ESN Athens AUEB

This month’s Section in the Spotlight is not only a section in a very sunny and beautiful country; it is as well a section celebrating 20 years in ESN this year! Congrats to ESN Athens AUEB AUEB!
 
ESN Athens AUEB AUEB were founded already back in 1992 by outgoing students coming back from their Erasmus exchange. In the same year the section joined ESN International and for many years this was the only ESN section in Greece. They have had the luck to have two of their members to serve as the President of ESN International in both 1996 and 1997. This section also organized two Cultural Medley’s, one International Board Meeting, CND Athens 2009 and this November the section will be celebrating their 20th birthday by organizing SEEP Athens 2012.
 
During the introduction week the section involve their international students by having a city race where the students are divided into team and then organize events themselves in order to achieve certain tasks. A common event to organize by the students themselves is the euro dinner and info market. It is then the students’ own responsibility to contact people of their countries and arrange a table of their country. Another popular way to participate is through the Social Erasmus activities. ESN Athens AUEB organizes activities such as Tree planting, Kissing booth for a good cause and Free hugs. These activities get a lot of international exchange students as volunteers.
 
During the semester, the section organizes a lot of different activities, such as Karaoke night, Who Game and Buddy night, for the exchange students to attend already from the start of the introduction week. They have city tours but also some “break the ice” activities to help the students to get to know each other. As a first taste of Greek hospitality the section offers free Ouzo and Greek “meze”. Part of the events is as well to plant trees, throwing donation parties and common activities with an organization of people with disabilities.
 
The City race mentioned before is one of the sections most famous activities. The students are divided into groups in order to fulfill several tasks. This race helps the students to learn the most important places of the city, they get to know how to use public transportation, discover popular sites of the city, learn to interact with the locals and of course have a lot of fun! However, the flagship event arranged by ESN Athens AUEB is their Mykonos Trip which has been taking place twice a year for the past 12 years. Mykonos is one of the most characteristic islands of Greece and still the most famous high class and party-island of Greece. During this trip except partying our exchange students have the chance to participate in various games and events. None of the approximately 3000 students that have attended this trip came back the same...
 
ESN Athens AUEB really focuses on the quality of their members and they try to set their minds free in order to be more motivated, creative and productive. This way they can build a relation of love between the section and the members which will keep them motivated to help out. The section itself means that other sections can learn from them on how to bond their members together, make them feel comfortable with each other and work as a strong team in any situation. In their own university the section run an I-Erasmus project in order to promote Erasmus and ESN to outgoing students.
 
As a final event of the semester the section organizes a photo competition which ends with a photo exhibition in the University open to all students. The topic varies from semester to semester, but mostly it’s about the experiences of the exchange students in a picture.
 
ESN Athens AUEB does really seem to live up to their words last written in their application “Don't be Boring!!!!! Be Erasmus, Be ESN!!!”