Two participants, Jovana and Anastasia of the Global.me project tell us about their experiences in Jyväskylä for the past 9 weeks. Our GCDP (Global Community Development Program) team is currently working on bringing about a whole new upgraded Global.me for future EPs to experience so take these girls' word for it and apply if you get the chance! All pictures belong to the EPs.
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| Harju stairs at Jyväskylä city centre |
1. Who are you?
- We are Anastasia and Jovana, and we're from Moldova and Serbia respectively. Jovana is a 3rd year student in the University of Internacional Economy and Finance in Belgrade and Anastasia studies marketing.
2. Background with AIESEC.
A: My AIESEC life started during my last year of high school when I participated in a project organized by AIESEC Chisinau. Since then I ended up joining the organization. I've worked as a team member, team leader and now as an exchange volunteer.
J: I'm not an official member of AIESEC yet, but after spending time with so many wonderful people from AIESEC I really feel like one of the AIESECers. When I go back to Serbia, I'm officialy gonna become a member.
3. Why and how did you choose Global.me?
A: To be honest, I don’t know! I was surprised myself! I guess I just had a tough time and wanted change, new challenges and international experiences. I chose an AIESEC internship, applied for the first project that I saw - and it was Global.me project in Finland. I didn't let any of my friends or relatives know until I got my visa and had bought my tickets! It came as a “shock” to them, going far away to a country “full of snow” :D
J: I found this internship on the AIESEC platform. I was certain this project was my thing and I haven't had any second thoughts. I chose Global.me because it's related to education which is close to my heart. I knew this was going to be a big challenge for me, but I was ready to deal with it. And now, I can tell, it was worth it.
4. Thoughts on Finland prior to coming here?
A: I had no pre-existing knowledge of Finland whatsoever. The only thoughts that I had in mind at the beginning were: “Finland- very cold and a lot of snow” and “What the hell I‘m doing!”. I was too busy with all of the paperwork to even consider what kind of a country Finland is. To my surprise what I saw was a beautiful country with plenty of greenery (not snow! :D), an amazing landscape pierced by lakes of all shapes and sizes and a culture of very welcoming people.
J: Before coming to Finland, I only knew the basics. However information learned at school or found on the internet cannot give you a thorough knowledge of a culture or a country. For a girl from Serbia Finland is a country of many opportunities. One of these opportunities was this project, being able to work as a part of the best education system in the world.
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| Contemplating on learning the language... |
5. What was your job description in the project? Did reality match expectations?
A: Strictly speaking the job description included working in a team of 3 to 5 people preparing and conducting interactive sessions and activities for high schools and organizations. As you can tell this project required a lot of preparation and thus my expectations for this project were high as well. At the end I can say that all my expectations were met. Hopefully the organizers' expectations of us EPs were met as well!
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| Expectations triangle |
J: Our internship matched the job description perfectly, however it also exceeded my expectations! We gained a lot from our teachers and students alike. Our students in particular gave us many funny moments, great questions, great discussions and most importantly they helped us improve because of their thirst for knowledge.
6. Memorable moments?
A: I think all of this internship is a memorable moment! For me, this is my first independent trip abroad so I tried to “live” every moment. Of course it was challenging from time to time too. In these 9 weeks I met people not just from the Finnish culture but from all over the world. This was because of our frequent visits to the local multicultural center “Gloria” – a place where you can get in touch with all of the world in just one room! Everyday aspects of the Finnish culture with its peaceful environment, friendly people, rock music, milk and butter everywhere, and of course, sauna are what made this internship memorable! To be honest, I don’t know how I will live without sauna. I’m already planning to build one at home! :D
Of course, a special memory is AIESEC Jyväskylä. As I like to think: “Great people are found everywhere, but in AIESEC they’re also AIESEC-ers.” I’m very proud that I had the opportunity to meet those AIESEC-ers, to work with them and to prove again that “I’m an AIESEC-er and it rocks!”. Also, I want to say ”Thank you” to two new people for me at the beginning but, with whom I have spent and share most of time, experiences and memories here in Finland, Jovana from Serbia and Jose from Spain. I’m very grateful to them for being together with me in this amazing, life changing experience!
J: There are so many great memories from Finland. I'm always gonna
remember special times with my dear friends, like the time one of our
Finnish friends taught us to make Pulla, a tradicional pastry from
Finland. I love it so much I'm definitely going make it in Serbia!
Also, thanks to another Finnish friend, I tried sushi which I have never
eaten before - with chopsticks and all! Our Local Aiesec Seminar where
we worked as OCs was full of memorable moments as well - like jumping
into a lake after sauna. That weekend really made me fall in love with
AIESEC. At Gloria we got to model for an African show! It was something
completely new but we had a lot of fun doing it!
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| Jovana and Anastasia modelling for the African show at Gloria. |
7. For future EPs, why choose Global.me?
A: Words can't express all the awesomeness I've experienced here in Jyväskylä. If you really want to challenge yourself, then Global.me and Finland are the right choice and the right place!
J: Yeah, if you want to be the change and influence the world while improving yourself, making friends and lots of memories then Global.me is a project for you! After Global.me, you are going to be more confident with a better perspective on the world and lifelong friends. It's definitely worth it, trust me!
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| "Keep calm and try Global.me, come to Finland" :D |
Talvikki: "I participated in the Youth To Business -forum organized in Helsinki just before the ACCESS-conference. The forum was organized by AIESEC, but it was not strictly an AIESEC-event: the venue was the Töölö campus of Aalto Unversity School of Business, and the event was promoted to students all over Finland.
On Saturday morning, people were divided into 2 big
groups: ICX (incoming exchange) and OGX (outgoing exchange) to focus on their specific field. Facilitators provided information
on important parts: time management, risk management, cost management, etc.
which are extremely challenging for leaders no matter where they work. There
was time for people to share and comment on each other’s difficulties and
improvements of their projects.
Our LCP Anna attended an international AIESEC conference EuroCo in Kiev, Ukraine in October 2013. The conference gathered up 150 Local Committee Presidents from over 50 countries from Europe and Northern America. Here she shares her thoughts of the conference and what it gave to our LC. Being an AIESECer is not only about sending people abroad and taking new ones in - opportunities like these truly prove what you can gain by being and AIESECer.
" The conference started with a Global Youth Forum that was organised for ukrainian youth. The speakers of the Forum were from companies such as Mars and Microsoft for example - and also our own President of AIESEC International, Rolf Schmachtenberg held his speech. They talked about challenges that young people face in today's world. We also had a chance to discuss about various issues with other Forum participants. It was interesting to talk with young ukrainians and to hear what they think about their future possibilities and the realities of their society.
Please, introduce yourself
and outline your AIESEC journey so far.
What's next in relation to AIESEC?
Also it has brought me new opportunities. With AIESEC I got
the chance to come to Finland. Two years ago I could never imagine me being
here, talking with you, working in a different country and with people from
different parts of the world. Such intercultural work experience is very
helpful to me.
Kyiv is a big city, especially if you put it into the
Finnish scale. Like any big city there are more activities going on, and for
students there are more opportunities. But at the same time there are more
challenges and competition. For example in AIESEC Jyväskylä there are only
around 20 members but in Kyiv there are more than 200. You could see the
difference. There is much more work to do in Kyiv, and more competition. The
cultural difference may also play an important role here as in Finland,
individualism and creativity is more encouraged, while in Central and Eastern
Europe efficiency is more stressed. The education system is also quite
different between Finland and Ukraine. For example there we do not use credits,
and we choose the courses we take in a different way.
