Roxana Negoita was in an international intership in Turkey, in Ankara. She wrote 38 things that she misses about Ankara.
My name is Berche Roxana and I was an exchange participant for 2 months, in 2010, in Izmir, Turkey. During my Development Internship I was part of a local project called Myself My world. My main responsibilities were: organizing learning circles for high school students grades 10-11, encouraging students to speak in English, giving lectures on subjects such as Effective Communication, Time Management, Presentation skills, Leadership and preparing social activities such as art, drama, music, sports related to the previous lectures to make students interested.
You may ask what did exchange mean to me? more…
Why Romania? And why with AIESEC? These were the most asked questions when I told people about my plans to go abroad again. The second question was easy to answer because I worked for 2,5 years in AIESEC. The first one: Well it was coincidence. I just planned to go to an Eastern European country and the only reason why it was Romania was the date of the internship. It was a really nice coincidence.
Arriving in Cluj some people were already waiting for me to pick me up from the airport.
From the beginning on people took really care of me and were very friendly, so I felt warmly welcome from the beginning of my time in Cluj. Cluj has a lot of international trainees. In the first days I met people from New Zealand, Greece, Ukraine, Poland, Azerbaijan, Puerto Rico, Hongkong, UK, Georgia, Turkey and Moldova. We also had a big global village in Julius Mall to present AIESEC and to get to know each other.
In my internship more…
Romania and New Zealand may be very far apart geographically, but being on exchange here has made me realise that it is not the world is not so small – and despite differences in culture, it is the actions of people that are important. I arrived in Romania not knowing anyone, but immediately felt at home thanks to my friends at AIESEC Cluj Napoca.
My birthday was one day after I arrived in Cluj Napoca – but still, the LC threw me a surprise party, something I will never forget. The LC arranged group trips to sightsee around Cluj and there was never a moment where I felt lonely or without someone to talk to.
For 6 weeks, I worked on a development internship with disadvantaged children in Cluj, gaining work experience with a Romanian NGO. It is expected that there will be some challenges when working in a different country, more…
To me, travel means adventure; so I ignored the raised eyebrows and headed straight or the unknown- into the lush green lap of Transylvania, Romania. I don’t think I could have asked for a better AIESEC experience.
Romania is a land struggling to get back on its feet, both financially and politically. Yet there is always place for beauty- you’ll see her revealing her pretty face through colorful cottages, dancing crimson tulips on window sills or the adorable cobble-stoned piatas. Having spent most of my time there in Cluj Napoca, more…
Follow your passion
Right after the intensive leadership experience as a conference manager in January 2010, I decided to go for exchange on the same issue- Corporate Social Responsibility- which completed the whole issue-based experience. I joined the Sustainability Education Program which was a national project in Romania as a developmental traineeship to spread my impact internationally. Following your own passion could help you identify what do you want to achieve in an international internship experience, at the same time, fulfill your internal desire.
Spread your impact directly and indirectly
In Romania, I have directly spread my impact in the local community by conducting workshops on sustainability to the university students in Cluj-Napoca. It was not only to enrich their knowledge and awareness to the issue, but also empowering them as change agents to contribute back to the society. Besides, I have shared my skills and knowledge which I had developed through previous leadership experience to other trainees in the same project, so that more people can be influenced. Apart from learning from other people, I could utilize my leadership experience to make a bigger impact both directly and indirectly.
Cultural experience more…
„Hy, my name is Monica Abrudan, I’m 24 and I’m a programmer. In the spring of 2009 I decided to give my career a little bit of colour by involving in social development projects.
I wanted to do volunteering at the British Red Cross, ONU or UNICEF, but I was refused because of my lack of working experience in the social domain.
Fortunately, AIESEC offered me a chance to participate at social development projects through a Development Internship of 2 months in Egypt. I worked at an NGO, who’s purpose was the development of the cities/villages around Alexandria. One of my main responsibilities were participating at the organizing of this social project.
Besides my professional experience, I gained much more culturally speaking. Egypt was the first country I visited outside Europe. I found a new culture with different traditions, religion, food, family relations, clima and… traffic.
Soon after I returned from this internship I went in another one again through AIESEC and lived another grate experience.
AIESEC offered me the opportunity to try a totally different career in my professional development and I loved it”
Monica Abrudan
AIESEC Cluj-Napoca
