Newly approved ESN VDK section became the 9th ESN section in Vilnius and the 14th official section of ESN Lithuania. It probably would not have happened without the current section president, Mikas Macijauskas, who is also an active member of PuRe committee. We won’t be wrong saying that he is one of the most hardly working ESNers in Lithuania at the moment. Let’s try to figure out his point of view of ESN life and what wonderful things he and his newly approved section achieved and planning next.

Hello, Mikas! It is really nice that I got a chance to take an interview with you. How are you doing?

First of all let me thank You for interviewing me. I’m doing great. I’ve just met new Erasmus students and I’m very excited.

I would like to ask, supposedly, the most common question that popped into every ESNer’s mind who attended the NP22: How did you first feel after the announcement that your section got the spot under the “ESN sun”?

I was shocked, happy and relieved at the same time. It was once in a lifetime experience.

How does your beautifully pink ESN VDK’s team feel? Are there any important changes in your section after the National Platform?

My team feels as good as it gets. Everyone is so happy, because our work has paid off. After NP22 we set our goal to work even harder, to organise activities even better than we did before, expand our section to it’s maximum capabilities and to spread out the word about ESN into unseen horizons.

As a leader of your section, tell us what was the beginning of ESN VDK? Was it hard to express your idea of a whole new thing to other people and attract them to join ESN?

I can’t imagine how everything would have been without our former section president’s Magė Fledžinskaitė help. She did a lot. She was the one who convinced people to join ESN family and revealed the idea of ESN. So I’m grateful for her well done job.


We all know that you are a great team, but do you feel like you are ready to be a fully functioning section?

We are not. Just a month ago we were a section candidate, but getting place in ESN is one big step into becoming fully functioning section. We learn fast and I personally believe that we will be that section quite soon.

    

What was the hardest thing during those six months while you were a candidate section?

The hardest thing was living with the idea, that we will not be confirmed by ESN and our work won’t be seen by other sections. Maybe that was also very motivating and that’s why we were trying so hard.

Is it hard being the president of a newbie section? What are the things that keep you going?

It is easy. Our section is small, so I can contact every member personally in just a few minutes. This way it is easier to track the progress of organising event, to see who’s doing his job well, who need some advices. After every activity we do we see happy students and that’s what keeps me going.

Tell us, how does your section meetings usually go? How do you brainstorm the ideas of an upcoming ESN VDK events?

Meetings? We meet each other every day. But the official ones, in my opinion, has no difference from other sections’ meetings. Generating ideas is never part of our meetings. Generating ideas on meetings would bring down the quality of ideas. So we brainstorm at free time.

Your section seems to have a bit different point of view, in a good way. Now, that you have all the abilities to express yourself, maybe you and your team are going to try on giving something different than other sections had given ESN in all those years?

We have? It’s good to hear that. I believe every section tries to do something different. That’s why every section is unique.

So, what‘s next? What are the big ESN VDK‘s future plans?

Well… We love to get a lot of attention. So be ready. When it will be something big – we will share it with you. I don’t want to give a spoiler for you.

We hope that this new powerful section will be with ESN for as long as possible. Maybe you would like to say something to the sections that are now going through candidate stage? Any personal advice?
 
I would like to wish them good luck. If they need any help – we are always here for them.

 

Written by Ieva Malaničeva, Proud member of PuRe Committee.