2001 lives now with his wife in Maribor. He works as architect and designer for Projekt D.D. Nova Gorica.
Alistair De Gaetano (27) took part already in the Les Anciens meeting in Olympus. Now finally he joined our alumni association officially. The self-employed advocate, who is very busy in the fields of human rights is also PhD student at Trinity College in Dublin. Alistair is best known for being President of AEGEE-Europe. However, that’s not all he did. Alistair was also treasurer and speaker of the Human Rights Working Group as well as President of the Members Commission. Not to forget: his long time in the board of AEGEE-Valletta, the city where Alistair also lives today. His wedding in September in Malta will be the biggest Les Anciens wedding this year!
Astrid Schrader (25), considers “AEGEE as one of the few constant anchors in my life”. Why “Because changed the country of residence every two to three year,” Astrid says. It all started rather harmlessly: Astrid was member of the local AEGEE-Passau board from 2005 to 2007. Then an incredible AEGEE career started. “In 2006/7 I took care of my first baby: as organiser of the EuroIslam Project Passau-Enschede-Canakkale-Sofia”, she recalls. Especially trainings became passion for her. “As trainer in approximately 100 workshops in something like 20 countries I could inspired a little,” says the AEGEE Academy member. “My very own personal highlight, however, was being Education Working Group speaker in 2006/7.” And that’s not all. Also outside of association Astrid was active – for example by being German Youth Delegate towards the United Nations 2008/9 in New York. Today Astrid is member of several think tanks including the Think Tank 30 of the Club of Rome. You might wonder what Astrid does in real life – well, she works as a management consultant for public sector organisations at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Berlin. “However, youth work still has a place reserved for virtually all Saturdays and Sundays,” she concludes with a smile.
Eva Bacon (28) is probably more known under her maiden name Eva Schlör. Eva was very active in AEGEE-München for several years – as vice-president, PR coordinator and SU organiser. After her marriage she left Europe and lives now in Brooklyn. There she works as Literary Scout at Bettina Schrewe Literary Scouting. The delegation of Les Anciens members in New York is growing – maybe a sign that we should make an event there?
Idil Goksel (34) was member of the unfogettable team that made star of AEGEE-Ankara rise – next to celebrities as Refet Saban and Nihal Samsun. Together the three musketeers of AEGEE-Ankara made the legendary autumn Agora in Ankara in 1997 possible. Next to this, Idil was treasurer of her antenna in that year and organised several Summer Universities between 1995 and 1997. And today? Idil lives in Izmir and works as assistant professor in economics at the Izmir University of Economics.
Ines Verspohl (27) just finished her AEGEE activities. The former president and vice-president of AEGEE-Osnabrück was very active also on European level in the past years. Among other things, she was main coordinator of the Model European Union event 2007 in Strasbourg, was one of the coordinators of the year plan project Take Control, as well as being involved in the European Ideas Factory of AEGEE, just to name a few. Today, Ines lives in Ennigerloh-Westkirchen.
Lena Koch (34) was president of AEGEE-Berlin in the period 2000/1. In that time she organised the ES2 Berlin in cooperation with the AEGEE Academy in the German capital. On European level Lena was member of the Bologna Working Group. There she also proved to be an excellent fund-raiser: as “Head of Marketing & Recruitment” she succeeded in making the Central European University golden and silver partner of AEGEE-Europe. Many Les Anciens members might also remember her as participant of the legendary ES1 in Liblice castle near Prague in 2000.
Maria Nomikou (26) is one of the far too few Greek members of Les Anciens. Maria started her AEGEE career in an unusual way – by being speaker in the now unfortunately deleted Dance Working Group. Then she became PR responsible of AEGEE-Athina, speaker of the AEGEE Academy and President of the Members Commission. Next to these big things, Maria also was involved in projects and events that were close to her passion: theatre and acting. Maria, who lives in Ilioupolis is a freelancer in the field of theatre production. She also works as Youth trainer.
Verena Schmidt (29) also had a wide variety of jobs on European AEGEE level, especially in Working Groups and projects. She made her first steps on European level as Human Resources responsible of the Environmental Working Group in 2007/8,was then founding team member of the project “YOUrope needs YOU” and speaker of the Human Rights Working Group. Verena, who was in the board of AEGEE-Tübingen for several years, also likes publications a lot. So she joined the Key to Europe team in 2008, was Chief-editor of the NewsBulletin in 2008 and Chief-editor of the Members’ Manual in 2009. Verena was also member of the AEGEE25 celebration team member. Verena is still a student and lives in the beautiful city of Tübingen, near Stuttgart.
