Jumpstarted for 2008

Once again, JumpStart has come quietly and left with a bang. Simple in its mission - to bond all fellow newies @ers of 08/09 so that they can learn and contribute to this wonderful organisation. It has inspired to the newies - broaden their pespectives, informed them availability of opportunities, familarized them to the COE (Culture of Excellence).

My takeback for this conference is once again a period of reflection, to see the relavence of @ with my life. Stories by the Chair Radu - about discovering that one must changes one's attitutude in order to understand the true value of the knowledge that he's gaining. About the stone masoner who sees crafting a block of stone as crafting of one's destiny. The sharing of stories from the newies has sort of humbled my learning experience, knowing that each member has a different life experience which we could learn from - teachers becoming students and students, teachers.

I believe the value of @ is not of impacting one's life by externaly, but rather, it seeks to influence others by posing its members questions, questions that help its member to shape their own belief systems, their attitude, such that the changes one can see from an AIESECer is not from outside in but inside out.

And I believe that this short conference will JumpStart the newies' life in @ - a journey in understanding themselves and to take action on what they are planning for themselves.

By Nicholas Ong, alumnus for AIESEC in NTU. 

National Planning

I promised to blog about National Planning! And so yes here it goes. 12 hours before I fly off.

A bit of background, National Planning is a time when EBs from all LCs come together and function together as one team for the collective future of AIESEC Singapore. It is a platform for various portfolios from to work with their counterparts from other LCs and the MC. Most importantly, it is the time for people to know AIESEC and to know each other better. It was spanned across 1.5 weekends in the beautiful month of June, taking up a total of 2 Saturdays and 1 Sunday.

First programme of the day - ice breaking! Trying to know people from other LCs.

Or pick up pretty girls.

Then it was the games! Get whacked if you can't name a person from other LC.

Congrats! Punishment for the slows. Or rewards? 

Pass the love on. *lick*

Second punishment. Not sure why Li Jun always loses.

May be I know why.

Then session went proper. The first session was AIESEC history, where dedicated MCs searched up and down, called old people, dug in the AIESEC chamber of secrets to find out the old precious history of AIESEC Singapore. Rated best session!

Li Jun's session on IM. Please read that IM is going to be the important thing in AIESEC Singapore next year!

On Sunday, our trainee for Lewin Education, Michal from Slovakia joined us for lunch!

The wonderful heads

There were A LOT of birthday celebration throughout the National Planning. We celebrated 3 times in total for 3 wonderful people's birthdays!

Appreciation session for the very important people who contributed to the status of AIESEC today.

A special present for the special boss.

NTU as one. Currents, elects, alumni, members. Who cares. It's called AIESEC NTU.

And this is called AIESEC Singapore! With you missing in the picture...

Lastly, I just wish to share this very pretty picture with you guys!

From LC planning at Aloha Changi!

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

Hong Kong Ripples Conference story 2

Ripples Conference in Hong Kong!

My long awaited first overseas conference, the planning for attending this conference had began during the last exam session where I drafted my application in a rash to submit while still studying. Then after, during the NLDS, my expectation had heighten, seeing so many delegates experienced the impact of wonderfully planned. The fun factor raised when I mentioned that that I was going for this conference and further 9 delegates were pulled in, through indirect influence.

Around another 2 weeks of planning resulted from this since there were now 10 delegates in total. Booking of air flights and accomodation happened over the Christmas season. Everything ended by then on 21th Jan, the delegates of 10 are on their way abroad for their first overseas conference.

Arriving in HKU, my first enpowering session was on the Culture of Execellence by Nadya. Nadya talked about the story behind CoE, what the Culture of Excellence is all about - which happens not to be the Culture of snobs or culture of perfection. It's about creating the culture that values the striving for excellence - and I think that rocks.

Later in evening, we had barbarque, Hong Kong style; simple saying, it's just BBQing in the cool weather of 14 - 20 degrees, which really made BBQ less of a hassle since you don't have to sweat and sweat like in Singapore's weather - rather it's the opposite since you are trying to get some warmth from the pit.

On the 2nd day, the topic is on Corporate and Social Responsibility. We had some sharing from @ers of the different regions - Hong Kong, China and Taiwan talking about the CSR from different points of views. External speakers such as the Dr Yeung, CEO of Glorious Sun Group and Mr Bernard Chan, member of legislative council - my thoughts then : "Man, how do they get such prominent figures in Hong Kong to sponser and to come and give a talk." - came to share
what CSR is to them and what they are doing to encourage CSR.

In the evening, we are divided up into 3 groups to explore the beauty in the different areas in Hong Kong. I went to Mong Kok where we get to see up close what really defines Hong Kong - the mini buses, the night market and the food. Food stalls by the side are serving all sorts of food from smelly tofu, fishballs which are different from the kind in Singapore, fried pig instestinals, etc. The variety is really amazing. My group got to dine in one of the local food stall where we are endulge in more food culture exchange.

On the 3rd day was mainly about entrepreneuship. we got to hear from some great speakers as well as engaging with entrepreneurs who came to share with us their experience. It was one of the highlight of the Conference, since the speakers are really infectious with their passion. I get to hear from Ms Belle, founder of BeansBox - a website design company. Belle shared her journey with us, telling us why she had started off to get into this line despite being trained as a lawyer. As well as the difficulties that she faced from family and friends during the start. Yet she persisted to where she is now with this quote - "Find your dream and follow it"

In the evening, we explored into the politics of the Greater China Region where we talked about corruption. Not what I expected though, I would expect something more provocative such as unification of China, still I had better understanding about the corruption scene in the region.

The highlight of the evening is the @red party, all of us are dressed in red. We had the usual sculling games and as well as an "interesting" fashion show by all the participants and followed by lots of @ dancing - there's this great dance by Taiwan Delegates with the song "Huo Yuan Jia" which I didn't managed to tape down - still looking for it though.

The last day which we had simulation of what we had learned in the last 3days and the closing plenary for the conference.

What I can conclude from my learning experience is - "A short 8 days yet a huge impact" All sort of new experience came in during this conference - pre-conference organising, talking in Cantonese wherever I go, the different lifestyle, different culture, different thoughts, new network of friends, etc.

Two question that I should pose to all before I end : If you haven't been to an international conference, what's stopping you to know more about AIESEC, stopping you to learn more about the different cultures, stopping you to make new overseas friends. If there ain't, what are you waiting for?

By Nicholas Ong, 1st year @er OGX NTU

Hong Kong Ripples Conference story

Hong Kong.

It’s seems like a memory buried deep in my heart.

Yet, last night, while I was looking through the pictures, everything re-surfaced. The people, the actions, the sceneries, the events, the chill, the food, the conference.

Yes. It was the conference, which granted me one of my best @ XP now to date.

And the conference has a name, The RIPPLES. Organised by @ in Hong Kong Uni. That’s where all the stories started.

It was a chilly morning when we arrived outside HKU together with our bulky luggage. Two cheerful OCs were there to greet us. But the sight of endless staircase terrorized me. The OCs volunteered to help me, but looking at their petite size, I gently refused (I wonder why they didn’t station male OCs).

After registration, I got into my groups and met up with my group mates. They were from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong (of course), and South Korea (the only female delegate from South Korea!). We were shy initially, so we ended up exchanging contacts.


Then the conference began! By a welcome speech by the Canadian chairman called Felix Thai (wonder if he’s a Thai). He led us through expectation setting, which I thought was nice. So that we know what we want to know in the conference and what we should do to get the most out of the conference. After that was ice-breaking games, @ knowledge and checking into rooms. The day ended of with a long barbeque session. It was the first time that I actually appreciated the heat from the barbeque fire! And the meat pieces that we had were simply HUGE.


The rest of the days whizzed through with a series of talks, presentation by the organising LCs (Guangzhou LC and National Taiwan University [NTU as well! But they had to be named NTLC because NTU is taken by us! Hohoho] participated in the preparation of agendas as well), discussions, insightful games and party. The talks were interesting, but they were also the most challenging part of the conference! I was fighting hard to keep my eyelids apart! This was the result of late night chatting with other delegates. Nonetheless, the speakers were very enlightening.

The topics for the conference were Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The OC managed to invite many speakers who hold important positions in these areas. One speaker that left a deep impression in me was Dr. Charles Yeung, the CEO of Glorious Sun Group, which is a MNC.

He shared with us his management philosophy, which were real philosophy! He quoted from Mencius (Meng-tse), Confucius and other philosophers, and showed us how these noble lines were used in his management of the company. The lines that I could still remember now:
‘All human, in many years ago, were one big family. So what’s wrong with helping your family members?’
‘What we gain today is from the society. So it is only right that we contribute what we gain back to the society.’

Apart from activities in the university, the OCs were kind enough to insert a study tour for us to visit famous tourist destinations! We could choose to go either The Peak, Tsim Sha Tsui or Mongkok. I went to Tsim Sha Tsui. And visited the many handprints by famous HK artists, like my beloved Tony Leung! Wahaha.. My friends who went to other destinations had interesting experience to share as well. For example, those who went the shopping haven Mongkok went back without buying anything because they said they couldn’t decide on which shop to stop!


Another biggest challenge in the conference was the shower time. Shower session is usually after the day ended, when temperature was at its lowest and wind was at its strongest. After the shower, it always felt so cold that even the air from hairdryer doesn’t feel warm!

However, it was the delegates, not the challenges, that left the greatest impacts in me. They were a bunch of motivated and passionate people! One of my group member, who is first-year in @ as well, has already been to 3 conferences! And their @ knowledge is simply astonishing. We learnt a lot about their @ structure and @ XP, and I personally thought these were really good stuff that I can bring back to SIPO!

Furthermore, interacting with them gave me the opportunity to see the same issue from different angle, from different perspective built from different culture. It teaches me, that everything in world is like a diamond, has a different colour when viewed from different dimensions. It is the combination of these dimensions that make the diamond whole, and it is these dimensions together that make the world colourful!

Through this trip we’ve also learnt how @ connects people. While checking into hotel after the conference ended (us the Singapore delegates were up to some personal fun), a lady walked pass us and asked, ‘Are you all from AIESEC?’ Apparently she was an ex-LCP of Auckland Uni, New Zealand, and she happened to see the @ phone strap on Siew Yik’s neck (from NUS)! This is the magic of @! It makes the world we are living in like a world without strangers!

I wonder if I have bored you all but I am definitely not finish with my sharing of experience! But fine, I shall not hog the space. My last words: People, for an enriching @ XP, go conferences! Conference is the time to learn about AIESEC, learn about the world and learn about yourself. It is the time for you to realise, appreciate and be surprised by the beauty of diversity in the world. It’s the time for you to be inspired, challenged, and empowered!

Till now, the effect hasn’t stopped. There’re still ripples in my mind……

@ SIPO! We rocked the RIPPLES with our noise!

The weather there..

The panoramic city view of HK.

By Low Wan Xin, first year @er of ICX NTU