Aspen Central Europe Leadership Award 2019

The Institute bestows the Aspen Central Europe Leadership Award on young successful professionals for excellence in the areas of active encouragement of responsible civic engagement, leadership based on values and principles, innovation and/or innovative policy with a positive social impact on Central Europe. The aim of the award is to expand and strengthen the influence of people who can and want to contribute to the improvement of society.

The 2019 laureates were Do Thu Trang, author of the blog Asijatka.cz, and Michal Mižigár, a historian of Roma origin. In her columns, Do Thu Trang creatively introduces the Vietnamese minority to the rest of the population, thus contributing to a mutual understanding and strengthening of an open, prosperous and most of all cohesive society. Michal Mižigár is a role-model for Roma youth, among whom he actively stimulates the longing to learn their own language, history and traditions, but also to obtain an education. With his personal story as well as his open approach, he helps to break prejudices and contributes to the improvement of society in Central Europe.

This year’s laureates received the award from the hands of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Tomáš Petříček at a gala dinner on the occasion of the Aspen Annual Conference The Shape of (Central) Europe 2019. The keynote speaker at the gala dinner was Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources.