1. Can you please introduce yourself (who are you, where are you from, what do you study)?

My name is Monika. I come from a small town Nová Dubnica. I moved to Bratislava to study European Studies at Comenius University, but I also lived in Vilnius and Zagreb where I did my Erasmus study exchanges. I am currently in my final year of master degree and I am going to spend my last Erasmus study exchange in Prague for one semester. 

2. How long have you been a member of ESN and what were your roles before becoming active in the international world of ESN?

I joined ESN in January 2014 as a buddy and active member. After I came back from my first exchange I became the Section president of ESN Comenius University and later I joined NEC. Currently, I am ESN Alumni.

3. What is your position within NEC and how long have you been doing it?

I was in NEC from January to November 2016. I was a member of Section Cooperation Team.

4. Can you describe your main tasks and responsibilities?

We were mapping, monitoring and archiving various cooperation among sections. So we were trying to find out whether sections are cooperating with each other and how.  At that time when I was in NEC we were working on Section Cooperation Guide which was published at AGM Warsaw 2016. It is a great guide for sections that would like to start or improve cooperation with other sections. You can find lots of specific examples of section cooperation in the guide. I definitely recommend it :) 

5. Can you describe some other interesting tasks on which NEC is working on?

I am no longer in NEC, so I have no knowledge about their current projects.

6. What was your most valuable experience connected to being in NEC so far?

The most valuable experience was NEC Winter Meeting that was held in ESN House in Brussels. NEC has two meetings per year- winter and summer where you can meet in person all the members from all the projects. For me, working with people face to face is definitely better and more effective than through skype-calls and e-mails. It was cool to meet all the people and work in such good and relaxed environment. And of course we were not only working, but we were having fun while cooking together, exploring streets of Brussels or playing cards against humanity :D 

7. What were the most challenging tasks that you had to deal with?

I think it was time management :D. At that time I was still Section President, so sometimes it was difficult to manage section meetings and NEC skype-calls and also I was writing lots of e-mails to sections which was also quite time consuming. The lack of time was one of the reasons why I left NEC.

8. Have you attended any international events related to NEC? If so, which ones and what was the best about them?

I attended the NEC Winter Meeting 2016. I mentioned the best things above - working in good environment, meeting all the people and having fun :)

9. What is your message for people who can’t decide whether to join NEC or not?

If you think that ESN is something that you are really interested in and want to devote your time to make it better, GO FOR IT. Being in an international committee is different from what you might be used to in the local level, you can experience ESN from different point, how it all works and you can contribute to an interesting project that will be used throughout the whole organization :)