This week Her Campus was lucky enough to catch up with fundraising queen and Aberdeen’s Childreach society president Elena Mayer-Besting.
Elena, a fourth year Economics and IR student originally from Munich in Germany, loves everything Childreach. When asked how her flat mates would describe her in three words she said; smart, kind and caring. This comes as no surprise considering what she has done for the charity in her three years at Aberdeen Uni. I asked her what made her decide to run for president for Aberdeen’s Childreach Society and it was clear from her response that it all stems from a love and passion for everything the society stands for – ‘Anyone would tell you, it’s just my thing’. It was no surprise to learn that the challenges that the society offers have been a huge feature throughout her Uni life! Having climbed Kilimanjaro in first year she then progressed onto Team Leader status for Everest in her second year and then became treasurer for the society in third year. Her summer this year even consisted of interning at Childreach’s London office. During her time in the Childreach office she was even asked to go for a coffee with the CEO who wanted to ‘hear her ideas and ask for suggestions’ – amazing! Even her upcoming dissertation is all set to be linked to the charity and her experiences with it.
Through a contact at Childreach she was able to go to Bangladesh this summer, where she visited a garment factory, spoke to people living in the slums and visited childcare centers – an experience she told us she found very rewarding and humbling. She describes her experience there as a very challenging one because of the language barrier. It must have been tough being so dependent on a translator who couldn’t be there all the time! Reality struck home when she noted how the people she was meeting couldn’t read, even basic things such as addresses for taxi drivers proved difficult. She described how she was very much made to feel like a celeb when she was at one point asked for an autograph by some of the children as she was visiting some of the Slums. Despite making it very clear she wasn’t actually Angelina Jolie, they still persisted in asking her to sign something!
What was it that made her go to that first info meeting when she had never done a challenge before? ‘Well, it was quite an embarrassing story really’, she says smiling. It was her second night of Fresher’s and it was on her walk home from the infamous Pearl Lounge when she and a friend bumped into the Team Leader for Kilimanjaro who convinced them to sign up for the challenge. Initially, she wasn’t keen! The guy who she was about to start seeing was going with all his friends… “I was eventually convinced into it by one of my flat mates and I figured having a friend there would make it much less awkward!” Not being sporty, she had her doubts about signing up but when she went along to the info meeting, she realised how much she loved the grass roots nature of the charity that she couldn’t resist signing up, and ended up loving the trek. She says she has always been interested in the development of women’s rights and maternal health so getting involved in a society like Childreach proved to be right up her street. Before she began her trek up Kilimanjaro she and her team were given the amazing opportunity of visiting a school there and were able to see first hand where money raised for Childreach goes. This, of course, acted as another great motivator for her fundraising the year after for Nepal, where she was again able to visit a school that had benefitted from the charity.
So, what was her favourite challenge? “It would have to be Everest as there was so much to see, from beginning to end it was beautiful! And the guides were lovely. Kili was harder, but that meant the feeling of achievement at the end was amazing after such a huge challenge”. For those of you on the fence about doing a challenge Elena describes her challenges as having been quite literally ‘life-changing’. She adds ‘I learnt so much from being Team Leader too and fundraising is so much easier than you might think’. So what does the future hold for Elena? ‘Hopefully a Masters in Development Studies in Geneva and then a job at the UN!’ Here at Her Campus we love seeing amazing girls like Elena dream big – you go girl!
If you are interested in signing up for a challenge head over to the Friends of Childreach International Society AUSA on Facebook where you’ll find details on when and where all the info meetings are on campus for the amazing challenges on offer next summer.
The Childreach team at Machu Picchu earlier this month!