AIESEC voiced out our opinion on HIV/AIDS

True to what AIESEC sets out to do, Grace is a champion for the cause of HIV/AIDS. And while she continues to coach BEADS PBOX this year, she is set on letting the world know that youths are not just a bunch passive let-things-happened youths.

Read her opinion published on TODAY newspaper here:

This letter is in response to an article by Neo Chin Chai. Read the original article here.

EB run away!

This is not exactly an AIESEC event, but it is by AIESECers and for AIESECers, and since people are asking for more updates, yours truly shall hereby faithfully report what happened.

From 22nd Feb night to 25th Feb, the EBs (Executive Board) have decided to run away from the bustling Singapore cities into the deep mysterious forests of Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. Oh yeah, there were also Dominic (HKU LCP who's doing exchange in NTU) and Allison (VP Finance elect from McMaster Uni who's doing exchange in NTU, infamous for his hilarious email regarding the 'super interesting conference in Malaysia')

Since yours truly is the earliest to return to her home while the rest are still rocking their way back to Singapore, yours truly shall take on the responsibility to report faithfully.

So the story begins... finally

On the 22nd night, the EBs, with luggage varying in weight and size, took off at Golden Mile Complex to head north - Malaysia - A land of landscape and beauty. Of course, we were really noisy in the bus. Not only were we taking pictures, but also eating, sharing food, spotlighting people, telling jokes etc. And all these were done across rows of seats.

I pitied the other passengers.. But I think later everyone started falling asleep, cuz I fell asleep too.

At around 6am, we arrived at Brinchang, one of the three towns in Cameron Highlands. The weather didn't present itself as what I predicted. It was much colder than the coldest SAC! Shivering, all of us wobbled into a Chinese eatery for breakfast. The prawn mee and kuay teow warmed us up!

Hmm then what happened?

Oh we started hunting for accommodation, and ended up in a shabby but clean apartment.

And I think my story telling skills have deteriorated. So without further boring of you guys, I shall let the pictures tell the story. Think there are approximately 40 pictures, so enjoy!

At boarding.

This is the fun we had in the bus.

At rose centre. With practically seas of roses and their relatives!

Apparently the guys were more interested in making themselves statue-like rather than appreciating flowers.

See how guys perceive fun.

The following pictures describe how creative people can be with statues.

More!

I think I have made my point.

The cinderella and the 7 dwarfs (and the absent 4). Pay special attention to the pretty cinderella! The models sunbathing.

Don't you think the SUNSHINE is so handsome?

The girls at their best.

And so the boys tried to pose too.

There were so many beautiful pictures that I wish to post here, but I realised that will be 100 pics! So I have to restrain myself. Enjoy this.
The ICX league at their coolest.

Help! Wira sank!

At honeybee farm and the garden of sunflowers.

Self-plucking strawberry farm. All of us couldn't resist the redness and started plucking at all the nurseries before reaching the plucking site! tsk tsk.

Selecting the best and the brightest.

And being happy with your selection! Sadly they were all crushed and thrown away due to our ungentle treatment! RM100 worth of it!

At butterfly park which seemed to have more reptiles, insects, birds and flowers. Introducing some huge beetle.

At butterfly park. Doesn't this look like Sylvester and Tweety? Say yes!

Can you see the word AIESEC? Say yes!

This pretty marks the end of Day 1. Oh yeah we went for the Night Market as well, where we indulged in food and lots of food! Char Kuay Teow, corn, tea leaf egg, ice cream, strawberries, durian just to name A FEW. And after that, we nested in the living room playing 99 and mafia aka murderer aka polar bear. And later, the guys went into their room doing their own gossip session, while Han Ling and I enjoyed the moonlight and warm rose tea and cool breeze at the balcony.

Day 2 - We attempted the highest mountain in Cameron Highlands - Mount Brinchang stading tall at 6666 meters. Here, Nash, our nature tourguide, introducing to us the wonder of nature.

Not in the middle of HDB this time, but in the middle of forest! Say yay!

The city man turns Tarzan.

And the journey got harder..

And more challenging! But we are going fine!

And we finally reached! 6666 feet, the highest peak in Cameron Highlands.

While some are engulfing the beauty of nature at this height,

some prefer to be indulge in each other under such pretty scenery. :p

Please agree that this is a nice picture. So visionary right?

But agree with me that this looks nicer right?

On our way down, we are greeted yet by more scenic beauty! Look at the depth of the landscape! And of course, the two pretty hospitality people in the foreground.

Boyband under A REALLY BEAUTIFUL TREE.

The tired souls enjoying the mega-watt sunshine.

The panoramic view of tea plantation. We winded through almost the entire area. Breath-taking. Full of zen-ness and source of inspiration.

And that marked the end of our 7-hour trekking, or so we thought. When we were taking bus down back to Brinchang, the bus tyre exploded! And yes thank you, we had to walk like 30 minutes more back to our apartment. I pitied Nash the tourguide. He practically had to sweet talked us so that we moved our lactic-acid-filled legs. And at the end, Wenfeng, Alvin and Dominic decided to use their BEAUTIFUL voice to seduce everyone to move faster and faster, which I think really served the effect, as everyone was trying to move away from them. :p

Look at the greedy look of the guys. Unfortunately yours truly fell ill that night and was unable to join in the extravaganza.. :(

There is one very important episode that I thought I should probably mentioned it here. On the 2nd night, after the 7 hour trekking, yours truly fell sick. Fever and sorethroat. Imagine Little Cute Princess not being able to make noise! Terrible.. But nah this is not the very important part of the episode. The important thing was that, through this I got to see how nice everyone is. When I was walking down the mountain, the girls kept accompanying me so that I don't feel left out (since I decided to walk along, since can't talk!). Han Ling and Grace tried to decipher my sign language, and that was really hilarious. When we were finally back to the apartment, Zhang Ning came to test my temperature, and talked to me. Then Alvin offered to buy me food, since I didn't join them for steamboat dinner. When I finally get out of the bed, Zhang Ning and Grace practically held my hands to walk me to the living room. Wenfeng helped me to wash up the bowls. And after the trip, the first question they asked me on msn is 'Are you feeling better now?' So sweet, so touched. For me, this was the high note of the entire trip. Even though I missed out a lot, I got to see so much more. I got to see what the EB team is truly about. Not the high efficiency, not the everlasting passion, not the crazy and fun, but a heart of kindness and generosity for people around. Thanks everyone for everything~

The end of the VERY SHORT picture story. There are a lot more stories I wanna tell here, but I have already spent 4 hours doing this, and so logic tells me to stop. If you are interested, don't ask me for the pictures, let's organize another trip! ok? There's another taller montain to trek, called Mount Irau. Heard it's really fun! And anyone interested in Redang? Woohoo!

Ryan's visit to NTU

Indeed, the Wed that just pass was definitely an enriching day when the Ryan Director for Asia Pacific from AIESEC International dropped by LC NTU to share with us his experience and journey in AIESEC. Through the conversation with him, we somehow had a better idea what goes on in AI - some trivial,

• they had a rotation cooking team for each day
• there are 22 people in the team from 17 countries; can't beat that for diversity,
• working hours are usually 9am - 6pm or 10am - 7pm but our dear AP Director was there from 8am - 7pm since he needs to communicate with people in AP but the time difference made it difficult

Ryan's journey in AIESEC has been far from smooth sailing from day 1, he had lost in many elections as well as encountered many challenges along the way. One of the most dramatic that I could recall is when he finally became MCP for NZ (btw, he lost his first election - see, the virtue of persistence) , the NZ MC was at the brink of bankruptcy due to some financial issues. despite that, he managed to get the NZ MC to be one of the richest MC of all time during his term.

Hmm, I'm not really sure what are the strategies that he used in the MC, think its time to send him an e-mail.Another drama like situation was when he transfer over to another LC - literally by requesting to transfer to another University, look at that level of commitment - to help the LC in its management. That LC had about 25 members but it had been quite inactive, raising minimal number of TNs and SNs and was on the verge of losing its membership. Ryan ran for the LCP position.

During the election speech he mentioned about being very tough on the members if he was to get elected, which he did and first thing he did was to shook up members, issuing an ultimatum - start working for the LC or quit from it. He explained to us that it is harsh, but he wants to waste nobody's time, which I fully agree, why stay if you aren't committed to the cause. Three members remained, but they fought hard bringing the LC to one of its highest time and revived the people's interest in the Uni to join the LC.

During the ininteractive sessions, one most valuable lesson that I had learn is value of persistence; to work hard for your dream, to know that the journey towards that end will be tough but to carry on anyway. The path that Ryan had took to reach where he is now, isn't a simple flat road with nice scenery along the way, but it really is a roller-coaster journey. And will continue to be as long as he working towards his goal.

Through the journey where the ups is like the thrill of viewing the joys of your labour and the downs is like each passing day is like a lifetime - it has definitely imbue a strong character and leadership abilities in Ryan; just like a fulfillment of AIESEC's motto, the fulfillment of human potential.

To sum up, definitely, all Ryan had achieved made me felt jealous as well as inspired, he was 3 years younger than me yet he had achieved so much more. However, I believe that I too can make an impact like him by making each day an improvement over the previous - after all the road to excellence ends when you stop taking action. ;)

Are you inspired by Ryan as well? Well then, make a commitment and join us in the journey to pursue excellence ;)

By Nicholas Ong, 1st year OGX member, a Student Nominee too

Meeting with my AP director.

It was awesome!



If action causes less regret than inaction, I see what it means today. Deciding to go meet Ryan Sheppard (the Asia Pacific Director for AIESEC) was a decision that I will be grateful about. It came as one of the most inspiring talks I have had so far. He shared with us so much that I wish my memory could be better so that I can remember everything he said.



Things I have learnt:

• When you are riding on a bicycle and you see a stone on the road, you look at it and keep telling yourself 'Don't hit the stone, don't hit the stone!' You will hit it eventually. Why? Your focus on the stone was directing you there. But if you choose to focus in the path you wish to take, you will get there eventually. So when things go wrong, don't JUST look at what is wrong. Focus on what you have done right. I don't mean you just ignore the wrong, but just, never lose sight of what you have done right. The focus on doing things right will help the wrongs to fade. To take it the personal level, don't just look at how to diminish your weaknesses. Focus on how to develop your strength. Your strengths will put off your weaknesses eventually. And why should you focus on your strengths? Because it is so much easier to be yourself than be who you are not!
  


• What comes out at the end of the discussion is the best that you can have (at that time). Don't hold on to your expectation. It will cause you to lose sight of the other possibilities, which are great too!
  


• Keep your eventual goal in mind. There may be a lot of ways to get there, but you should reach there eventually. Not lose track.
  


• As you get older, the high time will get higher, the low time lower. Understand that, come to terms with that, so that you won't get too emotionally affected by the low times. And whatever you do, the low times will always come. But if you quit at the toughest time, you may never be able to see the higher time which is oh-so-rewarding! Remember, the low time is there only to complement your high time.
  


• It'll start when it'll start. Don't force things happen, don't force people to speak.
  


• Disagreement is always there. Understand this as the normal phenomenon. Talk things out, smooth things the peaceful way.
  


• Finally, as part of the EB (executive board), you may have a lot of things you wanna do. But given your time and energy, if you set too many goals, eventually you can only do a bit of everything. Set few goals, and stick to it, and do a lot to them.

I felt that these are not all! I know I heard many many more. But sadly, I couldn't recall. *Urgh* Memory decay due to ineffective encoding. I must learn better information encoding technique to enhance my learning.

But, I must feel grateful to my eventual decision, more grateful that Ryan came down to NTU to shine some light to prepare me better before I embark on my EB life. During the session, there were moments of silence, but that's only because we were busy digesting his words! It was a really good talk. I'm lovin' it. EB path doesn't seem easier now, but I am more prepared.

Come what may.

By Wan Xin, 1st year ICX, LCVP elect ICX 07/08

Struggle = victory

"I fall, I stand still... I trudge on. I gain a little... I get more eager & climb higher & begin to see the widening horizon. Every struggle is a victory."

By Helen Keller


Just wanna share this with you all :)