17/08/2026
Meet the last five scholarship holders from Club Alpbach Salzburg heading to EFA 2026!🫶🏼
Audrey Plimpton grew up in the US before studying and living in Freiburg, Salzburg and Rome and now calls Salzburg home. She sees herself as an informal diplomat, always curious to exchange ideas with people whose experiences differ from her own, and hopes to help strengthen democratic action in Europe.
Sophia works as an executive assistant in consulting and researches family businesses, having previously trained as a pastry chef. She’s fascinated by how fear shapes so many decisions in today’s system, and hopes to bring fresh thinking on leadership and responsibility to Alpbach.
Virgil is a laboratory technician who’s spent the past two years active with the association Heublumen, advocating for q***r life in rural Austria. Having previously attended EFA as a speaker, Virgil is returning to broaden own perspective and bring rural trans experiences into the conversation.
Helena studies political science with a focus on democracy, illiberalism and political backlash, and wrote her thesis on cultural backlash and populism using Donald Trump as a case study. Coming from a working-class family and living with a disability, she sees democracy as something that must make room for different life realities, and hopes to bring that perspective to Alpbach.
Millie May has spent five years working with NGOs, the UN and the University of Cambridge on climate policy and youth engagement, including delivering capacity training at COP29 and now training over 80 youth negotiators for COP31. She’s looking forward to Alpbach as a chance to push for young people to be recognised as real partners in shaping Europe’s climate future.