AIESEC International Congress in Turkey - Updates!

Hi everyone!

Greetings once again from the AIESEC International Congress 2007 in Turkey – the conference has been really awesome! Besides the huge amount of learning taking place everyday, it’s truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be with 650 young leaders from all around the world, discussing issues that affect the world today, building partnerships between countries and LCs, sharing experiences and just making friends.

Here are some highlights of the conference that I’d like to share with you all :)

Developing Leaders Day (Day 3)

This is a day of the conference devoted to helping you understand yourself better as a leader – your unique personality and how you make use of this knowledge to effectively manage a team. The really cool thing was that facilitators from both Cadbury Schweppes and ABN AMRO came together to run Developing Leaders Day (DLD) for all the delegates! I feel that this is a great partnership and a superb way of engaging two of the world’s largest companies as AIESEC’s learning partners.

The theme for this year’s DLD is “Co-Driving Success”. In one session, we made use of the Belbin Team Roles to define the role we play as an individual in a team. Knowing this will enable us to make adjustments and learn how best to manage a team of diverse working styles effectively. It’s a really insightful assessment, and I really hope to bring it back and use it in our LC! Cool! :)

Functional Tracks and Workshops (Day 4)

This was another full day of learning, but this time around our specific functions in AIESEC. Separate functional tracks were held for MCPs, LCPs, VP Communications, VP PD, VP Exchange, VP ER, VP Finance and VP IS. It was indeed a great way to engage in discussions among fellow AIESECers holding the same portfolios as yourself, because these are the people who understand and go through similar difficulties that we face in our roles. This session thus provided a platform for us to share and learn from good case practices from AIESEC chapters all around the world.

The afternoon kicked off with various workshops around topics such as “Effective Induction and Taking Responsibility”, “Effective TN Raising”, and “Financial Management” to name a few. Unfortunately, there was simply too much to cover in such a short period of time that we were unable to go in-depth into each issue being discussed (Shub and I couldn’t stop whining about the LCP track being less beneficial than we expected haha). Nevertheless, it’s always important to maintain a positive mindset when things fall below your expectations, and at the end of the day I was glad to have picked out at least a few ideas that can be applied to the current reality back at SMU.

So that’s it for now. To all the SMU members working hard back in Singapore, GREAT JOB! I’m really really proud of our recruitment so far, and I’ve received feedback that the Welcome Tea was great as well, especially the sharing sessions :)

IC is continuing to inspire me every moment, and everyday there are just more and more ideas I hope to bring back to AIESEC in SMU. Sometimes it gets so overwhelming that I feel the need to just stay in my room, stare up into the ceiling and let everything sink in. But at the end of it, the feeling and experience is always amazing :)

Check out the photos taken at IC!

Sharing the results of our discussions in the park

The food we get at IC. Turkish food! (by the way, did I mention that we have to eat the same breakfast for 2 weeks!)

At Global Village with delegates from Spain

Lots and lots and lots of chocolates from CADBURY!!!

-Pam

Thank you for your attendance at our Welcome Tea!

Many thanks to the 100-odd participants at our Welcome Tea on Monday night! Thank you for helping to make our evening so much more interesting and vibrant!

Special mention also goes to some of our senior members, trainees and alumni who dropped by to give us their support!

Through the presentations by the speakers and the Q&A session, we hope that you are now more aware of the numerous opportunities available in AIESEC in SMU.

For those who missed the Welcome Tea, please drop us an email at aiesec@sa.smu.edu.sg if you have any enquiries.

Here is a very brief summary of what the speakers talked about:

Introduction to AIESEC: What is the AIESEC Experience? (By David Thong, former Vice-President of External Relations, AIESEC in SMU)

Taking Responsibility and Leadership Roles in AIESEC (By Laura Koh, Vice-President of Incoming Exchange, AIESEC in SMU)

MENA-Singapore Project: Working to Promote Exchanges (By Lun Kai, Vice-President of Finance, AIESEC in SMU)

IS Workshops Series & Poverty through Our Lenses: What are the Benefits of Joining Us (By Kenny Tan, Information Systems Co-ordinator, AIESEC in SMU)

BEADS Conference: How You can Contribute (By Grace Chen, PBOX Projects Director, AIESEC in NTU)

My Experience at IC 2006 in Poland (By Sherina Ng, former Vice-President of Finance, AIESEC in Singapore)

My Internship Experience and Heading for the Future (By Dei, former President, AIESEC in NTU)

Thank you for the overwhelming response on CCA-Day!

AIESEC in SMU reached a new record of 315 sign-ups to join our mailing list at the AIESEC booth during CCA-Day!

A big thank you to all who signed up for your overwhelming response and enthusiasm.

We would also like to thank the Recruitment Organising Committee, senior members and alumni for your hard work, Dei for your wonderful hats, as well as the Student Association, CCA-Day Committee and the Office of Student Life (OSL) for all help rendered. Special mention also goes to our sponsors, Red Bull and Pilot, whose generosity helped make the event a great success!

Here are some photos taken at our booth today. We certainly had a lot of fun. (And we hope all of you did too!)

AIESEC got featured in BLURT! Magazine!

[Click on pictures to enlarge]

Copyright BLURT! Magazine August 2007 Edition

Greetings from Turkey!

Hey everyone! A big HELLO from Pam and Cheryl in Turkey!

It's our 4th day in Turkey since we landed on Tuesday morning (14 Aug) 6.30am. After 3 full days of travelling, we have just checked into the conference venue at Yeditepe University. Most of the delegates have not arrived yet - they should be arriving in bulk later tonight. But we're already meeting quite a number of MCPs and AI people...so yea it's kinda like orientation camp, trying to remember faces and names, just that it's on a much much bigger scale. Weather is hot hot hot here! It can go up to 35-40 degrees, especially in the afternoons. Basically I'm just sitting in my room typing this out, and I'm already perspiring!

So anyway, we have one day to rest before all the meetings start. We will be having the Asia Pacific Growth Network (APGN) pre-meeting over this weekend (18-20 Aug) which will be followed by IC proper (21-30 Aug). So before we both get swept up in the whirl of activities (and parties), here's an update on our trip around Turkey in the past 3 days!

Day 1: Istanbul

We explored the main attractions of Istanbul on the first day, namely the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, the Hippodrome, and Basilica Cistern. All these attractions are situated in one area of Istanbul called Sultanahmet. Sultanahmet is basically "Old Istanbul", a UNESCO designated World Heritage site that is packed with so many ancient buildings and ruins that makes it one of the world's most historically rich cities.

The Blue Mosque

This is one of the largest Ottoman mosques every built, and it gets its name from the tens of thousands of blue tiles used to decorate its interior. It was constructed between 1606 - 1616, and boasts a huge courtyard and central prayer space. But most of all, I love the view from the exterior because you get to truly appreciate the beauty of its perfect symmetry :)

Aya Sofya (Church of the Divine Wisdom)

Constructed in year 537 as a church, then converted into a mosque in 1453 during the Ottoman empire, the Aya Sofya is really really magnificent. All of us just couldn't help ooh-ing and ah-ing at the domed ceiling and grand interior. It has remains of both a church and a mosque, and we had a really interesting time uncovering the Christian mosaics that were being plastered over by the Muslims when they turned the church into a mosque.

Hippodrome

The Hippodrome is where chariot races took place during Byzantine times, but nothing remains of it now except for a few columns. (we were so disappointed...we expected to see remains of a huge stadium or something haha!)

Basilica Cistern

A huge underground palace used to store water for buildings during the Byzantine period. It's very cooling inside the cistern, and you can still see the shallow pool of water and sinister-looking fishes swimming around inside. Really cool and eerie :)


Day 2: Captivating Cappadocia

We caught the overnight bus to Cappadocia - (all of us tried to catch some sleep along the way) and alas we reached our destination at 6plus in the morning. After checking into our hotel, we proceeded for our guided tour to several locations in Cappadocia. The scenery was breathtaking (I’ve never seen anything like this before): the wind and weather had created conical shaped fairy chimneys and mushroom shaped ones out of the volcanic landscape. All of us climbed up the steep slopes leading up to the fairy chimneys (and boy, were the slops an uphill task since we had to watch our steps; should we step on loose sand, we’d lose our footing and slip a little.) Our little conquest to climb up the fairy chimney ended pretty soon once we finished taking pictures.

above: one of the mushroom shaped fairy chimneys

above: one of the numerous cave churches showcased in the open air museum of Goreme

Headed back to the hotel for lunch; once lunch was over, the tour guide brought us to the cave churches and the open air museum in Goreme (more climbing involved). The open air museum showcased the cave churches- some of the rooms were very well ventilated: in spite of the hot weather outside, the cave rooms were kept cool (and I still wonder why some were hot and stuffy while others were cool. Amazing!) There were several churches with murals painted on the walls and ceilings. Some of the rooms had this black stuff on the walls.. why? Because the people back then cooked in them! :) Pam was clever to figure out first that these were kitchens. Other rooms had holes of varying sizes dug in the ground- some of these were graves.

They also carved dining rooms out of the rocks! :)

We went back to the hotel, where the horse ranch’s staff were waiting there to pick us up for our horse-riding activity! :) At the horse ranch, each of us was assigned to a horse and everyone picked up horse-riding pretty fast (except for me, I almost fell off my horse cos the saddle tilted to the side)! We rode past the Red River, and it was such a pretty sight!

Day 3: Trekking in Cappadocia

There was this sense of dread at first. The itinery stated we had to walk 5km. Oh no.

Upon arrival at the Red Valley, none of us were excited yet and the walk downhill was rather tedious (steep slopes again!) and we didn’t dare to think what it would be like if we had to climb the same way back up.. (thank goodness we didn’t)

Halfway during the trek, the scenery made our climbing efforts worthwhile! There were dozens of great rocks, carved homes, gorgeous landscape- coupled with a fabulous tour guide who told us stories of history and geology. :) wonderful experience

Explored an underground city where early Christians used to live in while they were escaping persecution - the passages were just so narrow: these were meant to hinder the enemies’ movements. I think it worked splendidly. We seriously had such a hard time walking.

So that's all from both of us for now...will definitely share more with you guys when we're back!

ALL THE BEST WITH RECRUITMENT AND WELCOME TEA!!! update us with the numbers through email ok?

Missing you guys...

-Pam and Cheryl :)

Here's the NDP'07 fireworks to brighten up your day....

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Celebrating NDP!

Singapore turns 42!!

On 9th August, a bunch of us "Very Patriotic AIESECers" from all 3 LCs decided to meet up to catch the fireworks display at Marina Square. We stood at the rooftop area of Marina Square, and though there was no view of the floating platform and the stage, we still managed to catch a few snippets of the parade - what we termed were like "teasers" to us! :)

Here's what we caught from our very unique vantage point of "The Rooftop @ Marina Square":

- helicopters with the Singapore flag during national anthem

- F-16s zooming past

- guards of honour marching out from the performance venue

- a pair of apache helicopters performing stunts

- police speedboats on the marina bay waterfront

- Paratroopers making their descent

- FIREWORKS!!!

We were all starving after that, so we proceeded to Changing Appetites for a sumptuous dinner of huge burgers, lotsa cheeeeese and mudpies! -yum-

It was a great evening hanging out with you guys, and it warms my heart to see us coming together just to crap and hang out, and share happy little moments like these :) See we don't always meet just to do AIESEC work!!

-Pam

Some Random Posters

Hello, dear AIESEC in SMU!

I made some posters for fun! I think they look cute!!

We can use it to do some email announcement regarding each department in our LC.

- Tian, VP OGX

Some Thoughts Regarding AIESEC

Today, I met one non-AIESEC final year student online and he asked me about AIESEC internship and whether we have internships in Thailand, France,Japan and Korea.

I said " Yes, of course we have. We are present in 100 countries"

Then he asked again whether there is any chance to find permanent jobs in the internship companies.

I said " Yes, it happens before. "

He was very excited and said that "AIESEC internship is the only option for me to live abroad and find a job overseas."

I thought I shall feel happy as AIESEC is providing opportunities to aspiring young people to work overseas. But I didn't know why that I felt sad.

Upon reflection, I think that most people outside AIESEC are still viewing AIESEC as "an overseas internship Agency"or a springboard to work overseas. This image is not what we want to Create and it is not the essence that reflects AIESEC values.

For people who have gone through positive AIESEC experience, they have a strong attachment towards AIESEC as AIESEC offers them a platform to grow as a person as well as a leader.

As AIESECers, we want to make this organization grow and make AIESEC better through our Contribution. But for people who have not gone through AIESEC and who are just recruited for Exchange, they may find it hard to understand what AIESEC is really about. What they can do for AIESEC is limited. Some of them are unwilling to be involved in AIESEC at all as the purpose of them joining AIESEC is just to go for the overseas internship.

It brings me to think about the role of OGX. What shall OGX do to change this impression of AIESEC for our Pocket Interns and the general students' population? What is the Purpose of OGX? Is OGX just there to improve our Exchange Numbers?

I have not found the full answers to the questions yet, but I think it is a good starting point. Maybe we shall start to think what the real meaning is behind the work we do and shift the focus away from just increasing Exchange Numbers. I won't feel proud to tell people that ' We have done 100 exchanges this year and all of them are non-AIESECers." This is not what AIESEC wants to achieve.

Behind the exchange number,there is a deeper goal which is to give MORE and More AIESECers an opportunity to live diversity and challenge their world views.

AIESEC wants to create a holistic experience for its members and Exchange is just one of the steps to complete this leadership experience. We are growing Leaders with World View not Employees who go to overseas to find permanent jobs!

I think in the future AIESEC work, we shall focus more on the following things,

- The right positioning of AIESEC during Recruitment and the Promotion of AIESEC as a leadership platform

- Encourage more AIESECers to go for an overseas experience(DT, MT,ET,TT ,CEEDership and Conference)

- EP integration and Re-integration( This part is very important as they will involve EP into AIESEC and they will make a difference to this organization.)

I really hope that slowly by slowly, we can change the way the students view us. We lose our purpose if we are seen as a stepping stone or springboard to work overseas.

I hope one day AIESEC Singapore will grow to a stage that all Our EPs will be AIESECers who take up overseas internships to complete their AIESEC experience.

Do the work not to make numbers, but do it with meanings and purposes.

Yuan Tian
OGX VP SMU

Highlights of AGM

It's official!

AIESEC in SMU has now achieved full LC status! Woohoo! This means that LC SMU is now officially recognised on AIESEC.net and can even run for the coveted 'Best LC Award' in the coming year!

At this year's Annual General Meeting (AGM), held at the NUS Business School, the AIESEC community also rectified changes to our Constitution and the Conpendium.

At the end of the meeting, we also recognised certain individuals in the community for their enthusiastic involvement and outstanding contribution to their LCs and AIESEC in Singapore. Here are the esteemed winners of this year's awards:

New Member Excellence Award (SMU): Yuan Tian
New Member Excellence Award (NUS): Siew Yik
New Member Excellence Award (NTU): Grace Chen
Best LC Leadership Award (SMU): Pamela Su
Best LC Leadership Award (NUS): Ker Ying
Best LC Leadership Award (NTU): Alvin Hong
Best MC Leadership Award: Sharon Tan
Exchanger of the Year Award (ICX): Pamela Su
Exchanger of the Year Award (OGX): Mayas Singh
LC of the Year Award: NUS

Congratulations to Yuan Tian and Pamela from SMU, as well as the other award-winners!

We also concluded the eventful day with a wonderful BBQ!

Many thanks to NUS for hosting the event and all the participants, alumni and CEEDers for their attendance!

- Laura, VP ICX

Roomsdb.net - Find rooms for free!

Tired of hunting for rooms all over Singapore?

Want to do away with all those expensive property agent fees?

With Roomsdb.net, you can now access a database of over 700 listings of available rooms for rental in Singapore - all for free!

Those who want to find a room for rent can now use the powerful search filter to look for rooms based on the following factors: price, size, address, room category, date and district. With just a simple click of the mouse, you can also check out other details of the location, such as address, nearby ammenities and even the contact numbers of the property agents or the house-owners themselves.

This also means that you can now deal directly with the house-owners themselves without having to enlist the services of expensive property agents!

The search function is also easy to use. For example, a simple search made for house-owners all over Singapore who are advertising for single rooms costing $300 to $400 a month yielded 25 hits.


If you want to rent out a spare room, you can also make your postings on the website just by filling up an online form.

Super GOOD NEWS - All of our 3 SNs are realised!

Hello AIESEC!!

I have some good news to share with you!

Last month, three of our SMU SNs were matched to very good internships in Australia, U.S.A and Germany respectively!

Just in one month time, All of our Three SNs have obtained their visa and now they are realized! They have already started working in their respective companies in the three different Continents!

It is definitely an exciting challenge for them and let us wish them all the best in their internships.

We hope more of us as @ers will take up the challenge to do an internship overseas and I am sure it will be a life-changing experience for you!!

- Yuan Tian, VP OGX

Gathering with visitors, trainees & mentors

On Monday, July 16, a couple of us brought our trainees (Kristin and Sabrina from Europhia) out to dinner and we were joined by Pirjo - who is currently working at DHL - and Gaudy from Switzerland who was in Singapore for a week of sight-seeing.

We feasted on a good, old, sumptuous meal of Zi-char which our guests found very palatable (and spicy!). Throughout the meal, we had a good time sharing our respective experiences on traveling, AIESEC hoo-has and gossiping, among other topics.

And how could we not end off the evening without a trip to Rochor Tau Hway for dessert?

Are we going to have more of such informal outings soon? Definitely!

Stay tuned for more....

AIESEC in SMU blog established!

After much anticipation and fanfare, AIESEC in SMU finally has our own blog!

This being our maiden post, I would first like to congratulate the LC for having grown by leaps and bounds. Since our founding in 2002 as a registered society in SMU, we have indeed come a long way.

In the words of Jose Ortega y Gasset, "Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be."

There still lies a long way ahead of us and much work left to be done. Let us focus upon the future that continues to remain bright and eventful for us.

Cheers to AIESEC!