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November 2012 Issue No. 02

Hey AIESEC!Letter from the Editor

Lana Belton, Editor in Chief, Communications Platform

Welcome to our second Manitoba LC newsletter. There’s been lots going on in AIESEC these past few weeks, including our second General Assembly, the

Assessment Centre and Review Boards for OGX, and VP interviews. This issue, we’ll give you a recap of some of these recent events, give recognition to just some of our outstanding members, as well as let you know about some of the exciting things coming up for AIESEC. We’ll also share an inspiring story reminding you to get involved in AIESEC and get traveling the world! Thanks to everyone for contributing to this publication. It’s great to see you’re involvement and support! As usual, if you have any ideas, comments, or would like to contribute a story in the future, please email me any time at lana.d.belton@gmail.com. If you’d like to share a story about your AIESEC experience, we would all love to hear it!

Upcoming Events!

National Congress (NC): December 30, 2012 - January 3, 2013

Application to Attend NC: Due November 23, 2012 at 11:59 PM (Please note this is time sensitive!)

General Assembly: December 4, 2012 (More information to come soon!

AIESEC Christmas Party: TBA (After final exams)

MANITOBA NEWS

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Want to Travel? Short on Cash?

Check out the Travelcuts VIP Traveller ProgramBeing a student, you have the luxury of having time off to travel - but usually not the luxury of extra money! Travelcuts might be able to help. They are offering us discounts on traveling, car rental, hotel booking, and other globetrotting services. Check out their VIP Traveller program, which can get you discounts when you book your trip online with Travelcuts. For example, they have a contract with WestJet, allowing them to offer you about a 4% discount on whatever price you found, even after the deal! If you’re interested, please sign up at http://vip.travelcuts.com/1039376.

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Monthly Recognition

By Temitope Dare, VP of TM

Being VP of TM, we recognize

members that have been exceptional, and I’d like to recognize them here in the newsletter. We are recognizing people that have demonstrated some of the AIESEC values. Every month at our General Assemblies, we will be recognizing new members who are showing initiative and demonstrating values. Congratulations, everyone, and keep up the great work!

ACTIVATING LEADERSHIP Cindy Soriano

DEMONSTRATING INTEGRITY Mayukana Mayuka

ENCOURAGING PARTICIPATION Amy Luo

LIVING DIVERSITYKaiwen Mu

STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCEAshley Williams

ACTING SUSTAINABLYLana Belton

My AIESEC Experience By Jessica Yu, EP Manager

The first time I heard about AIESEC was in the beginning of this year, when I decided to change the course my life had been taking.

At that time, I was certain that I wanted experience something new, and I realized studying abroad would be a good way to do it. I applied for a scholarship (the reason I am here, in Canada, now) and searched for exchanges by myself. This was the time that AIESEC appeared in my life, which was a great moment. I really wanted to improve my professional skills in physical therapy, as well as my individual skills. Besides this support, the experience I’d lived cleared my mind, showing me how much we still can learn from other people and situations we have to handle by ourselves, just as the power we have to help others.

I was part of the GCDP (Global Community Development Programme) OGX (Outgoing Exchange)

that is characterized by non-paid jobs focused in personal development and cultural experience with short duration (6-10 weeks approximately) which involves work in NGOs, schools or organizations. But there is another kind of OGX, the GIP (Global Internship Programme) that is characterized by paid jobs focused in professional development and specialization, in fields such as economics, marketing, business administration, engineering and other, and it lasts longer than GCDP (6-72 weeks).

In the end of my internship, I was sure I wanted to help other people to have the same experience I’ve lived, which is why I looked for the LC in Winnipeg. Now here I am, hoping to get more new experiences and improve myself, but beyond all of it, put my effort to collaborate with others.

From my first AIESEC experience until now, I can see that a lot of people are searching for internships in Europe, as much for GCDP as for GIP OGX; but the larger the number of job opportunities available in countries as India and China and continents as Latin America and Africa becomes, the more attractive these places become.

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Missed the GA? You missed out! Cindy Soriano gives us a recap of November’s General Assembly. Don’t miss out on next month’s!

Hey AIESEC-Manitoba!

My name is Cindy Soriano and I am currently the Integration Director for Talent Management Portfolio. Last November 7th, we’ve had our second general assembly at the Asper School of Business. The theme for this assembly focused greatly on the cultural diversity that is present in almost every organization in the world, which is indeed, also evident in AIESEC. We’ve had group activities that challenged the world views of everyone and we’ve singled out relevant issues that we are currently facing in our society. The objective of this GA is to convey the message to each and every one of us the importance and advantages of working together as a group which is composed of individuals – me and you – coming from diverse and different cultural backgrounds. We also had a fun Skype session with Tamara Hombrobueno, the LCPe of Simon Fraser Univeristy, and her team.

This GA would have never been successful without the help of my great partners, Tobi Olunifesi and Muhammad Abdullah, who put a great deal of effort to this make this GA possible. We received good feedbacks from the attendees, which got us so pumped and thrilled to bring and carry out a much more exciting and enjoyable GA for December! We have a lot of new interesting ideas and cool activities planned for everyone to make the upcoming GA more fun, informative, and interactive. Thus, on behalf of Tobi and Muhammad, I am inviting all of you to attend our last general assembly of the year! Don’t forget to check the AIESEC-Manitoba page for further updates. We hope to see you there!

P.S. There are tons of surprises in store for all of you guys. You know you don’t want to miss this!

Skype with SFU.

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Hear what the organizers had to say!

“As an organizer, I was able to share ideas and to work hand in hand with my portfolio. It was particularly self-fulfilling to be able to suggest ideas and then see those ideas come to life at the assembly. In all, this general assembly was an amazing warm up for more and better events that I look forward to participating in as an AIESEC member. ” – Tobi Olunifesi

“This was my first general assembly and I led the whole assembly with my team member which was a real confidence boost up. I got to learn

so many things by managing everything before the meeting, organizing and scheduling the whole program, then accomplishing it accordingly in the general assembly. I was glad that my ideas and suggestions were respected. This general assembly is just a start for me since I am already motivated to do more as this not only helps in my development, but serves AIESEC Manitoba as well.” – Muhammad Abdullah

Meet your VPs! Faza, VP Finance In order to help you better understand the AIESEC organization and our LC, we’re going to get to know a

VP a little bit better in every issue. Meet Faza, your VP Finance!

As VP Finance, I lead a group of six students in managing our budget, allocating our resources to each portfolio, and monitoring our LC financial performance to ensure a long term financial sustainability. We are here to make sure that Sue and Mak, in the future, do not overspend our budgets. "The art is not in making money, but in keeping it."

I wanted to tell you a little bit about my experience at the Western Regional Conference. This was my second conference in AIESEC. The most informative session for me was called simulation. Simulation is a

session at WRC that shrinks a whole AIESEC experience into a span of a couple hours. In this session, delegates explored and created their own AIESEC experience. Everybody started as a new member in a LC then they progress to next level, while gaining experience they can apply to be a VP, LCP until to the top in AI experience. Now I get a greater understanding of the role of AIESEC in each Local Committee, Member Committees and even internationally. You will get out of AIESEC as much as you put in!

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AIESEC Beyond CanadaBy Sue Ahn, LCP

A Conference in Greece! In February 2011, I decided take up a new opportunity in AIESEC. At the time in AIESEC, I had

been feeling quite demotivated about my team experience and was starting to get a little burnt out. I was itching to try something new and reinvigorate myself when a friend of mine noted the facilitator applications for an international conference in Greece. For me, facilitating had been an ultimate goal of mine to check off my AIESEC bucket list.

Conferences were always a major highlight of my AIESEC experience and where I felt AIESECers were born and made. I always found facilitators at these conferences so inspiring

and motivational and I wanted to be that person for someone else one day. I decided to apply mostly because the conference happened to fall during reading week, and because my friend would also be applying.

Sometimes in AIESEC Manitoba, we tend to get caught up with all that is going on in our own LC and we lose sight of what AIESEC is, and all the opportunities it provides us. I wanted to give our LC some perspective and insight into what can happen when you pursue opportunities in AIESEC and connect beyond our LC.

International Train the Trainers Greece

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Although I had many leadership experiences in AIESEC and achieved much on a local level, I had never applied for something of that scale, and I had never actually had official facilitating experience outside of the LC. I never even dreamed about being selected for the team. I simply hoped to learn from the process of applying for the position, and remember having to do my video application in the midst of running the Manitoba Regional Conference, and having to tell myself that I wouldn’t get selected due to my lack of experience.

Imagine my surprise when I got the email informing me I got the role, and would be working with MC* and NST** members from all over the world!

Throughout the process of facilitating and preparing for International Train the Trainers, I learned a great deal about myself and learned to find my motivation in AIESEC again. I went through many “firsts”: first time flying internationally on my own, attending an international conference, facilitating, and traveling in Europe. All throughout, I experienced the entire conference with a sprained ankle and jet-lag, while going through

culture shock, learning to grow as a leader, and finding my calling within and outside of AIESEC. It’s hard to express the entire experience within a few paragraphs but all I can say is that I’m so thankful I took a chance and just went for it.

Often in AIESEC, we take for granted so many of the opportunities that are out there because we fail to look beyond the opportunities that are thrust in front of us. Many AIESECers do not achieve the full AIESEC experience because they are not proactive about their own experiences, wait for others to hand us opportunities on silver platters (when life doesn’t work that way), or simply because we feel that we are never good enough. If you are any of these things, snap out of it! There are SO many open doors in AIESEC and not all of them with official titles. If you want something in AIESEC, just go for it. If you don’t achieve it the first time around, learn from your mistakes, persevere, and succeed the next time. I have never regretted pursuing new opportunities in AIESEC regardless of the outcome (and I didn’t always succeed either!) as I have always gained something from these experiences. Think of new

opportunities as a chance for you to grow and push yourself, rather than another chance for you to fail. It’s not a failure unless you choose not to learn from it!

NOTE: Members can also attend international conferences and eventually facilitate as well! Look for these opportunities that are open to everyone on myaiesec.net. Want more info? Contact Sue, your LCP at seulmi.ahn@aiesec.net

*MC = Member Committee (ie. National Executive Team)**NST = National Support Team (ie. MC’s Directors)

A delegate’s favourite moment was a session led by me!