My name is Katrin Vogel and I am a 24 year-old student from Heidelberg.  As a Fulbright scholar I spent the academic year 2004-2005 in Oregon, where I studied Applied Linguistics at Portland State University.  For almost four years I have been devoting most of my spare time to volunteer work for the student organization AEGEE.

AEGEE is short for “Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l’Europe” and means “European Students’ Forum”.  The organization was founded in the year 1985 by a few students in Paris and has grown to more than 20.000 members in about 200 European cities.  The general aim of AEGEE is to create opportunities for young people from different countries to meet each other and make friends and thus foster European integration at the roots, socially, rather than only on a highly political level.  The social aims, however, are meant to form the basis for further political integration.  This is illustrated, for instance, by the fact that there are a lot of AEGEE members in Turkey or countries of the former Soviet Union.

Since AEGEE is politically and economically independent, it does not have any regular funds: The members of all local groups spend a lot of time and energy looking for donations or simply helping out themselves so that the participation in the events is also possible for students from poorer European countries.  During every summer break, for example, our group in Heidelberg organizes a so-called “Summer University”.  This means that, for two weeks, we invite 20 guests from all over the continent, lodge them at our own places, teach German lessons in the mornings and offer trips and cultural activities during the rest of the day.  During the term we usually focus on international students of the University of Heidelberg, assisting them wherever institutions do not have the capacity to do so: We help them find a room and find their way around in the city, try to solve their problems with German culture, organize little trips and parties and introduce them to other local students in order to make them feel “at home”.

My most memorable experience with AEGEE was a trip to an event in Macedonia two years ago, my biggest achievement when I was elected president of the local AEGEE group in Heidelberg last February.  What really makes me want to keep working for AEGEE are the friends I have made all over Europe, the things I have learned about their cultures, the fact that I can travel to other countries and be welcomed by AEGEE members any time and finally, many little rewarding experiences, such as a former foreign exchange student at Heidelberg returning here after years and saying “thank you” once again for our help.

Everyone is always welcome to join any AEGEE event.  You do not have to be a member of the organization.  For more information on AEGEE, visit the website of AEGEE Europe or the website of AEGEE Heidelberg, where you can also find a calendar of events and e-mail-addresses.