Challenge Europe project

Hungary advocates' profiles 2010/2011

Mariann Bálint

Mariann is 29 years old and graduated as an art teacher. After a couple years of primary school teaching she works now as a freelance illustrator for children’s book. Her affection for nature can be traced back to her grandparent’s yard and from the fascination of natural tribes/people. She believes that the environmental education of children is very important and that hings like sustainable life and climate change can be taught to them through play. As a climate advocate she would like to use her teaching and drawing skills and her experience to create something interesting, funny but instructive for the younger generation. She thinks that working in this ambitious group will multiply each other’s energy and together great ideas can be realized.

Gergely Csima

Gergely Csima graduated as an agriculture engineer at the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at Szent István University. He is now working in the Micro-biotechnology and Environmental Toxicology Group of the university as a Ph.D student. Nature plays an important role in his life as part of both his work and his free time. He does capoeira and also enjoys horse riding. Gergely is looking forward to working with like minded, creative people from all over the world. He aims to make people more eco-conscious and to learn to live in harmony with nature in a sustainable way. In the future he would like to practice sustainable, ecological farming not just for his own gratification but to set a good example as well.

Éva Farkas

As a student Éva takes an interest in the latest stories from around the world. This may be the reason why she has chosen to study in the geography faculty at EötvösLorándUniversity in Budapest (where she is now in her second year). She loves geography because it is about the global synthesis of the Earth and she would like to show people that it is a hugely complex system which is more vulnerable than people think. In everyday life, she follows the theory of ’variety is the spice of life’, she plays the violin, does sports (especially football and cycling), she likes folk dancing and reading. In the future, she would like to be a teacher and teach children to be responsible for their choices because ’everything is in relation with everything’, and make them realise their small steps can actually be a giant leap.

Szilvia Zsargó

As a consultant, Szilvi deals with various sustainability projects, ranging from energy efficiency or renewable energy to sustainable transport related projects. Szilvi graduated with a European MSc from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics as an engineering manager, specialized in environmental management. She enjoys converting the general idea of sustainability into “tangible” every-day examples and actions. She thinks it is very important to be a good example, to motivate people and to provide opportunities for cooperation and community-experiences, as enthusiastic and motivated people can create miracles. Besides work she is an active volunteer especially in bicycle-related projects but also has some time for choir singing and modern dancing.

Tamás Schleer

Tamás graduated with a European MSc and works as an Economist and Marketing Manage. He currently lives in Hungary and enjoys travelling and meeting people from all around the world espeically to hold interesting conversations with them. He worked for the Red Bull Air Race World Championsip in 2008 as a Signage and POS Manager. In that year he appreciated just how much influence a huge event like that can have around the planet. He had worked for Red Bull Hungary Air Race previously as a Student Brand Manager, and he has experiences in Guerilla Marketing. These experiences have take him on the road and he hopes to use this oppertunity to spread an international concept for a better event waste management. He tries to use guerilla marketing tools to show to the event management sector how could „ sustainable waste management” can be profitable.

Balázs Tóth

Balázs has studied and worked in 7 countries and graduated with a MSc. in Agricultural Sciences. He previously studied Environmental Sciences and Landscape Management in Angers, France and worked for the Regional Environmental Centre (REC). At present he works for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, where his field of activities relates to environmental aspects in many ways. Having been involved in bureaucracy for years, he feels it is time to devote his spare time to working in a creative and ambitious team to design solutions to environmental and climate change problems for a sustainable future. He hopes they can research and spread the word about alternative ways to mitigate GHG emissions. He strongly believes raising public awareness is an important step to change. He is a founding member of a sport association and enjoys springboard diving. He also enjoys cooking, traveling and listening to folk music. He usually spends his holidays on a French dairy farm, close to nature and has made two short films in his spare time.

Márta Sinkó

Márta's life has, since childhood, always been connected with the environment since she grew up in the countryside. She participated in different student competitions and graduated in Biology in high school. Marta now studies international relations at the University of Szeged because she believes environmental problems couldn’t be solved without international cooperation and coordination. She is also complementing her studies with a course on tourism management. She is an active member of several associations and of her student hostel. In her free time she folkdances, sings, writes poems, runs, goes to parties with her friends etc. She enjoys traveling, transmitting Hungarian culture and speaking foreign languages. She would like to champion lots of environmental projects which the support sustainability and eco tourism by stimulating cooperation on every level.

Anita Kiss
Anita studies European Studies in Budapest, but it is her aim to work in the environmental field in the future. Her thesis is to look at the common European regulatory framework of buildings‘ energy performance and next year she would like to obtain a master degree in environmental sciences and policy. She loves travelling and meeting people from all over the world and believes that we have to start environmental protection in our own household and then it will spill over to other fields of our lives. Her main goal therefore, is to raise awarness among people and let them know that ’greening’ their lives could be achieved in a fun and easy way.

Edina Barbara Budai
Edina Barbara is a student of ELTE University and has chosen to specialise in renewable energy planning. She will graduate this summer with a bachelor degree, and after this hopes to apply to study for a master degree as a geographer. She has loved earth sciences from childhood, especially astronomy. She used to enter competitions but now she only enjoys astronomy as a hobby. She also enjoys traveling and outdoor activities such as hiking and canoing. In doors however she likes reading and watching cultural programmes. She would like to work with people, mainly with children, communicating the message of environmental protection. She would also like to find the connection between the human factor and energy planning.

Gábor Szabó

Gábor was born in a little town in the countryside so he has always felt close to nature. At the age of 22 he worked as a volunteer in Greece for 3 months on an environmental project. From then on he has always been involved in the area of enviroment protection. He organized a one-year environmetal education project, he was a volunteer for 350 organizing a big Climate Bath Party in Széchenyi Bath, Budapest. By profession, he is an electrical engineer so he has been always held an interest in sustainable technlologies, and renewable energies. He really enjoys travelling and getting to know other cultures. He thinks that with co-operation lots of good people can do good things for good goals.

Bálint Lukács

Bálint is doing his Bsc in Environental Engineering, with an Environmental Management major, at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He is interested in linking environmental protection, society and economics. He thinks that the issue of climate change is hugely complex, and only a few people really face these issues in their everyday life. The Challange Europe program provides a good chance to let other people know what is really going on and what can they do against it, what is true, what is fake and what is overemphasized. He belives that we can change our mass consumer society to a viable one with the rise of the conscious consumers (or non-consumers).In everyday life he is an outging, relaxed, ironic guy, who likes to do all kind of sports in his free time.

Anna Parizán
Anna has been working for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for 3 years. Her specialization is rural tourism, however she is also working with other different measures of the New Hungary Rural Development Program. She speaks foreign languages (English, French, Spanish) and her mother tongue is Hungarian. She loves to meet different cultures and people from around the world and that is the reason why she travels a lot. Due to her work she feels lots of question have been raised for her regarding local food. She would like to see more use of local market foods in Hungary and a cut back in the role of multinational companies. She would like to work for a sustainable future and preserve the Earth for our grandchildren. She worries that, in the way the human beings have been living, the Earth is being destroyed irreversibly. We have to work together to change this immediately.

Mariann Klára Vértesi

Mariann is 20 years old and is currently studying photography. She is planning to study art & design theory when she finishes her photography studies. She has always been interested in arts, especially photography, painting and theatre. She also likes singing, reading, writing, playing volleyball, swimming, and learning foriegn languages in her free free time. She believes that a picture can paint a thousand words and that a photo can grab people's attention and draw a subject into the limelight. A really shocking photo might make people realise how much damage they are causing to the earth. It’s also really important to represent how beautiful nature is, especially the unspoilt areas on our planet. To use the arts to serve such a noble purpose is such a good combination. - she says.

Ildikó Orbán
Ildikó is one of those people who really finds it sad that a day consists only of 24 hours. After all, there’s always one more thing you would like to do. Her main job at the moment is studying – she would like to be a biologist one day, so she is doing her Bachelor in biology at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. She is also a member of Eötvös József Collegium which is a special institution for students showing remarkable abilities in their respective field. In her freetime she enjoys being with her friends and taking part in various activities for example doing sports (football, basketball, jogging and hiking), singing in a choir, having a movie night or just joining someone for a cup of tea and an interesting conversation. She enjoys new challenges, she likes meeting new people and she would like to learn more about others, and the world around her.

Danish Climate Advocates chose to use the medium of film and the structure of a series of interviews with several wellknown Danish climate experts to offer suggestions for climate change solutions. Their basic question was, ‘Could Denmark be carbon neutral by 2025?’ This ambitious project became a short film entitled Denmark 2025. The title was chosen as all the climate experts interviewed agreed that it would be possible for Denmark to be carbon neutral by 2025.