It is the end of December – the wonderful period of sending and receiving Christmas and New Year greetings. This is also an excellent opportunity to reconnect with relatives and friends from other countries and continents.
For me this year’s holidays revealed another not so evident, but still very pleasant benefit of having an internship through the “eXchange” programme: greetings and wishes from the Hosting Local Committee (LC) and other interns whom you worked together with. It was so nice to find these from Rudy, the President of the project’s Organizing Committee, and the guys from our international team of trainers in my Inbox. They made me remember all those wonderful and sometimes challenging days of this summer experience: people we met, trainings we delivered, events we organized and attended, places we visited, and so on. Truly, the effort for obtaining an internship is worth investing in it – there are many subtle benefits that gradually reveal themselves long after the experience.
In conclusion, I wish all of you a Happy New Year, to have it full of extraordinary moments in your home countries and abroad, and then also to receive plenty of warm greetings from your new friends from all over the World!
Those, who understand Russian, I invite to read my poem “The Year of the Tiger” as a New Year greeting.
In my previous posts I have written much about the benefits of having an internship through the “eXchange” programme. Some of them are revealed after the experience itself, but it does not mean they are less pleasant to receive. One of such benefits is represented in the fact that you might become some sort of an “eXchange star” in a committee or two (or even more!). Of course, you will probably not see several lines of fans at your front door, sign people’s T-shirts, or kiss chubby babies (still, who knows!). Nevertheless, there is a chance, for instance, to appear on the eXchange promotion posters, Facebook pages, or video presentations at conferences.
As an example, here is a short webcam video made for AIESEC in Craiova, where I spent approximately two wonderful months of my summer internship:
More videos with internship experience stories, promotion of the “eXchange” programme, as well as information about other opportunities in AIESEC in Craiova can be found on the Facebook page of this local committee.
Спасибо снова, AIESEC Крайова (“Thanks again, AIESEC Craiova” in Russian)!
Internship in Romania through the “eXchange” programme of AIESEC described in the previous post “PRICELESS GEM IN MY COLLECTION” is a valuable and unique exhibit in my collection of the X Worlds. Still, it is neither the single, nor the first one. Before applying and going to the internship through “eXchange”, I was responsible for managing this programme on the local, national, and international levels, supporting other people in obtaining their high-quality internship experiences.
The very first X World revealed its benefits and challenges, when I entered “AIESEC in Chisinau” here, in the Republic of Moldova, and joined the eXchange Department as the so-called eXchange Development Responsible. We were a small, but quite united team with a kind and passionate leader, Irka Perdeleanu. Although we did not achieve significant results, still our team was the first one to introduce various eXchange management instruments in organizational projects and activities, establish the basis of reception practices, negotiate country-to-country partnerships, and implement other important innovations for the growing “AIESEC Moldova”. Members of this generation of the “X Guys” obtained significant leadership positions and organized impactful projects in their further AIESEC career.
Here is a short video showing some moments from the wonderful experience of that period:
Then came the Evolution: the National Executive Board (usually called MC EB or just MC) of “AIESEC Moldova” was established, and it happened so that I became the first “eXchange” programme responsible (Vice-president of eXchange or MCVP X, as it is officially called) on the national level. Thus the excitement and passion, as well as multiple challenges continued with both old and new nice, hard-working people already in two local committees: Chisinau and Balti. Together we also brought valuable improvements and innovations to the “eXchange” programme here, achieved certain growth both in quantitative and qualitative parameters, and promoted the potential of “AIESEC Moldova” on the national and global arena.
A glimpse of that extraordinary and memorable term is presented in the following video:
The local and national experience was followed by an international one, when I got selected for a virtual team called the eXchange Quality Board (XQB) that is responsible for supporting AIESEC International in developing qualitative parameters of the “eXchange” programme on the global level. 15 devoted individuals from different countries and regions lead by a very responsible Chair, Felipe Dalcin, spent a period of one year working together on reviewing the international policies and standards of the programme, creating and releasing educational materials, coaching AIESEC committees in other countries and supporting them in solving quality-related cases as effectively and efficiently as possible. After finishing the XQB 2008 – 2009 term these people have proceeded further by becoming presidents of national committees, going on internships, or getting suitable and desired job places.
This video shown at the 60thAIESEC International Congress displays the staff and main activities of this interesting and colourful virtual team:
Truly, all these three X Worlds were some amazing experiences I enjoyed to live! Many objectives were achieved, many challenges were overcome, many valuable learning points were received, and, of course, many good friends were obtained. Thus, the opportunities were worth taking them. And if you have even a small chance to be recruited in AIESEC and offered similar opportunities, do not hesitate – go for it! You will have a lot of pleasant moments to remember afterwards… and many people to thank for the time spent together… as I do right now.
No doubt, I am highly grateful to all those people, who shared the above-mentioned experiences together with me, and say “Thank you!” for the knowledge, skills, challenges, and fun moments you gave me then. For it is true that “as the Great Pyramids are built of many stone blocks, so the success of a person is made of many contributions”.
A month has passed since the end of my internship experience in Craiova, Romania mentioned in the previous posts (“MY SUCCESSION – REALIZATION!” and “THAT IS MY X WORLD!”). Nowadays it shines like a gem from its stand in my collection of the X Worlds.
A marvellous and, truly, priceless item!
But there is much more to admire. Just come closer and take an attentive look for yourself.
See, this facet reflects what we had DONE there as a team of seven foreign trainers within the sixth edition of the environmental project “Learn to Change the Future 2009” organized by AIESEC in Craiova.
Here it is possible to make out the trainings on Ecology and Volunteering for last year pupils done, here is some volunteering in practice in building houses for unprivileged families and cleaning the City Botanical Garden, and here you can see the city march and closing event with promotion of pupils’ ecological initiatives on the Central Square. Certainly, the last event was the most exciting and memorable: you can read more about it in the articles HERE and HERE (both of them are in Romanian) and watch the video reporting presented below:
And this colourful facet here displays the backgrounds and skills we had DEVELOPED while performing the above-mentioned activities. Observe the training and facilitation skills, knowledge about major environmental issues and sustainable development, effective communication with people from other cultures and with different mentalities, volunteering and teamwork skills, and further on.
Certainly, there are many more photos made during this amazing experience. You can have a look at the two photo albums available for visitors near the gem stand: “My Visited Places” (photos 61 – 79) and “Craiova, Romania”.
If you wish to find out more about the flow of the project “Learn to Change the Future 2009”, I offer you to listen to the spots on the Radio OlteniaHERE, HERE and HERE and watch the video presented on the concluding press conference in July 2009:
And in conclusion, there is one more video to show – the one with me telling about the internship experience during the last days of it:
Well, these are just some of the visible parts of the treasure obtained through the “eXchange” programme of AIESEC. It contains much more than meet the eye: challenges and valuable lessons learned from them, small and big victories, new wonderful friends, huge gratitude to the ones, who helped us realize the internship there, in AIESEC in Craiova, and back at home, and other hardly noticeable, but still highly important facets that significantly contribute to the overall shine of the gem.
Nowadays this X World represents an admirable addition to my collection. Perhaps I will add some more in the nearest future.
In the post “THE SCIENCE OF AIESEC” it was written about the third scientific article with the description of AIESEC and the “eXchange” programme to be published in summer 2009. And here comes the update: this article called “Entrepreneurial Preparation for Young IT Specialists in Moldova” is published and available for anyone to read in the book “Promotion of the Information and Communication Technologies in Education”.
In order to inform you of its contents, here is the abstract of the work:
“The article displays the challenge of lacking business preparation for IT students in the Republic of Moldova. As a solution the project “OPEN i” is described: general overview, goals, main stages and actions, impact, etc. In the end the list of actions to establish the entrepreneurial preparation for young IT specialists in the country is presented”.
Thus, there are three scientific articles about AIESEC published so far. But I suppose it is too early to put a “point” here. Therefore, the concluding phrase of this post is:
Today is already the beginning of August 2009, meaning that my term in the virtual team eXchange Quality Board (XQB) 2008 – 2009 of AIESEC International is over. During the whole period of the team’s activity we have realized important initiatives and delivered significant results for improving the quality of eXchange experiences on all levels: local, national, regional, and global. Here I want to tell you about one of them – the so-called IXPQS 2009.
IXPQS is an abbreviation for the International eXchange Policies and Quality Standards. In simple words it is the set of policies and standards that regulate AIESEC’s eXchange programme on the global level. In order to ease working with IXPQS it is divided into six main parts (documents):
1. International Exchange Policies – Contains all the overall policies related to the eXchange programme;
2. Statement of Understanding – Defines the roles and responsibilities of all parties of the programme;
3. Complaint Procedures – Explains the procedure of raising complaints and the quality case solving process;
4. Exchange Process Standards – Displays the minimum AIESEC services that must be provided to an intern or organization;
5. Privacy Policy – Outlines the use of information provided by interns and organizations;
6. Annual Revision Process – Explains the process to review and improve IXPQS.
In 2008 the XQB team drove forward the initiative of revising the previous version of IXPQS (2005). It was necessary due to changing of the primary eXchange-managing instrument (transition from Insight XP to MyAIESEC.net), various inputs from countries and needed support to boost the eXchange growth both in quantitative and qualitative parameters. As a result, the new version of IXPQS (2009) has been officially released at the beginning of this year. It has continued to play the role of the primary eXchange quality management tool in AIESEC.
But what are the most important changes implemented in IXPQS 2009? Here are some of them for you to see clearly the importance and benefits emerging from the revision results:
– The maximum number of internships per person has been changed from two to as many as possible within the limited period of 36 months abroad;
– The minimum duration of an internship has been reduced from 8 weeks (2 months) to 6 weeks (1.5 months);
– Possibility to apply for the eXchange programme at the age up to 30 years;
– Simplified eXchange Measurement System and other necessary updates.
Thus, IXPQS represents a powerful tool to manage the eXchange programme for all sides involved in it: eXchange participant / intern, organization / project, and AIESEC (Hosting and Sending Committee). It supports the satisfaction of the participating organizations and individuals, sets clear expectations of each party of eXchange, maintains good relationships amongst them, contributes to the promotion of internships, and, of course, stimulates the eXchange growth.
And all this is not just simple words – I have really used the eXchange Policies and Standards to improve my internship experience that I finish nowadays. These documents have helped me to define my rights as an intern and the responsibilities of the Sending and Hosting AIESEC Committees and push them to improve the servicing related to the eXchange programme.
To sum up, IXPQS is a great instrument to manage high-quality eXchange experience for all parts of the programme and on all levels. Truly, it can serve as one of the key sounds of your success.
If you wish to learn more about IXPQS, you can view and download the presentation I have made recently for my session on the eXchange quality.
Also I suggest you to take a look at the wiki “IXPQS Wiki” containing the latest updates and education materials on this topic.
Several weeks have passed since I began my internship experience. There are many people interested in hearing about the country and city I am in, the project we are engaged in, the reception activities here, etc.
So, here is a short video about the past weeks of my internship in Craiova, Romania. Enjoy!
“The Status of the EP CODE: EP-In-MD-MD-2009-1010 has been changed to Realized” – this short sentence might be a bit unclear and meaningless to the one not involved in the “eXchange” programme. However, for those, who had or currently having their internships through it, the phrase contains a good load of emotions, feelings, experience and successful results. Basically, it indicates that the respective person had arrived in the country of internship and started his/her work here – in other words, the agreement of internship between this person and certain company / project has been realized.
Talking about my realization, it is comprised of some interesting and sometimes humorous moments and events.
First thing to say here is that I had finally succeeded in obtaining the visa to Romania. On the same day I boarded a bus to Bucharest and was off to Moldova’s western neighbour. During the trip the bus driver had decided to add some “hot and spicy” entertainment to it and had showed us several funny videos with naked people and sexual background. I had watched them with an old lady from Italy, who had not shared driver’s preferences and humour.
At the Moldovan border another unexpected thing happened. The PC of the customs officer, who checked up and scanned our passports, shut down completely exactly after scanning my document. So, we had to wait for the officer to reboot the PC and restart the software.
The adventures continued not far away – at the Romanian border. Customs officers found two packs of cigarettes in the bus, which no one had claimed to be in possession of. The officers considered it to be a part of the contraband, so they arrested the bus and verified all luggage. Not finding anything they let us go in peace in about one hour.
Next on the schedule was a walk in Bucharest with a never-seen-before-girl, who had travelled to the western city of the country – Timisoara. Together we visited some interesting places in the Romanian capital, ate chicken crisps at the train station and played cards in the train to Craiova.
All this was the start of my “eXchange” experience. Nowadays I am fully involved in the project “Learn to Change the Future 2009” here, in Craiova, being a member of the international trainers team. We have already met all participants and attended the first Craiova City Tour, visiting the Science Museum of Oltenia with the exhibition of the local biosphere and the beautiful Nicolae Romanescu Park (formerly Bibescu Park) – the largest and most well-known park in the city.
Although the project “Learn to Change the Future 2009” is an Education Traineeship (ET) that usually means providing interns with salary enough to cover accommodation and meal only, the conditions here are quite good: a nice and cosy apartment with free Internet access and a fridge full of different food products is provided and some pocket money is given at the end of each month. Thus, the conditions are suitable both for a nice holiday and productive training work.
This is just a first quick look on my X World in Craiova, Romania. There are more exciting moments to experience, more interesting things to discover, more exciting events to attend… Therefore, more X World stories to post here.
“Matched” is the status of an eXchange participant’s personal form (so-called EP form) in the virtual eXchange database, which means the company / NGO / project the respective person applied for an internship to has accepted his/her application and is ready to receive this participant in its home country.
The following status of my EP form should be “Realized”, meaning that I am in Romania having my desired internship experience. However, certain obstacles have appeared here with the biggest one to be obtaining visa to Romania. This is a silly paradox: it was so easy to receive visa to Sweden and Brazil situated far away from Moldova, but a real bureaucratic inferno to get the necessary sticker in the passport for coming to the neighbouring country of Romania. At the Romanian embassy each point and comma in the application documents were verified and asked about several times by different persons. Due to such bureaucratic challenges I am still in Moldova, although the project had started 8 days ago.
Nevertheless I have managed to apply for the Romanian visa and should get it in 3 – 5 days. On the date of receiving my passport with this sticker I will immediately board the bus and travel to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, and from there by train to Craiova.
I am still optimistic to see the “Realized” status of my EP form, in other words, to have the expected internship.
Nowadays an interesting initiative by AIESEC Moldova is available for young people from the Republic of Moldova to benefit from. It is called “Globex” that stands for the global exchange programme.
Started from several ideas in 2008 “Globex” represents the promotion campaign of the “eXchange” opportunity aligned to the specifics of the national market of Moldova. In fact, it promotes the so-called on-going recruitment of people to apply and go on internship at any time of year. Previously it was possible to apply for “eXchange” only during the official recruitment periods of AIESEC Moldova: in spring (February – March) and autumn (October – November). At present, by using “Globex” the organization is able to accept applications and provide young people with the chosen internship experience in any month of a year and all year long. Thus, the applicant should no longer receive such reply: “The recruitment period is over. Please apply next time in spring / autumn”. Instead he / she is invited to the interview, participates at the cultural preparation seminar, chooses the most suitable internship offer and gets the desired international experience.
In addition, “Globex” indicates the global character of “eXchange”: a person can go to any of the 106 countries, where an AIESEC committee is present. And that can be done not only once, but twice, three times… one is able to get as much internships as possible within a three-years-limited period of being the “eXchange” participant – this is became possible in 2009 according to the latest updates in the International eXchange Policies and Quality Standards. Thus a person is able to visit many countries, have jobs in different areas, meet people of diverse cultures – in other words, have the real global experience!
To sum up, “Globex” keeps the standards and requirements of the “eXchange” programme of AIESEC and spices it with the continuity and clear promotion message for the external market.
This is the virtual library of materials related to the "eXchange" programme of AIESEC. Click on the logo to gain access to various education materials, templates, planning and evaluation tools, useful links, etc.
eXchange Gifts:
This is the collection of Facebook gifts related to the "eXchange" programme. To use the application click on the logo, enter your Facebook account, choose the gift you like and send it to your friends. Enjoy!
Posted by Shurik the Creator 
The X Worlds 3D 