Karina Häuslmeier with Annette Schavan, German minister for education and research
Successful former AEGEE members by Wiebke Hahn and Johann Schembri Karina Häuslmeier AEGEE Passau Karina Häuslmeier started her AEGEE career as treasurer and president of AEGEE-Passau and later on performed these two tasks also on European level as a member of the Comité Directeur from 2000 to 2001. After her term in the executive board, she took over the coordination of the Yearplan project of 2002 “EURECA – European Education Campaign”. Karina graduated from International Business and Culture Studies in Passau and Granada and obtained a Master of European Studies in Berlin. She works now as the Head of the Cultural Department of the German Embassy in Cairo. Wiebke Hahn spoke with Karina. As diplomat at the Federal Foreign Office you are working in an international and intercultural environment. Did AEGEE have any influence on your career choice? Since my teen days, I have always dreamt of working abroad but I could never believe that actually one day I would become a diplomat. In my time as president of AEGEE-Europe, I especially discovered how much I like to be part of a policy making process and to actually be able to contribute to it. When you applied for your job, did you feel that the experience you gained in AEGEE was recognized positively? How was it perceived by your employer? During the interviews and the group assignments as part of the assessment centre by the Foreign Office, I profited a lot from the experience I gathered in AEGEE. Having spent 1.5 years in the CD and worked with people from different cultural backgrounds, I could easily answer to questions concerning intercultural experience, leadership and teamwork skills and give vivid examples for it. I was able to prove that I knew what it means to carry responsibility and to manage projects from the beginning to the end. Do you consider AEGEE as a valuable experience to prepare young people for professional life? What is, in your opinion, the most useful asset youngsters can acquire from youth work? AEGEE was the best school for professional life I can imagine. I think I grew up and gained a lot of self-confidence in those years in AEGEE. Most of the daily routine of my professional life I had the chance to try out already before in AEGEE: holding speeches, chairing meetings, writing letters and project proposals, doing loads of things at the same time, communicating across continents etc. In AEGEE I started to learn how to work with difficult personalities, which one probably encounters in any job. Thus the most useful assets youngsters can acquire from youth work are communication skills.
Roger Bugeja AEGEE Valetta An ESIB meeting held in Brussels in 1996 as part of the University Students Council – KSU (Malta) scheduled meeting, was what sparked the founding President Roger Bugeja to kindle the fire fuelling AEGEE-Valletta. In fact, 6 months of hard work led to the signing of the Convension d’Adhesion in the Autumn Agora of 1997 in Ankara kick-starting the organisation. Such results were the fruit of the combined efforts of the first AEGEE-Valletta board made up of people from several renowned organisations on campus and aided by AEGEE’s regional Network Coordinator Fanny, who supplied the organisation with the tools to make the initiating flame turn to a blazing bonfire. In 2 years of Presidency, Roger Bugeja, along with the rest of the board, faced various logistical and financial difficulties. However, despite of this, the organisation became an Antenna due to a successful Summer University with twenty-two participants and eight team members attending. This happened after a busy summer working with EF – The English Language School. Fulfilling his role holistically, Roger Bugeja felt the need to pass on the hat to new blood of people, who where still in University. Corinne Cordina took over and took the organisation to the next level with local events and International Conferences. This did not impede Roger Bugeja from ensuring that the AEGEE spirit is inherited by each new board. In fact he makes it a point to organise get-togethers at his own home revamping the board and encouraging it to face boldly the upcoming challenges. Roger Bugeja was interviewed by Johann Schembri. As Director of a Language School you are working in an intercultural environment. How did your involvement in AEGEE influence your career? AEGEE advocates a borderless Europe implying mobility, intercultural relations, tolerance and respect for cultures and religions. Involvement in such an organization instills a sense of respect for all, irrespective of age, social position, race and creed. Everyone is different but everyone is equal. All this instilled the AEGEE values in my career move and this helped me to move up as Director of the School. Looking back through the years, I would say that without these values, my career achievements would have been harder to attain.
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