On a date with a candidate (XIII): Paulina Böhm

Soon the Agora Salerno stage will be full of candidates who want your vote! For sure you have read all about their programmes in the official booklet, so now you want to find out more about them, their hobbies, whether they can cook and which AEGEE member they would take with them on a deserted island. In short: classic first date questions from the Internet! The GT will take you on a date with the candidates. In this edition: Paulina Böhm from AEGEE-Aachen, running for Member of the Mediation Commission. Get ready, your date is starting now!

Golden Times: Are you afraid of your candidature speech on the Agora stage? And how will you prepare for it?
Paulina Böhm: Not yet, but I will probably be very nervous right before it. Unfortunately I didn’t find anything yet to prepare for that feeling.

GT: Where would you be now if you hadn’t joined AEGEE?
Paulina: I would probably have finished my studies faster but missed a lot of good experiences and friends.

GT: How did you join AEGEE exactly? How did you find out about it?
Paulina: I was checking for ESN after coming back from Erasmus but as AEGEE is the local Erasmus initiative in Aachen I somehow ended up with them…

GT: How long did it take you from the first moment you heard about it until you signed the membership form and joined AEGEE?
Paulina: About seven months.

GT: What’s the typical drink and food you bring to European Nights?
Paulina: I have to admit that I am a very bad European Night participant… I am always remembering that I have to bring something in the last minute so I end up with Haribo and Jägermeister most of the time.

GT: At an AEGEE party where will we find you? On the dancefloor? Talking at the bar?
Paulina: I love to dance, so definitely on the dance floor!

GT: What was your first position in the local board?
Paulina: Even though I was always very active during my two years in AEGEE, I have actually never been a board member. But that gave me the opportunity to try different things and learn a lot about team management and project management, which I really enjoyed.

GT: What was your favourite event as organiser – and why is it your favourite?
Paulina: Definitely the Strategic Planning Meeting in Köln this year! You don’t get to organize a statutory event every day. It was very challenging but the participants and the spirit were just awesome!

GT: What was your first Agora and how did you feel there? Happy, excited, overwhelmed, lost?
Paulina: My first Agora was Agora Krakow in 2018. I was lucky to be with a big group of people from Aachen who explained me most things so it was very exciting.

GT: Have you ever hichhiked to an AEGEE event? If yes, what’s your favourite hitchhiking story?
Paulina: I never hitchhiked to an event but I hitchhiked away from Agora Krakow. I went with two friends all the way to Budapest in 13 hours and we arrived in the middle of the night half-asleep on the bed of a Turkish truck.

GT: There is a classic typology of AEGEE members, dividing them according to the three aspects fun member, career member and idealist – to which percentage are you which of these aspects?
Paulina: I definitely started as a fun member but I think to be a candidate for MedCom you have to be an idealist trying to help and support people and change our organization for the better.

GT: What do your parents think about the idea that you are so active in AEGEE?
Paulina: They are amazed by all the thematic work we are doing and my father once said he would have loved to be part of a similar organization when he was a student.

GT: What other hobbies do you have aside from AEGEE?
Paulina: Yoga, reading, painting and playing violin.

GT: What was the last book you really got into?
Paulina: I just finished “One Hundred Days” by Lukas Bärfuss, a novel about the genocide in Rwanda and it really got me.

GT: What TV series do you keep coming back to and re-watching?
Paulina: I didn’t re-watch any series until now but I’m thinking about starting to watch “Friends” again.

GT: What’s your favourite app on your phone?
Paulina: Spotify.

GT: Do you like cooking and if yes – what’s your favourite dish you like to cook?
Paulina: I enjoy it in company, but then I like to try new things by following other people’s recommendations.

GT: What’s never missing in your fridge?
Paulina: Chocolate.

GT: Did you consider joining a political party or maybe want to do it later?
Paulina: Not right now but I consider doing it later.

GT: What do you study – and why?
Paulina: I study Civil Engineering because I am very interested in architecture but I was also good at mathematics.

GT: What’s your dream job?
Paulina: Construction Management.

GT: What’s the favourite city or place on this planet you ever visited?
Paulina: I love Istanbul, I was there for five months during my Erasmus.

GT: And where would you really like to go?
Paulina: Basically everywhere I haven’t been yet but right now I would like to go on a road trip through Africa.

GT: This Agora is about walls – what was the most difficult wall you had to overcome?
Paulina: Finishing my studies and overcoming motivational lows is a topic I struggled with several times. It doesn’t get easier towards the end.

GT: What’s your biggest frustration in AEGEE?
Paulina: Unused potential.

GT: Please complete the sentence: “AEGEE is for me…”
Paulina: People and possibilities.