When I decided to participate in the Nour project of AIESEC, I felt like I did something impulsive yet brave. I never went abroad on my own before. I always had people I could depend on like friends and family. This time I wanted to challenge myself by doing this project on my own, and I wanted to discover and embrace another culture.
In January 2020 I participated in an AIESEC Project on environment and sustainability in Castellana Grotte, Italy. I was lucky to stay six weeks in one of the most beautiful small villages I have been to. My work was about teaching the kids in the local Highschool on the UN SDGs and sustainability. My fellow AIESEC students were so kind to pick me up in Bari. They made sure I was safe and showed me how to travel to my destination.
I have traveled to 35 countries so far, of which sixteen as a solo traveler. In my opinion, you experience so much more when you travel alone, since you rely way more on the social connections you make on the way.
Starting my journey in Colombia At the start of July 2019, my sister and I took the big leap to pack our bags and visit our family in Colombia. During this time I was still deciding on doing a volunteering job for AIESEC. It was my luck to have my sister as my AIESEC...
My time in Sri Lanka The most incredible and heart-warming experience I had this summer, was working at a school in Sri Lanka. The school specializes in teaching children with autism and down syndrome. An exceptional aspect to mention about the school, is that the...
In the summer of 2019 I participated in the Medicine Project, organised by AIESEC. I got the chance to go to Ghana for 6 weeks to experience the culture and work at the hospital there. Before I left I was already in contact with people from AIESEC in Ghana. They...
A life-changing experience started for me in January 2020. I left behind all the fear and doubts and I said Yes to an adventure, miles away from the Netherlands. I spent 2 amazing months in São Paulo, Brazil, that I can only describe as “unforgettable”. My main...
An Austrian Adventure My AIESEC experience, an internship with a startup company in the city Graz in the southeast of Austria, started with the longest Flixbus ride I had ever taken. While sitting in the bus I had plenty of time to imagine how my experience was going...
I strongly believe it is an intense and enriching experience that everyone should have at least once in life! My AIESEC story in Colombia started at the end of September 2019. I decided to apply to a project only a few weeks before leaving and everything went very...
From the Netherlands to Greece – after 4 hours flight plus 3,5 hours by bus I arrived at my destination: Patras! The third biggest city in Greece, located in the north-west. It was smaller than I expected, but with very beautiful sea and mountain views. In the late...
The children see that there are people who care about them and support them. Arriving in Que Phong, Nghe An, Vietnam During my volunteering project in Vietnam, I had the opportunity to visit a village where 20 orphans from Aspiration Fund live. Aspiration Fund is...
In the months January/February I participated in the “We Speak”-project volunteering with AIESEC in Bogotá, Colombia. I taught women from the “Casa de Igualdad” (house of equality) English in the hope for them to become more self-confident and make them stand out from...
AIESEC Kilimanjaro, Women Empowerment My idea of volunteering abroad arose a few days before New Year’s Eve, when I was listing up my resolutions. One of them was to make the most of my long long summer holidays. So, when I went back to uni in January, the first...
A look at the quick-paced world of start-ups Imagine you have a great, innovative idea, you have an entrepreneurial spirit, and you are eager to put this idea into practice by starting your own business. First of all, that’s awesome! But this also means that you will...
Meet our IR partners for the Global Talent program! Olá, Hello, Ciao, Hola, γεια σας (geia sas), Dzień dobry - our international relations - IR partners for the Global Talent program are welcoming you! It is important that countries work together as much as possible,...
Does going abroad with AIESEC really change you? That’s a question which is hard to answer because not only every exchange but also every person is different. Depending on why you want to go abroad (volunteering, internships...), and your expectations, you will have...
What is Global Talent? Let's start by explaining what a Global Talent project is. A Global Talent (GT) is an internship for young people aiming towards professional career development in a global setting. It is the perfect choice for you when you want to kick-off or...
Order a drink on the streets in Solo (officially named Surakarta) and you will get a plastic cup with a plastic lid, a straw for easy drinking, a plastic bag to protect the cup and one small plastic bag for easy take away. Take a look around and check where you can...
Last summer I went to Georgia to volunteer in a project hosted by AIESEC. It’s been a very interesting journey with many ups, but certainly many downs too. . Volunteering abroad is not for everybody. It’s a challenging endeavour and through this post, I would like to...
Overall, AIESEC is a fantastic way to step outside your comfort zone. Especially through truly submerging yourself into a whole new, completely different way of life. This is what I did in Egypt! Preparation This year, as the buzz of summer break came ever closer, I...
Volunteer in Brazil – Smart Project in Florianopolis Introduction Brazil – Florianopolis, 7th of July 11pm. After my 10-hour flight from Lisbon to Brasilia, a clumsy request for a subway sandwich in the little Portuguese I learned 5 minutes earlier, and another 2-hour...
Feminism and Islam – a combination that seems to boil from tension. I know how difficult this topic can be: I am a Pakistani girl, grew up in Germany and live in the Netherlands. To analyze this topic, I went to Morocco for 6 weeks to interview people. In the last few...
A brief story of my experience as a volunteer for AIESEC in Mendoza, Argentina this summer. And how the work of the local committee there provides an encouraging example to all of us Welcoming Culture “Our place is open to anyone that is seeking refuge in our city and...
This post was written by Laura Bergshoef. Laura went on a volunteering project powered by AIESEC in the Netherlands. We offer international volunteering projects and professional internships with the aim of developing leadership in youth. If you want to read about...
Even though I could only spend six weeks in Brazil, I am sure I made a difference in their lives. And they made a difference in mine. I came to Brazil after my first year of university and a lot of enthusiasm to leave my marks in another country far away from Europe....
I was looking to leave an impact, not to upgrade my CV. Thankfully, AIESEC let me do both in Brazil. "My experience taught me more than any book could ever teach me, some things have to be seen in person." As a second year business student, I knew it was time for me...
People who say they can't are usually right. That is what these 6 weeks as an Exchange Participant (EP) in iCare were about for me. We arrived as a diverse and not-yet-cohesive group of young graduates and undergraduates. On our first day in YPAC, the school that we...
Experiencing an international exchange and living abroad always were one of my biggest dreams. However, due to several reasons it never happened during the time that I was a student. When I started working full-time, I noticed that the desire for a longer travel and...
Approximately 6000 kilometers away from Holland my AIESEC experience started. Because of my gap year I wanted to do something. Not only travelling but also something related to my study. Then I found the Medicine Project, the perfect combination of learning in a...
Last year I went to Uganda for an internship. My biggest fear was moving into an unknown country and leaving my family and friends behind. I had to prepare myself six months before departure and on that D-day I was like, … ok this is it! I was really curious about the...
It is around midnight, when I am waiting at Barranquilla airport in Colombia for someone to pick me up. Due to poor communication about this pick-up and my malfunctioning brain after an 18hr journey, I feel rather small. Fortunately a man points at his phone...
With only a six hour drive from the Dutch border, I didn’t expect a major culture shock when starting my internship in Berlin, Germany. But even though cultural differences may seem minor in the places closest to home, it are often these small things that determine...
During my time in AIESEC I was responsible for sending students aboard on professional internships. The danger with that is that, while searching internships for those students, you might find one that is amazing for yourself. This is exactly what happened to me....
My name is Gwen, and this year I got the opportunity to travel to Guatemala to check out AIESEC’s volunteer projects. I fell in love with the country, its culture, and I was amazed by the enthusiasm and dedication of the local AIESECers to make their country a better...
Pretty last minute I decided to go to Morocco for the Nour project. Having been to the Middle East before I figured I’d be a perfect candidate. I expected Morocco to be similar to the Middle East, since it has the same religion, language and sort of the same culture....
Get the local vibesBy Stijn Vrerik Finally, my trip to South-America has started, with a project in Medellin. Some months before leaving the Netherlands, I tried to learn some Spanish with a self-study course. Unfortunately, at the day of departure, I could probably...
Marokko lijkt geen haast te kennen. Op straat bewegen mensen zich op hun gemakje vooruit. Langzaam, al kletsend met gezelschap gaan ze op weg naar hun bestemming. Vaak komen mensen later op afspraken dan afgesproken. De enkelen die op tijd komen lijken niet...
Hier in Marokko betekent gastvrijheid meer dan het Nederlandse kopje koffie met een plakje ontbijtkoek. Als je bij mensen thuis wordt uitgenodigd krijg je in ieder geval muntthee met 4 suikerklontjes en worden er schaaltjes met eten voor je neergezet. 'Coelie', krijg...
Waar droom je van? Ik vind het altijd super interessant mensen deze vraag te stellen. Ik ben nieuwsgierig naar dromen, en hou er van als mensen iets onverwachts antwoorden. Mensen beginnen te stralen als ze over hun droom vertellen. En als ze niet precies weten wat ze...
'Als mensen eens geen vooroordelen zouden hebben, dan zou de wereld een stukje mooier zijn', zo luidde onze conclusie gisteravond. Het was de conclusie van een gesprek dat ik had met mijn kamergenootje, Oumaima. Een gesprek over vooroordelen, monarchie of republiek en...
Because I’m always eager to give something back to the world, I decided I wanted to do volunteer work in another country. For me this is also the best way to really get to know a country and its culture. People had told me that AIESEC is the perfect organization for...
It’s October 28, 2017. I’m getting off my plane at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City. For the past six weeks I had an amazing time backpacking in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Although I visited beautiful locations and had the time of my life, I felt like I was in a...
8 december 2017. Het is inmiddels al de laatste week van mijn project in Brazilië. Samen met Antonin en Tiziana heb ik het al vijf weken prima naar m’n zin. Mijn project heet Planet Heroes. Het doel van het project is om kinderen bewust te maken van hun omgeving,...
When I arrived it was already dark outside, but everything went (surprisingly) smooth; we were picked-up at the airport in Uganda by car and went to the accommodation, all on a quite road with nice African music on the background. By the time I did not know this would...
The moment I walked out of the airport, I was overwhelmed by all the unknown impressions. Everywhere were people looking at us and calling for us. When Luc and I finally found our guide, he simply welcomed us with the text: “Do you already have your money?” Despite...
It was only 6 days before departure that I booked my flight ticket to Amman, Jordan. The couple of days I had left in the Netherlands were just enough to finish my last tasks as an AIESEC member and to pack my bags. With almost no expectations I got onto the plane to...
6 weeks ago, when I was still at home, I didn’t really know what to expect. I was excited to go to Indonesia, but also really nervous. First impressions Then I arrived in Malang. I thought I was experiencing cultural differences: the crowded streets with all the...
Boarding the airplane, that would first bring me to Singapore and then to Kuching in Malaysia, I was very much doubting my decision to leave Amsterdam for over 6 weeks to go on an AIESEC experience. I would be missing out on a few of my best friends’ birthdays and...
Experience Story: Thu-Yên Pham, Hanoi, Vietnam After my graduation, I wanted to travel through South-East Asia and do some voluntary work in Vietnam. The main reason for seeking voluntary work in Vietnam was that I wanted to learn more about my background. The project...
After finishing my second year in medicine in the Netherlands, I felt like I wanted to experience more somewhere else in the world. I’m very interested in tropical medicine and Ghana was one of the country’s that offered a medical project in a tropical environment. A...
My grandma was from Indonesia, I really wanted to discover the country on my own. But I didn’t want to be only a tourist. I also wanted to experience how it was to live with local people and give something back to the country by being a volunteer. I choose to go...
Hiking? Hmm, not really my thing. That’s what I thought at least when jumping on a flight from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires exactly a year ago. I was on my way to the country of famous steaks, delicious Malbec wine and dancing tango in ancient cathedrals with 70-year old...