Mateo Ilo

“I consider myself a good listener,” Mateo Ilo says. He is a 18 year old freshman student at AUBG, whose passion is being helpful to others. In addition, Mateo is interested in knowing what is going on in the rest of the world. This is why he is in a double major of Psychology and Political Science.

Mateo is from the Southeast of Albania, he was born in Pogradec. This small city has a lake where Mateo and his family spend the summer.

When he talks about his family a big smile appears in his face, although he is not homesick now, the reason that makes him smile is his 10 years old niece, Frenki. “She is like my sister, she loves going out to the park and I should be the one who takes her and go outside, but it´s the opposite, she is always saying to me: Let´s go, let´s go!,” Mateo says.

But the only thing that unites Mateo with his home country is his family and friends, he prefers countries where people are more open-minded, “I really want to go to Spain and I can´t wait, it´s so varied, alive, full of energy. Spain is for us, it´s for young people,” Mateo says.

For him in the Eastern part of Europe there are big problems like sexism and homophobia. He defines it as a “bubble of close-mindedness.”

Despite that, he is so happy here. Mateo is a shy person who loves going out, and for him AUBG is his home with a new family. Mateo has met people from everywhere since this university is very nationally varied. The smile which appears when he talks about Frenki, it comes back again when he speaks about his new friends and his new life here.

Mateo loves video games and travelling and he conquers his shyness with a gorgeous philosophy of life, which is to live the moment.

Maria Jose Garcia is a JMC major who is graduating this year and considers journalism her passion.