AEGEE-Europe is one of Europe’s biggest interdisciplinary student organisations, striving for a democratic, diverse and borderless Europe. Open to students and young people from all faculties and disciplines, today AEGEE has grown to a Network of 13000 friends, present in 200 cities in 40 countries all over Europe. Through its activities, AEGEE empowers students and young people in Europe to take an active role in society. We create a space for dialogue and learning opportunities as well as act as their representative with decision-makers. AEGEE strengthens mutual understanding among young Europeans and brings Europe closer to young people.
AEGEE's Strategic Plan 2014-17 defines four major areas of work:
- Spreading Europtimism: creating a positive attitude towards the European project and empowering European youth to take an active role in bringing Europe closer to its citizens;
- Youth Mobility: helping remove the obstacles that prevent access to mobility to big sectors of European youth;
- Youth Employment: creating opportunities for young Europeans to smoothen their transition from education to the job market;
- Civic Education: giving the students tools to become active citizens that contribute to improving their societies.
The experience in these areas has given AEGEE-Europe the opportunity to contribute to IEREST in many ways. Intercultural communication is an inherent value in AEGEE-Europe, although we engage with it within a non-formal education framework. The mobile and committed young Europeans that belong to AEGEE provided valuable feedback to tune in the activities of the different modules, and the contribution to the IEREST project helps AEGEE-Europe advance in all the focus areas of the Strategic Plan 2014-17.
Miguel Gallardo Albajar
After studying Veterinary Science, Marine Biology and Biodiversity Management (and spending several years doing field research in Africa), Miguel moved to Brussels to become the Projects Director of AEGEE-Europe for two consecutive terms from 2012 to 2014. Apart from coordinating the work of AEGEE projects and working groups and driving the process that drafted the Strategic Plan 2014-17, he was involved in managing the internal and external communication of the organisation, and took care of portfolios such as human rights, environment and peace-building in the Caucasus region. His experience as mobile student in different universities and at different stages in his education, and his passion for education and communication, motivated him to become the person responsible for IEREST in his team. After two years of working together with the IEREST team, he decided to remain in the project once his position in AEGEE-Europe came to an end, committing himself to all the stages of the IEREST project.