Oh Ryan...is in Singapore

There has never been a better experience than meeting a 22-year-old young chap who is presently leading the Asia Pacific Growth Network (AP GN) of AIESEC. Humble, cheerful and intelligent were some of the first impressions that he gave us. Hailing from New Zealand, Mr Ryan Shepperd, the current AP director, is now on his country visits within the region. And this time, HE’S IN SINGAPORE!!!

Oct 23 marked his “special appointment” with the EBs of NTU LC. It was an empowering session for the EBs, where we got to freely throw him private and @-related questions (more like interrogation, Hehe). Below are some of the interesting topics that we dwelled on during the discussion.

Ryan initially joined AIESEC five years ago because of a girl. He was attending the info talk about @ at his university one day, when his attention was drawn to a gorgeous young lady. Without hesitation, he signed up as a member at the age of 17, and embarked on his AIESEC journey since then. (Unfortunately, the girl left for traineeship abroad after a few months). Most importantly, our director speaks Indonesian, coz he stayed in indo before for 6 years.

[L-R] top: Ryan, Imran, Alvin, Qiqi, Avin, Gin Shi, Mayas, Zhang Lei
bottom: Diana, Lita, Jessie

We started of the meeting by asking him what he does as the AP Director. Ryan said that he’s basically in charge of the overall growth of AP GN, development of global strategies, entrepreneurship LN, and consulting the year plans of all AP countries. Besides, he’s responsible for the execution of competency model and library of actions.

The EBs were surprised when Ryan mentioned that he’s not directly involved in the development of AIESEC in India and Mainland China. Instead, Cornelia the AIESEC International Exchange Director is held accountable for the progress of @ in these two Asian giants. The reason is because these India and China are too huge, and it can be overwhelming for him to focus on them whilst not neglecting other AP countries at the same time. Nonetheless, Ryan is still the ultimate person who monitors the whole GN :)

The coolio NTU EBs team *some left early, but we represented them in various poses :)

He also talked about the great potentials of @ Singapore by looking at our annual exchange figures, due to the presence of many global partners. Besides, he complimented the progress of LCs’ initiatives in establishing regional exhange partnerships (REPs) with companies in the Lion City. (Great job ICX!!!). He’s particularly impressed by our “Expansion into China project” since everyone in the world is trying to derive mileage from this emerging economic powerhouse.

When asked about what is his strength, Ryan said that he’s a person of persistence. He ran for LCP and MCP two times each, and lost for the first time in each running. Most notably, he was once the leading LC which was on the brink of closing down in the beginning of his LCP term. With only 25 members on the outset, only 2 members were retained a few months later. (He kicked out those who did not perform). Notwithstanding such major setback, he took drastic measures to improve his LC. And at the end, it’s still 25 members, but all of them were actively contributing to their LC.

That is also, according to Ryan, the greatest achievement in his life so far.
Touching on being the LCP, Ryan said that the best position to run for in AIESEC is LCP. This is because one in this position can see, by his very eyes, the direct results on the ground, and perform multiple functions at the same time.

It's good..It's good...
It's good be an LCP...

AIESEC and UN, is there any relationship between them? The former is the largest youth-driven organization in the world, and the latter being the largest global organization dedicated to . The answer is YES! Brodie (the previous PAI) was once invited to be present in the UN general assembly in New York when the voice of youths was needed. Apart from that, AIESEC has cooperation with a few chapters of UN, especially the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of UN. Amazing, aren’t we?!?!?!?!

In terms of member retention, Ryan said that as EBs, we need put ourselves into the shoes of our members. We need constantly ask ourselves, “How can I think to ensure that there are enough opportunities is a comfortable environment for them to explore. With regards to this matter, I am particularly intrigued by what Mindy’s (MCP of @ HK) stated in her blog

“If the @XP that we've been through is not good enough, we need to make that better for our new members.”

“EBs are not for execution, but provider of opportunities, facilitator of the platform that we promised. If we select our members, we need to trust that and let the members take the opportunities we promised.”

Thank you AP Director for leaving such indelible markers in our minds. We are truly enchanted by your charisma and wonderful @ experience.May u have a pleasant journey to Malaysia, and other AP countries subsequently. See you in APX 2007 in Hyderabad, India……

Dinner after the discussion at NTU Cafe by the Quad
We had a live performance too..by Imran, LCP of NUS

*Alvin Hong signing off...