PROMOTING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BETWEEN INDIA AND THE U.S.
“Last year around this time in July, a friend of mine and I were talking about starting a club in our college. AIESEC. It was still in a very embryonic stage and we didn’t really take it seriously. Towards the end of July we started embracing the idea and working for it. Now, almost a year later I’m the Head & Founder of AIESEC In NIT Trichy, which is a team of 28.
AIESEC is the world’s largest youth run organization working towards the ‘peace and fulfilment of humankind’s potential’ through cross cultural exchange programs on social issues as well as technical ones. It is present in 133 countries with a membership of 100,000 people. Apart from providing cross-cultural experiences, AIESEC also caters to the social issues in the society by holding events to raise money or awareness.
Over the last one year we have conducted various events, both online as well as offline. I’ve summarized it below:
AIESEC 101: This was the first session that we had in NIT Trichy where we had an interactive session with the students by talking to them about what AIESEC is and what it offers. This involved a group activity as well as a quiz with prizes in the end.
In December 2015 we sent two students: one to Thailand and the other to Malaysia for a 6 week social internship on education and waste management respectively.
Sustainable Development Goals: This was an online campaign started by us. We spread awareness about the United Nations’ SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) by holding a sheet of one out of the 18 goals and talking about it. For eg, Zero hunger, Quality Education, etc. This is important because every project that AIESEC offers around the world is related to at least one SDG.
Awareness campaign in and around Trichy: We went to three different colleges around Trichy and had a session there. The session was a reiteration of AIESEC 101 where we talked about the idea of AIESEC and the opportunities that it offers. We culminated with a huge event in our own college where we invited two girls from Moscow, Russia who were on a cultural internship at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
In May 2016 we sent 5 students from our college to three different countries (Egypt, China and Philippines) on projects pertaining to environmental awareness, developing marketing strategies for an NGO, teaching English to underprivileged kids and culture exploration to understand better.
The youth of today constantly complain about the leaders and their inefficiency. At AIESEC, we believe that the youth are the people who need to take up leadership roles. I’ve been a part of this organization for close to a year and the coming year I will be working on ways to improve it and provide a strong foundation. Once I go for graduate degree, someone else will take it over from me. However, I will always be connected to it.
My area of interest revolves around energy and optimization. It is hard to apply this to the ideals of AIESEC, however if I get a chance I would be happy to.
If any of guys wish to check out this club some more:
AIESEC India website- www.aiesec.in
AIESEC In NITT Facebook Page- https://m.facebook.com/aiesecnittrichy/ “
