‘We Focus On Providing A Platform For Youth Leadership Development’

11 years, 10 months ago - May 17, 2012
We Focus On Providing Platform For Youth Leader...
Present in over 110 countries and territories with over 60,000 members, AIESEC, earlier known as Association internationale des étudiants en sciences économiques et commerciales, is the world’s largest youth-run organization. Today even engineering students are part of the organization.

Melina Mootien, a final year student in Psychology at the University of Mauritius, is the president of AIESEC UoM branch. Her hobbies include travelling, cooking, hanging out with friends, sharing of opinions on philosophies of life with diverse people, and learning new cultures. In an interview with The Independent, Mootien explains how the local chapter functions. Excerpts:

What are the main objectives of this organisation?

We envision peace and fulfillment of human potential through an integrated development experience to AIESEC members. Focused on providing a platform for youth leadership development, we offer young people the opportunity to participate in international internships, experience leadership and participate in a global learning environment. What makes AIESEC unique is the youth driven experience that it offers to its members. Our aim is to ‘engage every young people in the world’ and we plan to reach this destination by being the first choice partner for Global Youth Voice and by having a cross-generational positive impact on society.

What is your role as president all about?

Being the president of the local committee of AIESEC UoM, my main role is to lead and drive members’ growth and development. As the final decision maker of the organization, I am responsible for legalities, finance, and the performance of each functional area and accountable for the measurement of the success of the organisation. I also have to set strategic priorities and goals for the effective execution of the processes along the year. Acting as external representative for our different stakeholders, I am also responsible for proper communication between our organisation and the stakeholders.

Does the organisation work independently or do you have the support of other parties?

AIESEC is a global, non-political, independent, not-for-profit organisation run by students and recent graduates of institutions of higher education. Like the statement says we are not affiliated to any other organisations, but we do get support and work with different stakeholders. We engage many other NGOs in our community programmes, engage companies to take international students in their professional environment and work closely with Ministry of Youth for venue facilitation. We also look for trainings from companies or training institutions for the development of our members. And finally we look for companies who believe in our vision to contribute to the Mauritian youth development by investing money in our social projects, events, conferences or even to help Mauritian students financially for international internships.

How has AIESEC UoM been able to make an impact on society?

We started with only of 30 members in 2008 and now it consists of 120 members. In 2008-2009, AIESEC UoM sent 12 Mauritians abroad and brought only five internationals in the country. Nowadays, we carry out about 12 projects per year with different social issues, which target about 250 internationals coming in the country. We also send more than 50 Mauritians abroad where they experience personal and professional development. Moreover, we collaborate with more than five companies and 30 different NGOs since our existence, and these stakeholders, membership and exchange is growing each year. This is how we’ve made an impact.

We aim to encourage the maximum number of young people to live the integrated development experience and also engage them with the group, whether it is at non-corporate level, corporate level, government level or educational level.

Recently the group won the best local chapter in the African region during an international conference. Please elaborate.

AIESEC UoM has existed for less than four years in the global network of AIESEC, which is a 63-year-old organisation, and yet we have been recognised as one of the best local committee in the African region during the African leadership conference in Mozambique.

It’s the first time in fact that a Mauritian was given the opportunity by the member committee president, Deepa Khatri, to attend and represent AIESEC Mauritius at the regional conference of the organisation. It is a conference where more than 20 African countries are present and the members go through some youth leadership programmes and workshops.

It is only by getting access to the global network that we were able to see how well AIESEC UoM has progressed and has so much potential. It made us realise how we should cooperate more with other African countries, eventually growing as one entity and be recognised in the global network as a whole AIESEC Africa.

What factors contributed to this award?

I believe that like any organisation with a vision, it has some great members who are passionate about the organisation and its objectives and who will strive to achieve them. As AIESECers, we decided not to consider this vision as a dream but to make it become our purpose in our daily work and made it attainable. And that’s the beauty of AIESEC Mauritius: working together to achieve the same vision.

Though it was AIESEC UoM who won the award, each and everybody did contribute to it. It’s a nice collaboration that we have with AIESEC UTM (University of Technology) and AIESEC MITD (Mauritius Institute of Training and Development).

Of course, nothing would have been possible without the clear direction and coaching of the national team of AIESEC Mauritius. Team work, dedication and being purpose-oriented were important factors in our success, but they were not the only ones. I would say there is one more thing we believe in AIESEC UoM: it is to allow the maximum number of young people to share our experience. This is our motivation and dream.

How being a member can benefit a student?

For members, the main benefits are international experience, societal impact, global network, and personal and professional development. First, members will gain practical experience while studying. Even though this may be challenging, it will make them a stronger person. AIESEC gives members the opportunity to gain practical experience during their studies like leading a project, getting in touch with various companies and developing their selling skills.

The AIESEC experience is one of the best ways to gain a competitive edge for any job that one may apply for in the future. And we do not only give a positive learning experience but also provide unique international internships to our members. During these placements, they can experience the opportunity to apply leadership skills, attitudes and values to work for the community, achieve global perspective through practical working experience in a foreign environment, experience self-discovery through interaction with a new social and cultural environment, and gain awareness and knowledge of social issues and different practices of the host country.

What are the common challenges that both incoming and outgoing exchange participants face during their internships?

Adaptation to a new culture or professional environment is the common problem but AIESEC already prepare seminars and training sessions to facilitate their internship.

The exchange participants are guided through all visa procedures and are vaccinated before going for internships. They are given specific information about the host country and contacts of native AIESECers. Then they need to attend a seminar, where they will learn more on how to adapt to others’ culture and cope with cultural shock.

They might also be given presentation skills training. Arriving in the host country, they will attend an induction seminar where they will learn more about the concerned country and what the project is about. Depending on whether it is a global community internship or a professional one, they will go through specific necessary trainings. For example, when we receive international students in our ‘Diabetes Project’, they will go through a two-day training on Diabetes Knowledge by the NGO, Diabetes Parent Support Group.

You have also been on an internship to India to work as a teacher for underprivileged children. Tell us about your experience?

In 2009, I was a first year B.Sc (Hons) Psychology student when I heard about going abroad, working on social projects and learning about new cultures. I wanted to do something more apart from my studies and go for a new adventure. I was working for six weeks on an indigenous cultural project in India, more specifically in Baroda with 15 more international students from five different countries.

We were going in remote villagers in weekends where we had to deliver sessions on the importance of hygiene, education and so on to the indigenous children living in hostels and whose parents were working in towns. On weekdays, we also had site visits of the working places of the indigenous people, where they shared their hard and challenging experience of survival with us. Then we had to understand their everyday life, compare their culture with ours and write reports to the NGO we were working with. I learned about their social reality when I saw five-year-old children cutting grass with a sabre, cooking their own food and sleeping on the ground.

How did the experience change you?

This internship did not only take me out of my comfort zone, but it also ‘woke me up’. I realised how unaware I was about what was happening around me and how ‘I’ as one person could contribute to make the world a better place to live in and to give value to the things that I have and others don’t.

My internship was one of best challenging, learning and developing experience that I’m still living. I’ve been in AIESEC for more than two years now, and I have been given the chance to lead 140 people. I am 22 years old and I am already getting access to the corporate world, engaging in financial decisions, strategic planning for sustainability and growth of the organisation.

What are the future projects of AIESEC UoM?

This is a very exciting question. I am very pleased to say, that in June, AIESEC UoM will be launching six projects at the same time; this is a first for the organisation. The projects will take place from June to August, and we will be tackling the following issues: children’s social adaptation and empowerment, environment, marine conservation, diabetes, and NGO empowerment.

For these projects, we will accommodate around 80 international students coming from all over the world including India, China, and Poland. We will try to make the Mauritian public discover the diversity of cultures that we, AIESECers, live in, by organising a global village where the students from those countries will share their culture.

It will be pretty similar to the one we did in Bagatelle in January but we’ll have new surprises of course. We are also planning on projects for August. We are now in talks with NGOs and companies who want to sponsor our projects.

Text by the Independent

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