Let’s turn our attention to our Brilliant Future - the Austrian Juvenilia Clubs. Originally, founded in Switzerland by daughters of Soroptimists, the members are young, having new ideas, and can rely on the know-how and networks from the “mother” organisation – Soroptimist International. “Juvenilias”, as members are called, have access to the Austrian Union annual meeting as silent observers and benefit from an established partnership between the Austrian Juvenilia clubs and an Austrian SI Club.
Let’s meet Stefanie Mayrhoher from Juvenilia Club Wien !
“In 2011, I was one of the founding members of Juvenilia Club Vienna, following in the footsteps of my mother who was a founding member of the SI Club Steyr 14 years earlier.
One of my main motivations to become a member of the club back then was certainly joining a network of young, ambitious, and dedicated women. Even about 10 years later, this is still a part of the club life I am very passionate about, especially since men often rely heavily on their networks in conducting business and women should therefore strengthen their skills in that area. Back then as a student, still relatively new to Vienna, I liked the idea of getting involved with other young women to fight for women’ and children’s rights, as well as getting to know new young women outside my own circle of mainly business and law students and to broaden my horizon through the different backgrounds and skillsets of my club sisters as professional musicians, photographers, doctors, mechanical engineers, elementary school teachers, etc.
Since in our globalized world, an international perspective is becoming more and more important, I am glad that this aspect is also represented at SI Europe and that I, as a young professional woman, can draw on the wealth of experience of my SI Club Sisters and that in 6 years I will be able to contribute my fresh ideas to one of the SI Clubs as a Soroptimist”.