a small rant on the "AIESEC Experience"
6 Comments Published by Nisha Chittal on Monday, July 7, 2008 at 12:46 PM.
Recently *someone* said :
"We stand together in our resolve to ensure that AIESEC, its mission, its vision, and its student-run core prosper in the United States. We act for the benefit of future AIESECers, that they may someday enjoy the AIESEC Experience no longer possible in AIESEC United States."
So many of us spend months, if not years, of our lives dedicated to the pursuit of the vague concept known to the truly hardcore as just "The AIESEC Experience." Well what does that even mean?
The AIESEC experience is about a community, change, and growth. It is made up of millions of moments and experiences that leaves each individual who experiences it forever changed. It's about the fact that you can travel to a random country and have friends you haven't even met yet. It teaches you to be a stronger and ultimately better person and leader, no matter what country you live in. It removes the concept of borders, as you make friends in Shanghai and Rwanda and the Netherlands and beyond. You shell out thousands of dollars to travel to random locales around the country and around the world each year for the experiences and people that you can't find in any other organization, despite the fact that your non-AIESEC friends just don't quite get it. It teaches you to care about something bigger than yourself, your friends, and next weekend's party like every other university student, and to strive for something much greater than anything we have ever cared about before. It makes you realize it has all been worth it if you can change even one single life -- and even better if you can change thousands.
It doesn't have to be about rigidly tracked I2A-TR-LR-EX-H4TF stages. It doesn't have to be in exactly the same exact format in all 106 countries. The bottom line is about changing lives, no matter what format the AIESEC Experience comes in. It is NOT about power and control. It's not about whether the LCPs or the MC have more power. It's about IMPACT. How many lives did you change this past year? Or did you waste all your time bickering and complaining that you didn't have the "power" that you want? Did you get mired down in internal politics and complain all the time, or did you actually use the amazing resources and opportunities we have been given to make a difference? It saddens me to see so many leaders squandering the time and resources given to them by such a unique organization because they instead are getting caught up in politics and losing sight of our mission.
Think about how many people in your LC you are not impacting right now because you are trying to fight a battle that has no purpose. Think about every conference and LTM we have been to over the last year, every session you have facilitated, every member you sent on a traineeship who came back so grateful, every road trip you have taken to visit another LC, every faraway conference in Canada or Madrid or Hong Kong where you were welcomed with open arms by complete strangers who love you unconditionally because you believe in the very same things! Think about every conversation you had with an AIESECer from another country and how surprised they were to realize that not all stereotypes about Americans are true. Think about the countless hours you have spent recruiting new members, and the ever-proud feeling we know we all get from watching those newbies who truly get AIESEC in ways that others just don't quite get. Think about the late-night conversations with trainees and conference roommates, the nights spent AIESECing instead of studying, the countless Global Villages, and of course, the ridiculous dances, and the feeling you got when sharing those dances with people from 30 countries.
THAT is the AIESEC experience, and you have all had a taste of it and the amazing things it offers.
Think back to the day you joined AIESEC and the person you were then -- and the person you are today. Then tell me again that "the AIESEC Experience is no longer possible in AIESEC United States." That is a claim full of shit. That is a dishonor to the very AIESEC experiences that you have lived every day for the last however many years.
The AIESEC experience is not about power. It is not about control. It is about taking what you have been given, and then giving back as much of yourself as you can to your organization for the purpose of impacting more people and changing more lives. Whether you are an LCP, an EBD, an MC member, or a new member, or whatever, it's about doing what you can to impact others. Just because your AIESEC Experience looks different from that of other countries doesn't make it any less important or impactful.
In an organization striving towards something as vague as "peace and fulfillment of humankind's potential," why don't you start demonstrating that you ACTUALLY care about peace by making peace within your own organization?
"We stand together in our resolve to ensure that AIESEC, its mission, its vision, and its student-run core prosper in the United States. We act for the benefit of future AIESECers, that they may someday enjoy the AIESEC Experience no longer possible in AIESEC United States."
So many of us spend months, if not years, of our lives dedicated to the pursuit of the vague concept known to the truly hardcore as just "The AIESEC Experience." Well what does that even mean?
The AIESEC experience is about a community, change, and growth. It is made up of millions of moments and experiences that leaves each individual who experiences it forever changed. It's about the fact that you can travel to a random country and have friends you haven't even met yet. It teaches you to be a stronger and ultimately better person and leader, no matter what country you live in. It removes the concept of borders, as you make friends in Shanghai and Rwanda and the Netherlands and beyond. You shell out thousands of dollars to travel to random locales around the country and around the world each year for the experiences and people that you can't find in any other organization, despite the fact that your non-AIESEC friends just don't quite get it. It teaches you to care about something bigger than yourself, your friends, and next weekend's party like every other university student, and to strive for something much greater than anything we have ever cared about before. It makes you realize it has all been worth it if you can change even one single life -- and even better if you can change thousands.
It doesn't have to be about rigidly tracked I2A-TR-LR-EX-H4TF stages. It doesn't have to be in exactly the same exact format in all 106 countries. The bottom line is about changing lives, no matter what format the AIESEC Experience comes in. It is NOT about power and control. It's not about whether the LCPs or the MC have more power. It's about IMPACT. How many lives did you change this past year? Or did you waste all your time bickering and complaining that you didn't have the "power" that you want? Did you get mired down in internal politics and complain all the time, or did you actually use the amazing resources and opportunities we have been given to make a difference? It saddens me to see so many leaders squandering the time and resources given to them by such a unique organization because they instead are getting caught up in politics and losing sight of our mission.
Think about how many people in your LC you are not impacting right now because you are trying to fight a battle that has no purpose. Think about every conference and LTM we have been to over the last year, every session you have facilitated, every member you sent on a traineeship who came back so grateful, every road trip you have taken to visit another LC, every faraway conference in Canada or Madrid or Hong Kong where you were welcomed with open arms by complete strangers who love you unconditionally because you believe in the very same things! Think about every conversation you had with an AIESECer from another country and how surprised they were to realize that not all stereotypes about Americans are true. Think about the countless hours you have spent recruiting new members, and the ever-proud feeling we know we all get from watching those newbies who truly get AIESEC in ways that others just don't quite get. Think about the late-night conversations with trainees and conference roommates, the nights spent AIESECing instead of studying, the countless Global Villages, and of course, the ridiculous dances, and the feeling you got when sharing those dances with people from 30 countries.
THAT is the AIESEC experience, and you have all had a taste of it and the amazing things it offers.
Think back to the day you joined AIESEC and the person you were then -- and the person you are today. Then tell me again that "the AIESEC Experience is no longer possible in AIESEC United States." That is a claim full of shit. That is a dishonor to the very AIESEC experiences that you have lived every day for the last however many years.
The AIESEC experience is not about power. It is not about control. It is about taking what you have been given, and then giving back as much of yourself as you can to your organization for the purpose of impacting more people and changing more lives. Whether you are an LCP, an EBD, an MC member, or a new member, or whatever, it's about doing what you can to impact others. Just because your AIESEC Experience looks different from that of other countries doesn't make it any less important or impactful.
In an organization striving towards something as vague as "peace and fulfillment of humankind's potential," why don't you start demonstrating that you ACTUALLY care about peace by making peace within your own organization?
thank you :)
Nisha, darling, I love you but you completely missed the point of the text in question.
Agreed. With both Nisha and Nate.
I'd also like to bring to the table another delectable dish of discussion: If the "product" AIESEC provides (we're taking the business approach here) is a "service", isn't that "service" an "AIESEC Experience"? And if it is, then shouldn't that "product" be consistent for each and every "customer"? Shouldn't every AIESECer be provided with, more or less, the same sort of path to follow before heading out the door into that big, scary, real world out there (where AIESEC's mission is truly fulfilled)? What we get out of AIESEC is how we define AIESEC. Shouldn't we (every @er) all be defining AIESEC the same? Minds greater than any who happen to stumble across this little mind spit of mine all agreed that the answer to the questions I posed above was simply "yes" and it was after days of conversations between these great minds that the "AIESEC Experience" was clearly defined and outlined to any and all who want to call themselves "AIESEC" and move forward with the mission that calling yourself "AIESEC" brings.
Just throwing it out there. Chew and swallow if you like. Or spit it out. Whatever.
I agree with all of the above too. Of course it doesn't really matter what you call the experience. It's all of those things that you said, Nisha.
But like what Chris said, it's a matter of unity and consistency with the people who haven't been enlightened as to what an AIESEC experience can be.
Nisha,
For me what you point out highlights the incredible power of the AIESEC Experience: even stepped on, oppressed, and downtrodden as it is in the U.S., there are thousands of members who have felt their lives impacted by the power of the organization.
The fact of the matter is that yes, some people are still managing to fight their way to get an amazing AIESEC experience. But there is no question in my mind that it's been a fight: a fight to stay motivated, a fight to stay involved, to find new opportunities to apply my skills and talents. My experience with other AIESEC nations has made two things painfully apparent:
(1) There is a better way to do AIESEC than what exists in the U.S.
(2) The major positive impact on my life has been made at the local and international levels of the organization.
The point is not about power. The point is that we could be doing much more to provide AIESEC experiences if we weren't getting our hands chained together by either conscious decisions or incompetence at every step of the way.
And that ability to give people the AIESEC experiences they deserve is one worth fighting for.
This post has been removed by the author.