Monday, November 19, 2007
AIESEC Work: The Students
In front of the Engineering Building is the typical hangout for most students and therefore the usual meeting point for me to work and chat with the students.
Officially, twelve students are on the AIESEC list here. Some more still get the emails and will perhaps join in March again, when they are more abl
e to combine AIESEC and university life. Most active are the students from the Business faculty. Partly, because they are active anyway, working with the Right to Education campaign of the university or elsewhere; partly, because their subjects are less demanding than those of the engineers.
The main challenges with the team are time constraints: The university is only open until 5pm. During the winter most female members of the team have to be home at five, as it is getting dark then. Furthermore, each semester the students have first, second and third exams, which basically means that there is always somebody who has an exam coming up! Well, they are preparing one or two days in advance for these exams, so it does not seem to be that demanding. But still, it affects the time for meetin
gs and workshops and it is more or less impossible to have everybody present.
So far we had workshops about Project management, Marketing/Selling AIESEC, Time- and Self management and Team- and Conflict management. I did not want to repeat an introduction to AIESEC, as most of the team have had this once or twice. But during the workshops I have to include time for more basic information about AIESEC.
Officially, the workshops are from 9am to 4 or 5pm. In reality we start between 9.30 and 10 o’clock. Sometimes one or two people appear at 11. It is also common that some leave earlier, because they have to work. And generally I plan each session with more time than in Germany.
The students really enjoy interactive work and creativity tasks like expressing things through painting or acting. Teambuilding exercises to wake everybody up or to serve there name are also welcome and a development in the team is noticeable! Not only during the workshop, but also during the coffee breaks, when more personal issues are discussed and
more talks and laughters come up in general. Still, we are heavily in the Storming Phase, where personal relations are developed, team- and communication structures and procedures are established and modified and a lot of things are discussed and disagreed on.
In between the lectures I meet with some members of the team to prepare and make phone calls to companies, to talk about the team, to discuss the agenda for the week or the next meeting, talk about AIESEC in general and my experience, about project ideas and to have lunch.
Officially, twelve students are on the AIESEC list here. Some more still get the emails and will perhaps join in March again, when they are more abl
e to combine AIESEC and university life. Most active are the students from the Business faculty. Partly, because they are active anyway, working with the Right to Education campaign of the university or elsewhere; partly, because their subjects are less demanding than those of the engineers.The main challenges with the team are time constraints: The university is only open until 5pm. During the winter most female members of the team have to be home at five, as it is getting dark then. Furthermore, each semester the students have first, second and third exams, which basically means that there is always somebody who has an exam coming up! Well, they are preparing one or two days in advance for these exams, so it does not seem to be that demanding. But still, it affects the time for meetin
gs and workshops and it is more or less impossible to have everybody present.So far we had workshops about Project management, Marketing/Selling AIESEC, Time- and Self management and Team- and Conflict management. I did not want to repeat an introduction to AIESEC, as most of the team have had this once or twice. But during the workshops I have to include time for more basic information about AIESEC.
Officially, the workshops are from 9am to 4 or 5pm. In reality we start between 9.30 and 10 o’clock. Sometimes one or two people appear at 11. It is also common that some leave earlier, because they have to work. And generally I plan each session with more time than in Germany.
The students really enjoy interactive work and creativity tasks like expressing things through painting or acting. Teambuilding exercises to wake everybody up or to serve there name are also welcome and a development in the team is noticeable! Not only during the workshop, but also during the coffee breaks, when more personal issues are discussed and
more talks and laughters come up in general. Still, we are heavily in the Storming Phase, where personal relations are developed, team- and communication structures and procedures are established and modified and a lot of things are discussed and disagreed on.In between the lectures I meet with some members of the team to prepare and make phone calls to companies, to talk about the team, to discuss the agenda for the week or the next meeting, talk about AIESEC in general and my experience, about project ideas and to have lunch.
