Preparation Seminar Day 2

So sorry for the late posting....been trying to get the pics ^^'


AIESEC Preparation Seminar 2007 (2nd Day, 4th March 2007)

“Hey AIESEC!” “What’s up?” – a typical AIESEC kick-start of the day as all candidates who passes the AIESEC Student Review Board (SRB) gathered again to unveil the programmes installed for them on the second day of AIESEC Preparation Seminar 2007.

“Yesterday was very enriching as the speakers were very experienced and knowledgeable,” said one of the candidates who came for the previous day event. In contrast, the second day’s programmes were more informal and interactive where the passive absorbing and scribbling of notes could be left behind. This was to encourage the candidates whose status has now become AIESEC student nominee (SN) to share their opinions, experience and learn how to manage cultural diversity in a positive way, so that these outgoing interns will lay a foundation of mental and emotional preparation before embarking on their internships abroad. The seminar was broken down into two main groups, one was for the mainstream internship, whilst another was specifically for the MAD (Make A Difference) project.

The agenda began with some serious stuff as one of our experienced AIESEC alumni explained the way to access AIESEC.net database for matching of companies and interns, which is known as the Insight XP. Student nominees will get to browse through all the data of AIESEC exchange partnership companies from 95 countries and territories. Personal expectation and flexibility becomes a vital key of successful match realisation.

Then we sat in a few groups that consisted of different nationalities to discuss on the question: How do you represent Singapore in a foreign country?
“ Bring kaya, Singlish or relate them to Singapore brands like SIA, Creative etc. for those foreigners do not know anything about Singapore” suggested by one of the candidates.
“I think we should bring milo-dinosour and newater…” the crowd broke into a laugh. If it’s you, what do you think? Or what will you bring?

Around 11am, the crowd was divided into two groups for cultural simulation as the facilitators approached the topic of Intercultural Communication. In the groups they were separated into 3 parties of distinct culture backgrounds that have to meet, negotiate and close a deal on building a new hotel. They were the Hotel management team, Bank and Construction team. After reading through the cultural background given, each team had to display its assigned culture during the meeting and try to reach an agreement. The candidates were having fun, and they found it amusing to adapt to the cultures given which restricted them from expressing themselves in various ways. A round of evaluation and wrap up was conducted to help the participants to understand the aim of the simulations of not to judge the difference of diverse culture and be open to integrate into the culture they are heading to.

Coming back from the simulations, 5 hot topics were thrown to the candidates for them to participate in AIESEC learning circles. They were given the choice to join the facilitators group on topic based such as: Pornography, Foreign workers (maids), Racism, Single mother do not enjoy the same benefit married mother, Casinos and gambling. Discussion and spreading of individual opinion were strongly encouraged as AIESEC opens for diversity and expressing of individual point of view. These may seem to be serious topic yet they enjoyed the jokes and funny experiences shared during discussion and some even continued during lunch break.

The next program in line after lunch combined the group form MAD project and mainstream internship candidates. The slight recap of six AIESEC values brings the candidates into self-reflection on the whole exchange and internship process. This is purposed to let the candidates pave their own way in this internship programme because ultimately “it’s up to you.” Nevertheless, the programme continued with a humorous skit: The Sinbad Story served to evaluate how you, as an individual, stereotype others. This is vital for preparing the candidates to the countries they will be going, immersing in the new cultures, and yet preserving candidates’ own identity.

“World Idol” brought the atmosphere to another level of euphoria and excitement. During this session, the candidates were divided into several country groups, namely China, India, Romania, Bahrain, UK, Ivory Coast and so on. Thereafter, each group was instructed to come out with a performance to represent its assigned country. Also, this “competition” was never complete without the 3 pseudo-American-Idol judges, namely Randy, Paula and Simon.

The last session of the day was “AIESEC TIME”. The candidates were blown away with a brilliant sharing session by Dei (LCP of AIESEC NTU 0506) about his AIESEC experience, including the countries that he travelled to and the conferences that he attended previously.

Preparation Seminar 2007 may have come to an end, but it never stops here. Nonetheless, it is a symbol of the beginning of another chapter in the outgoing interns’ life – AIESEC Traineeship abroad. Themed “Voyage of Discovery”, Prep Sem 2007 served as a platform for these young people to gather their momentum and get themselves empowered to face their upcoming overseas experience.

By Rachel Lim Sing Mei, 1st year AIESEC in NTU OGX member, LCVP-PD elect for 07/08