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Diversions
AIESEC helps interns make adjustments
By Beth Kern
Published:
Thursday, October 2, 2003
Most SCSU students from the U.S. should be familiar with their classmates who are visiting from a foreign country. But are those students aware of programs that exist for them to work abroad?
AIESEC
has helped students find work abroad for more than 50 years. Aiesec officially started in 1948, but its roots date back to the early part of the 1930s.
AIESEC, (a French acronym for International Association of Students of Economic and Commercial Sciences) is a not-for-profit organization that leads students and graduates through the process of learning about the culture in which they are placed.
It started as a simple meeting of representatives from schools across Europe in the early 1930s. At these meetings, representatives exchanged information about various programs and schools that specialized in business and economy. Of those represented, the Stockholm School of Economics and Bertil Hedberg took a leading role. By the late '30s, students were carrying out internships in other countries, but mostly at their own incentive and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, it all came to a standstill with the onslaught of World War II.
By 1944, most Scandinavian countries were continuing to exchange students. In the wake of the war, Jaroslav Zich of Czechoslovakia and Stanislas Callens of Belgium joined with Hedberg in forming the fledgling AIESEC, known then as AIESE.
"After the war, the thirst for knowledge, the desire to move, compare and imagine new professional and international relationships, seized us - students as we were. It was a period of great creativity and of initiatives coming together. We tried to be visionary and realistic as our studies encouraged us to be," said Jean Choplin, Presiding Country Committee President, 1950-1951.
"We have to become the global leader," Hedberg stated in a letter to his friend, reflecting on Hitler's attempted conquest.
"To be a leader is to command, but first to serve," Callens wrote in an article published in a local newspaper entitled in English, "Let Us Be Prepared." Their goal from the beginning was to expand the understanding of a nation by expanding the understanding of the individuals, changing the world one person at a time. And, by 1948 they were formally organized as an independent student organization.
Now, AIESEC has expanded into a global network involving 50,000 people, 85 countries and 800 universities. Internships in over a thousand different positions last from two to 18 months and offer countless opportunities to learn about another culture first-hand.
Students apply online and the application is reviewed by a board of previous representatives, members of local communities, businesses and AIESEC members. Following the review, the applicant is interviewed and acceptance is decided. Upon acceptance the application is fed into a database to match the applicant with an internship.
"The more flexible (you are) the more likely you are to be accepted," says Kait Metzler, an SCSU AIESEC representative. "And the more quickly you'll be matched."
After being matched with a position, the applicant undergoes preparation to enter the culture in which they will be living. The applicant must purchase their own visa and airline ticket. Throughout the process, the applying student is counseled by AIESEC personnel to ease the transition from one culture to another.
Upon arrival in the host country, the student is met by a committee of the local AIESEC branch and is available to help throughout the student's stay.
Housing is found for the student before arrival. There is no host family.
When returning home, the student undergoes the reintegration process to ease the transition back into their home culture. "Sometimes it seems as though your own culture is the alien one," AIESEC's Web site stated.
There are some costs involved including an interview fee, airline ticket, a processing fee and other expenses.
The vision of AIESEC is "peace and fulfillment of humankind's potential." This is done through mutual understanding of cultures and ways of life.
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