AIESEC in NUS Blog

Nabeel Khalid | Year 2 NUS | Year 2 AIESEC | NUS Branding & Communications Coordinator

I thought I'd make just a quick update... Yesterday we held a welcome dinner (thanks to Cathy for organizing it) for the new trainees that had arrived - one through an NUS and the other through an NTU account. A bunch of us were there to finally meet up with Anna and Aiina (I don't think I spelt that right!).

A lot has been going on within the various executive committees. Asia Pacific Regional Transition, MC Transition and of course, LC Transition. Now we'll have the upcoming National Planning Conference 2008 (NatPlanCon08) over the course of two weekends as most of us have internships or jobs (that means both Saturday and Sunday also busy, yes). We're also having departmental trainings and meetings - a lot of them this weekend in fact.


There should be some pictures appearing somewhere with a link in an email or on Facebook, and as soon as I get them I'll post them up here. So check back soon!

Labels: AIESEC, NatPlanCon07, NUS, Training, Transition, Welcome Dinners

Nabeel Khalid | Year 2 NUS | Year 2 AIESEC | NUS Branding & Communications Coordinator

AIESEC in NUS has been alive since 36 years? What!?

You know, some faculty members dropped by GV and they said they remembered AIESEC from when they were students at NUS - and these faculty members were quite advanced.

Okay coming back to AGM (Annual General Meeting) - what was it about?

In a nutshell, it is a formal event (everyone wears coats and ties!) where the successes of the past year are celebrated in the presence of all the stakeholders of AIESEC in NUS. People such as Dr William Koh, a professor in the NUS School of Business, who is our teacher advisor was also present there, along with people from the MC team. There is always a speech from the incoming and outgoing president. The outgoing executive board (EBs) are bid farewell and the incoming EBs are welcomed.

This year, after Imran's introduction, it started with Mayas Singh's speech introducing AIESEC Singapore.(FYI, Imran was last year's President of AIESEC in NUS and Mayas is the incoming president of AIESEC Singapore). LCP Shubhangi Faujdar talked about some of the major accomplishments that were made by members in the past year, followed by department updates from the Incoming Exchange and Outgoing Exchange LCVPs Ashwin and Song Jie, respectively.

Jiuyu who had recently returned from a conference in Japan called APXLDS had a lot of things to share, as she made her brilliant speech. It was followed by Adrian's brief on the Finance Workshop where he clearly identified the reasons why "Strategic Investment: A Practitioner's Approach" was such a cool name for the Finance Workshop. He went on to further introduce the prominent figures of Singapore that were involved in the workshop by showing some pictures from the events.

Snigdha then spoke about the PBoX (Project Based on Exchange) that she and Vasudha have been working on and shared some of the things each and everyone of us can do to save the environment. It was followed by my slideshow presentation about GV and I suppose you can read the previous post to know more about it and see more pictures too.

Henri came on stage as Honorary General Secretary to announce awards for the members. Dr William Koh, our guest of honour, was invited to give them out. Adrian (our incoming Finance VP for 2008-09) bagged two awards, while ICX bagged the best department award. There were no nominations for the best dancer award among new members so no award was given out (I think Shubhangi's superior dancing skills overshadow potentially good dancers).

Here are the details of the Rewards and Recognition (R&R) 2007/2008:

LC Best Department Award
Incoming Exchange

LC Leadership Award
Chang Siew Yik

LC Member Excellence Award
Justine Lim Shi Wan

LC Best New Member Award
Zhou Jiuyu

LC Best Team Player Award
Adrian Ong Liang Kiat

OGX Department Excellence Award
Teo Kah Ming

ICX Department Excellence Award
Meet Shroff

ER Department Excellence Award
Tan Yanling

Finance Department Excellence Award
Adrian Ong Liang Kiat

PD Department Excellence Award
Hanna Khalid

Service Department Excellence Award
Tye Mei Peng

LC Mr. Candor Award
Nabeel Khalid

LC Best Dancer (Seniors) Award
Shubhangi Faujdar

LC Most Enthu (Seniors) Award
Cathy Chan

LC Most Enthu (New Members) Award
Wenny Natalia

The outgoing EBs held a special introduction ceremony for the new EBs who are a crazy bunch of people (myself included - in both categories!). It must have been quite a sight for the audience to see the entire leadership of AIESEC in NUS for two years on stage.

Siew Yik had some words to share about what his focus as next year's LCP would be. Imran did the closing after which everyone ran headed out to eat and drink (and be merry). Some people were surprised there were no curry puffs, which is like, tradition for such events because of budget constraints, but the food was really expensive tasting (that means it was good). Most members didn't bother coming, which is okay because we had a lot to eat that way. Haha!

Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures but you can see the pictures that we did take by clicking here.

Labels: 2008, AGM, Annual General Meeting, Awards, New Member Excellence, NUS, Rewards, RnR, Transition

Nabeel Khalid | Year 2 NUS | Year 2 AIESEC | NUS Branding & Communications Coordinator

GV (Global Village) was a first-of-its-kind event for AIESEC Singapore and let me explain why before you say anything. I mean sure, we always have a GV at every AIESEC conference and it is always more spectacular than before. But AIESEC conferences are attended by AIESECers only, and people outside of AIESEC never get a chance to witness GV. So the GV event at NUS was an attempt to try to give that same feeling to non-AIESECers (and perhaps, draw them towards AIESEC).

It was held at the Central Forum at NUS (right below the Central Library) which is one of the busiest spots in NUS, enjoying a traffic of thousands of students. I was the project's director and I had an amazing Organizing Committee (OCP and OCVPs - all brilliant). We had a good idea of what we wanted to do and what we wanted to see happen at the Central Forum. Unfortunately we could only do so much in 1.5 months. Nevertheless, the event can be best described as having mixed success.

We had Indian, Malaysian, Pakistani, Sikh and Thai cultural stalls, apart from the stalls put up by AIESECers, which included a display of different hats from around the world and AIESEC T-shirts from different countries and conferences. I may have some bias when I say it was a fascinating display that was put up by all the stalls.

While some stalls gave out brochures and other published materials about their countries, others displayed teachings or items depicting their culture. My favourite stall was the Pakistani stall put up by PakNUS (bias alert! bias alert!). They had free bangles to give away and they were also applying henna (mehndi, a.k.a. temporary tattoo) for FREE! (I got the star and moon from the Pakistani flag on one hand and the Ashoka Chakra (wheel) from the Indian flag on the other, as you can see in the first picture above.)

But I think the most popular stall was the one with the hats from around the world - it was empty most of the time - because everyone would steal the hats to camera whore! It was quite a sight, really, as you can judge from some of the pictures.

Coincidently BTMICE (sector of Business Travel, Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions) and the Services Communications department of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) were organizing an overseas media familiarization trip for international journalists in conjunction with the upcoming Singapore Education (SE) Awards 2008.

The 5 media finalists nominated for "SE Awards Best Media Coverage" [Print and Broadcast] were to visit NUS on the 27th of March - the same day as GV, and one of the highlights was a campus tour - so how could they miss the Central Forum! (Especially since one of the reasons for NUS to invite them over was: "The NUS student community comprises a cosmopolitan mix of over 32,000 students from 88 countries, contributing to a vibrant and thriving campus life." How much more relevant could GV be?)

For your information, by the way, NUS is a nominee for ‘Best Host for International Students Studying in Singapore (Schools)' for SE Awards 2008, so NUS surely must have benefitted from GV. When they came over, they had an entire camera crew that took pictures of the people present, as well as videos of a couple of AIESEC dances ("It's the time to disco!").

Some scandalous pictures:

Labels: Global Village, Pictures, Updates

News News News!
Nabeel Khalid | Year 2 NUS | Year 2 AIESEC | NUS Branding & Communications Coordinator

As dead as this blog may be, for your kind information, a lot goes on in @ in NUS. For starters, we already have some of our EB elects and LCP elect. Presenting the @ in NUS Executive Board for 2008-09:

LCP: Chang Siew Yik
LC VP Finance: Adrian Ong Lian Kiat
LC VP In-coming Exchange: Vasudha Ram
LC In-coming Exchange Executive: Audrey Wong
LC VP Business Development: Shonit Suri
LC Business Developement Executive: Wenny Natalia Tango
LC VP Talent Management: Muhammad Usman Aslam Mahar
LC VP Information Management: Nabeel Khalid
LC Honorary General Secretary: Yap Hui Ying

We're having another round of applications for the remaining positions available and the deadline to apply is 25th March, 2008! So hurry here (Right-click and open in new window/tab):
LC VP Out-going Exchange
LC VP Communications
LC Out-going Exchange Executive

Maybe I should share with you my personal experience in going through the unique evaluation process our LCPe Siew Yik made us all go through. But first, let me *warn* you guys about what's coming up next in AIESEC in NUS...

If you like free lunches, and if any of your answers to the following questions is 'yes', then you should come to the "Living with HIV" CSR programme by Standard Chartered Bank:

• Do you want to know about Standard Chartered Bank's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) strategy?
• Do you want to hear about the live story from the regional director of Standard Chartered Bank?
• Do you want to have networking launch with the professionals from Standard Chartered Bank?

Click here for more on this.
(Right-click to open in new window/tab.)

Or maybe these corporate events aren't your thing, or there's a clash with a class or date or something? What if you have a thing for six-course dinners? Not to mention delicious coffee, food and learning! Answer 'yes' to any of these questions and then click the link below:

• Wondering what to do on a Saturday evening with the one you love?
• Do you want to have a hesitant-free conversation about safe sex with your loved one?

Click here to learn more about "Coffee with Love @ Geek Terminal".
(Right-click to open in new window/tab.)

Or fine. You don't have sex and you're saving yourself for marriage or whatever! What if finance is your thing? You know, Strategic Investing and what not. This event builds on the success of last year's Finance Workshop that received very positive feedback.
Take a look at this event by clicking here.
(Right-click to open in new window/tab.)

Too many blocks of text have been starting with 'Or' in this post. I wanna try something new here now. Have you heard about the "Global Village" event held at most AIESEC conferences? Some of us decided to share that event with the ENTIRE NUS community! For real!

AIESEC in NUS is holding Global Village on the 27th of March and the entire OC has been working really hard to make this event possible. All an AIESECer needs to do is to show up at the Central Forum (the big area below Central Library in NUS), wear an AIESEC t-shirt that we have designed and check out all the different cultures NUS has to offer and see them merge under AIESEC! (Psst, there would be cultural performances between 1 pm and 2 pm so you better leave early or the traffic could be really bad then - since so many people will be on their way to the event!)

Oh, did I mention it's on the 27th of March? I guess I did, but did I say it's a Thursday? From 10 am to 6 pm! (We need volunteers for the day and we have our eye on you... tee hee. You will, come, yes?)

About 0.0005% of you who are still reading this and wondering why I still haven't talked about what I promised long ago - here is the story of how we got selected for EB!:

First of all there was this annoyingly long form we filled out that was full of personal questions. Well, it wasn't a bad form but I'm sure you've been through times when you try to think about your future or your past and it gives you headaches - you know what I mean?! (Okay maybe it's just me who gets headaches when I do self-reflections.)

We submitted our forms right before the witching-hour ( deadline 11:59 pm) on a Tuesday night (19th February) - smack in the middle of the week when I had another assignment due at the SAME time. Tsk tsk... Shouldn't leave out stuff to do at the last minute!

Submission on time was one challenge but next up we had to go through the first round of assessment. All the EB applicants were given a task that they would complete and as they would make progress, they would be judged! What a sad world we live in - a brother judging another brother eh, Siew Yik? Just kidding...

Our assessment task was to plan and execute an event involving the whole LC (about 100 odd members). We had a budget of $100 and four days to do it. The goal of the event was to get the members to interact with each other.

Did I mention there were 17 applicants applying for 8 positions in the executive board? Talk about stressful situations!

But it wasn't so stressful really. I mean, sure, we did have a 2.5 hour discussion (17 people trying to agree on one thing) to finalize exactly WHAT we would do on that fine Sunday evening. We decided on a costume party of some sort, which changed into a theme party over extended email conversations later on. We split ourselves into departments like Programs, Logistics, Publicity and Finance. Finance was also given the charge to overlook the progress of all the 'departments' in the 'OC'.

The theme we decided upon (at an "emergency meeting" held on the following Friday) was Retro/'60s/'70s. Bow ties, baggy trousers, tight shirts and the like (I think!). Despite booking limitations on Sundays in NUS, we managed to book a function room in PGPR and we managed to prepare food for 50+ people within a $100 bucks.

Feat? Yes.

Turnout?

Not so good. It turned out that despite literally CALLING EACH MEMBER we still weren't able to get members down for our spectacular event on such short notice.

But the event itself was quite a success if I may pass my own (biased) judgment. Because we got people to have fun, eat good food (bias - it was South Asian-ish food), and interact with each other (bias again - I was emceeing =P).

Later that night, the evil LCPe sent out the results of the first round of evaluation. We had to see 4 of our team members be removed from our team, despite all the hard work they had put in and despite all the amazing things they were able to offer by being part of our team. It was sad and also a tad bit demotivating for the rest of us who progressed on to the second round.

I would like to call the second round the "grilling" round. No, they didn't test our barbecue skills. Quite the contrary. They barbecued us! They cooked us! They baked us! They fried our brains!

They were members from the current MC team, the MC elects, the current LCP and the LCPe. They asked us questions that challenged us to the extent that we started doubting ourselves. It was intense to say the least. What were our plans? How were we going to measure our success? What numbers can we predict? Questions asked with past performance in mind and questions about future performance...

But as we understood later, it was because there was a difference in their expectations of us and our expectations of ourselves. They wanted us to be more pro-active than we could imagine; to step out of our comfort zones more than we thought we could; to create a difference and create more positive impact on our society than we thought we could.

Out of the 13 remaining applicants wanting to fill in 8 VP positions, (plus some Executive positions) only those listed in the beginning of this post were able to make it.

It has been an intense yet fun experience that most of us found strangely stimulating and motivating.

Now we return to our mid-terms and normal school life for a while before we start assuming our new positions in AIESEC and start a new phase in the LR stage (leadership role). Do wish us luck for our term!






Check out ALL the pictures by clicking here.
Or click here to view the Facebook album.

Labels: Activities, Applications Open, Assessment Task, EB application, Fun.., LC gathering, Pictures, Updates

Chang Siew Yik | Year 2 NUS | Year 2 AIESEC | NUS Vice President of People Development

Hey AIESEC!!

How have your involvement in AIESEC so far?
How have your past 6 months of AIESEC Experience been?
Are you ready to go on to the next stage?
Are you willing to take up the challenge?
Are you looking up for further opportunities?

NUS EB 0809 applications are now open !!
For further information, please visit the link below
http://myaiesec.net/content/viewwiki.do?contentid=10004965#

Deadline: 19^th February 2008, 23:59hrs

Also, fill up the Senior member progression questionnaire to tell us how YOU would like to be involved and how the EB team of 0809 can support your learning and development !

Download the Senior Progression Questionnaire via the following link.
http://myaiesec.net/content/viewfile.do?contentid=10004956

Send your EB application or senior member progression questionnaire to chang86yik@gmail.com.

For any queries, kindly contact chang86yik@gmail.com or shubhangifaujdar@gmail.com for more information.

Labels: 2008, Applications Open, EB application, Senior Member Progression, Transition

Hi all,

Please find the AIESEC Singapore 2007/2008 Incoming Exchange and External Relations Mid term Report below:

http://www.myaiesec.net/content/adminfile.do?contentid=10005027

Cheers!

Imran

Zafirah Mohamed was MCP of Singapore in the term 2005-2006 and she is a graduate of NUS. Here, she shares her experience of living in Pakistan as an AIESEC trainee five months on.

Hey everyone!

Hope you're all doing well. Here in Pakistan it's business as usual. I "visited" Singapore last week for a wedding, and have now returned to Karachi. It's a long email here, recapping thoughts and sharing experiences. So read on only if you have time!

It's been eventful in the past 5 months, and having it peaceful like now, it's quite strange I must say. In Karachi we've had the floods in July/August, the first Benazir assasination attempt, the Karachi Express train derailed, the state of emergency imposed by Musharraf, the assasination of Benazir, post Benazir fiasco, and now upcoming elections. Quite exciting times indeed!

Truth be told, I can now understand why most Pakistani's have become numb to political developments in the country. I still remember when the state of emergency was declared. Us interns were so worried, yet the Pakistani AIESECers shrugged it off as no big deal. Today, we read the newspapers and nothing surprises us anymore. The worst seems to have already happened, one of Pakistan's most influential political leader was killed and no particular group has been identified as being responsible for her death.

And now with elections around the corner, everyone is looking forward for it to be OVER. It doesn't matter who wins, as long as there is somebody! Because then there is certainty and with certainty, whether good or bad will bring stability because people know what to expect and how to deal with the circumstances.

Anyway, politics aside...

I was once asked about how women are treated here in Pakistan. And I am being totally frank here, (albeit with a bit of humour) the women are loved, respected, but sometimes overprotected. Being a woman I am entitled to priviledges that men never enjoy. For example:

1) in bargaining for the rickshaw, all I need is a tilt of the head and pleading eyes and the drivers just sigh..... and give in to my asking price! :)

2) If I were driving, I would always get my way on the roads. ALWAYS, no questions asked!

3) If in the elevator, men would squeeze themselves like sardines into the corners to allow me to get on, and even then still give me lots of breathing room!

Generally, living alone in Pakistan as a woman is really quite safe. However in career development, it is still evolving. Mindsets are being challenged within less educated families as it is not accepted for a daughter to be working, what more developing a career? Making an independent, individualistic choice by the daughter is virtually unheard of. From my interactions with young ladies here who have finished their education, from both better-off families and poor families, these ladies have limited options. This is because what they want to do in their own future is determined by their family's approval. e.g. getting married, starting a family.

Of course there are ladies who are given the opportunity to develop their own talents, pursue their chosen careers, and not protected from making their own mistakes and learning from them. However these cases are rare, from what I observe, looking at the number of women entrusted with top management positions.

As a trainee, we can observe, question and hopefully inspire positive change in this environment we are in. Through daily interactions, conversations, and leading by example. Which brings me to my point! (Yes, this long email has a purpose, especially for those that might be considering but haven't decided on exchange yet!)

Through the AIESEC experience, we hope to develop change agents with entrepreneurial, socially responsible, active learner, etc.. characteristics. Which seems like a lot of fluff for me when I was a new member! And I never really understood how effective it really is, until NOW! Exchange is and should remain the most integral part, because it just makes everything fall into place.

Being here in Pakistan has challenged me, changed me, made me realise even more what I am capable of, what I need to do, what my life purposes are, and how I can get there.

For those that are applying for exchange I wish you all the best and may you realise your potential even more!

For those that are still thinking about going for exchange.... I'd say just go for it! Don't let the opportunity pass because there may not be a next time later on...

For those undecided where to go for exchange.... Come to Pakistan! What you see on TV is just a tiny fraction of life events here, and if I can survive for this long, so can you. I believe we have a few development traineeships and management traineeships available. If you're interested, drop me a mail :)


All the best!

Zafirah Mohamed

Labels: MC Leadership, MCP, Sharing, Sharing is Caring

Hi all,

Proudly presenting the finalized Member Committee 2008/2009 of AIESEC Singapore -

Director of Programme – Incoming Exchange : Ashwin Subramaniam
Director of Programme – Outgoing Exchange : Yuan Tian
MCVP Business Development : Lucia Deng Lu
MCVP Projects : Grace Chen
MCVP Talent Management : Shubhangi Faujdar
MCVP Communications : Cheryl Chen
MCVP Information Management : Li Jun
MCVP Finance : Esviyola Debrila
MC Honorary General Secretary : Cathy Chan
MC President : Mayas Singh

It is also my great pleasure to announce that for the first time in many many years, we have a full team, where all the portfolios in the MC are represented.

I would like to give my heartiest *congratulations* to the MC candidates who bravely went through the elections and the selection interviews and finally made it into the MC!! :)

Best Regards,
Mayas

Labels: AIESEC, AIESECers, MC, MC Leadership, National, Sharing, Sharing is Caring, Singapore

Hey AIESEC!

I am pleased to inform you that for the calendar year of 2007, AIESEC Singapore has realized 70 exchanges! This is a 50% increase from 2006, of 46 exchanges!!

There were 47 incoming exchanges, from 36 in 2006, and 23 incoming exchanges, from 12 in 2006! Our incoming and outgoing numbers are 4 and 3 times those of 2004.

Thanks to the hard work of the members, leadership teams, and the legacies and advice of alumni, interns and supporters, AIESEC Singapore continues its commitment to realize even more life-changing exchange experiences! We really look forward to even more exchanges and engagement of all our members, alumni, interns and partners, because you lift us to where we are now.

We can definitely improve, in fact of our raised internships and interns, less than 50% in 2007 were realized. Therefore improving our processes by just 50% will make us reach 100 exchanges in 2008! The AIESEC Singapore Member Committee is definitely committed to make sure we constantly improve and if you have any ideas how we can, do let us know!

Wish you all the best in your endeavours, and keep in touch!

Kind regards,
--
Mohamad Imran
Vice President External Relations
AIESEC Singapore 2007/2008

70 Stamford Road, #B1-48
Li Ka Shing Library Building
Singapore 178901

Email: mohamad.imran@aiesec.net
Office: +65 63385308
Mobile: +65 96925144
www.aiesec.org.sg

“Powering Forward”

-----------------------------

Exchange Partners:
ABN Amro
DHL
Electrolux
UBS

Event Partners:
PricewaterhouseCoopers
DHL
TPS Corporate Services

Official Pen:
Pilot Pen

Hey AIESEC,

A very happy New Year to you all!

We will have the Meet the People session in our LC on the 14th January at 7:30 pm in LT 18, NUS Business School! *Woo Hoo*

So, what is a Meet the People Session?

Well, its your opportunity to know the candidates running for MCP, MC, LCP and NST! Now is your chance to ask them the things you want to know about them. (Opportunity to grill them...hehe)! Your questions can be anything from funny ice breaking questions (like- which fruit you would want to be) to technical AIESEC questions (like- what will you do to improve the 5 sub systems in AIESEC)! This is your golden opportunity to also prepare yourselves about your leadership roles in future! To think about the organisation deeply and to hear from these people what they feel about various things in life.

I am really happy to announce that for the post of LCP, AIESEC in NUS we have 2 candidates:
1. Chang Siew Yik
2. Ruby Nguyen

For MC there are 3 candidates from AIESEC NUS:
1. Cathy Chan
2. Ashwin Subramaniam
3. Shubhangi Faujdar

For National Support Team, NUS has 1 candidate:
1. Mohamad Imran

And there are more people from other LCs running for the leadership team.

Help create the future of AIESEC Singapore by making the right choice, by knowing the people who are running. Come down for the Meet The People Session!

Looking forward to seeing you all!
Shub
You can call me at 97340672 for any further enquiries about the Meet The People Session!