The Power of the AIESEC Network

Mid way through the day yesterday, I received an email from AIESEC International from the online AIESEC system. Even though I cease to be an active participant in the AIESEC organization (other than being an exchange participant), I still subscribe to their news as a way of keeping up to date on what is happening world wide. It was shocking to read the most recent update:

Read the full letter here.

Even though I’ve never met the Bolivian AIESEC President, this news still came to a shock. News of this spread quickly through the AIESEC community online and off. My Facebook and Twitter feeds were filled with condolences and shock at the news. The AIESEC community here in Budapest was all abuzz over this as well. It seems like everyone knew about what happened and everyone all felt the same way.

I was speaking to my roommate who was at last year’s International Congress and she was saying that if this happened last year, it could have been any one of the people that she met. And that is what it boils down to. It could have been any one of us. We’re a network of 60,000 students from around the world, united in one way: providing exchange and leadership opportunities to young people.

The AIESEC community has rallied behind this news. Its actually rather awe inspiring. People that don’t know one another and yet, we all feel as one.

AIESEC Victoria – A Year in Review

The past weeks I’ve been working on putting together a yearbook for Andrea, our Local Committee President (LCP) for the past year. Its definitely been a crazy ride for all of us and whenever any one of us were having problems, she was our constant. She gave so much to the organization =) I wanted to give her something concrete to remember her accomplishments. And plus – I wanted something to remember Western Regional Conference (WRC) as well. Here are some of the pages I made:

You can see the rest of the album here

I made the yearbook using photoshop and some digital scrapbooking things I found online. The layouts, however, are of my own design. Most digital scrapbooking uses 12 x 12 layouts, but I needed 8.5 x 11. It got frustrating trying to put together unique page layouts for each page, but I think the whole project turned out really well. I’m glad I did it – years down the road I’ll be able to look back and see all the great things we accomplished this year as a team.  It was a great year.  I also left a copy in the AIESEC office, so hopefully they will remember our legacy too.

March 1, 2010

This day brings with it the end of an era – it is the official end of my AIESEC career at AIESEC Victoria.  Each term as a VP starts on March 1 and ends on February 28.  This past weekend, the incoming and outgoing teams of AIESEC Victoria planned for the future and came up with a year plan, strategic actions and budgeted to make it happen.  It was so inspirational sitting and discussing our successes in the past year and how the new team can build upon these successes and learn from our mistakes to have a great year for themselves.  I’m excited for the future of AIESEC Victoria.  I have full confidence in this new team.

March 1st brings with it bittersweet memories.  Sweet and sour someone said this weekend.  On the one hand, I’m going to be relieved – no more responsibility and I’m excited to head off into the future and explore new opportunities.  On the other hand, I’m terrified of leaving.  AIESEC was comfortable.  It was (somewhat) predictable.  I have made some amazing friends through the organization here in Victoria and across Canada.  I leave AIESEC with so many fond memories and so so so many accomplishments.

I guess my AIESEC career isn’t completely over yet.  There is still that option of going on an internship.  I only just found a replacement for me so there is still turnover and training over the next month.  Career Fair is happening March 9 – 10 and I’m volunteering.  Then there is Coastal Conference March 26 – 28 in Vancouver where I’ll be facilitating.  So for the next month or so things will be the same, but once April hits, I’ll be back at home – no school, no job, no AIESEC.  Wow things are going to be changing.  I’m excited to get out there and yet I can’t but help look back at the end of this chapter of my life.

I’ve been reflecting a lot on everything that I have accomplished through AIESEC, and I really can’t help but feel that without AIESEC in my life, I probably wouldn’t be who I am today.  I have learned so much about myself and it was really AIESEC that gave me all these opportunities:

• I learned how sales really works and helped work towards raising internships with companies in Victoria.  I also found out that while I could do the work, sales isn’t where I get the most enjoyment.
• I learned that there really is more to human resources than just hiring and firing people.  I gained an appreciation for the different areas of HR and that to make an employer a good employer doesn’t just mean having good HR practices.  It means having everyone in the organization have HR in their minds when making decisions.  I also learned that I really like HR.  I like the interaction and I like making a difference in another person’s life.
• I learned how to work in a team that may be less than functional.  I learned how to work with different personalities.  I learned how to motivate others on my team and how to keep things moving when things got difficult.
• I learned that I will most likely not be going into a career of finance.  While I appreciate all the work they go through, I don’t see myself sitting at a desk and working with numbers day in and day out.  Despite that, I learned how to budget.  I learned how to pay an employee and taxes to the government.  I learned how to write grant requests.  I learned how to report numbers, but most of all I learned how a small business operates financially and I can utilize these skills wherever my career takes me.
• I learned that I love working on events.  I love the satisfaction of finishing a project, giving all that you can give and seeing success and happiness in those that you affect.  I discovered that I enjoy the logistical aspects of organizing something.  I also discovered that I really enjoyed the promotional side of things from website building to video making – and area I’m looking forward to exploring more.
• I met so many people in Victoria, across Canada and around the world that have changed my outlook on life and on the world.  AIESEC has given me the ability to appreciate and learn about the world on a different level.
• … and this is only the beginning – there are so many other things I learned from AIESEC that I can’t even begin to list them all.

The AIESEC logo has words running underneath that read “the international platform that enables young people to explore and develop their leadership potential for them to have a positive impact on society.”  For the longest time these were just words to me, but now looking back at all my AIESEC successes (and with them, some failures), I really have been given the opportunity to explore and develop my leadership.  I learned more about myself and about my strengths and weaknesses.  Now, as I enter the workforce, I look forward to living up to the second half of the sentence – to have a positive impact on society.

Thanks AIESEC – you’ve really changed my life.

Challenging Your Food View

In AIESEC, we have these sessions at conferences and general meetings called “Challenge Your World View” which  are sessions focused on world issues, thinking outside of our “bubble” and reality here at home and learning new things about a culture, people and way of life.  These sessions are some of my favourite because it challenges you to question what is normal and to think about how people are different around the world.

Soup bubbling away on the stove

Also, because AIESEC is based on exchange, we often have interns or international delegates at conferences that can share their personal experiences making these sessions even more powerful.

Right now we have an intern from Hungary and he offered to make us a meal.  He mentioned Cherry Soup once in passing, and most of us were not too enthusiastic on the idea.  Last night he got all the ingredients for the soup and made us some sour cherry soup and we challenged our food view.  He was so excited because the cherries, which came in a jar, were a product of Hungary.

You can see the actual cherries in the soup and the white specks are the sour cream

It was actually surprising good.  The first couple bites were sour, but as my taste buds adjusted to the sourness, it was pretty good.  You are suppose to stir sour cream into it, but I did not notice a too big a change of taste with it added in.  I am usually not too adventurous with food, but  I am glad I gave this a try.