Bell Tower Climb

As the semester comes to a close and graduation approaches, there are certain traditions and practices that have been past on to each senior class at UNC. One of those traditions is the annual bell tower climb. 

Seniors begin lining up early in the morning, once every year, to get a chance to climb to the top of Carolina's iconic bell tower, and leave their signature on a brick inside. As you climb the hundreds of steps up to the top, you get this feeling that only an elite few have made this climb. Of course the senior class does it every year, but still - imagine the thousands of people who frequent our little town of Chapel Hill who may have never had the chance to climb the bell tower.

This seemingly small part of my last week of class was the spark that flipped the switch for me. Up until this week, I was so ready to graduate, overwhelmed with excitement! Now that I've finished my last class and have just two exams left at UNC, those emotions have changed. I'm going to miss this place. Carolina has had my heart since the day I stepped foot on campus. I can't believe that in less than a month I'll be moving away for good. Of course, I know I'll be back, and soon! But nothing will ever compare to the four amazing years I spent as a proud student at the greatest university there is - The University of North Carolina.

Graduation Photos

... because I've reached that point in life where I'm graduating from college, and my mother would not be very happy if I didn't post some pictures of me decked out in my Carolina blue graduation gown!

Europe Youth to Business Forum

On Monday, April 17th, 2014, I was one of five Americans to attend the Europe Youth to Business (Y2B) Forum in Warsaw, Poland. The event was hosted by AIESEC International with support from AIESEC in Poland to provide special guest panelists as well as some of our AIESEC's international partners to start up a global conversation about youth unemployment. Many of the conversations were tailored specifically to the current situation in Europe, where unemployment is causing protests and revolts in many EU countries. With this being said, it was easy to take key learning points from the discussions we had and see how they can be applied to the current reality in the US as well.

The first half of the morning consisted of two panel discussions with various guests being asked the hard questions by youth leaders from around the world. For this portion of the day, I decided to do some live tweeting in order to collect as much of these speaker's wisdom as possible. Take a look at some of the highlights of the panel discussions!

The second half of the day was devoted to us answering those tough questions. I attended two workshops, one with TATA Consultancy Services and another with Intel. The purpose of these workshops were to learn how our partner companies solve real-world issues, so that we can use AIESEC to solve the international problem of youth unemployment. It involved a lot of working in small groups and brainstorming possible solutions.

After a long day devoted to problem solving and thinking bigger than just ourselves, I left the convention center exhausted, but inspired to continue this conversation. Before I attended the Europe Youth to Business forum, I can't say I ever really thought much about global youth unemployment. Of course, I've stressed out about finding a job after college and being able to support myself as I step into the real world, but this issue is so much larger than that. I am thankful for this experience and for the chance to hear how some of the smartest business people in the world think this issue can be solved.

EuroXpro 2014 - Warsaw, Poland

This past week, I had the awesome opportunity to travel to Warsaw, Poland to attend EuroXpro 2014. EuroXpro is an international leadership conference sponsored by AIESEC, with delegates from 54 countries in attendance. In the image above, you can see my bearded face screaming with my right arm extended, wearing a red shirt!

Attending this conference was the first real responsibility that came when I accepted my position on the national team of AIESEC United States.  The purpose of this conference was to network with fellow AIESECer's across the network to learn what exactly I'll be doing for the next year of my life. Some of the delegates were just finishing up their 1-year term on their respective national team's, while the majority of those in attendance were on the same boat as me, just beginning it all!

Throughout the week we attended sessions, listened to panel discussions, and took part in the global planning of where we want to see AIESEC in the coming years. We were up early every morning and stayed up until the wee hours of the night every night. Whether we were discussing national strategies or just meeting new friends, it was all in good fun!
 
On the first day of the conference, each country had to introduce themselves to the plenary in the form of a roll call. A roll call is just a glorified choreographed dance, where the more ridiculous you look - the better! Here is a picture of the five US delegates (in baseball caps) joined by a couple of others. Roll calls are pretty common at AIESEC conferences and are used as ice breakers, or just to bring up the energy in a room full of sleep-deprived delegates.

After meeting so many awesome people from around the world, I am overwhelmed with the number of people I met that are in the same position as I am. I now have a full supply of peers who are also moving to another city to continue working for the organization we are all so passionate about. Whenever work gets tough and I just need someone to talk to that's going through the same thing, I know who to go to. In the picture to the right is Hans, my teammate for next year, as well as Nanxi & Renard, members of the national team in Germany!

One of the highlights of the week was the Polish themed gala dinner. This is a time where we all come together to celebrate our successes over the past year and give out awards to the entities across our region that went above and beyond to create an even greater impact. We were seated according to the country that we represented, but because we were only five, we were also joined by the single Australian delegate, as well as some of the Germans that didn't fit at their table. The gala is a time to break out your finest attire, hence the multiple bow-ties in this picture. The five of us in this picture made up the entire US delegation. Although I knew this entire group from previous conferences, it was great to spend a week in Poland, getting to know them better and learning more about what each of us as individuals can contribute to AIESEC United States. Stay tuned for my next post about another highlight of the week: the Europe Youth-to-Business Forum that took place mid-way through the week.

Discovering Durham

This past Saturday, my mom came to spend the day with me in my college town of Chapel Hill. After four great years at this university and several visits from my family, we've seen just about all this little town has to offer. With the exception of a visit to Duke Gardens, however, we've never really had any interest in exploring the city just ten minutes down the road, Durham. Recently, I heard something about Durham being classified as a particularly "creative" city, and wanted to know more. In his 2012 ranking of the most creative metropolitan areas, Richard Florida ranks Durham first with the data revealing that 48.4% of Durham's workforce is employed in creative occupations. As a soon-to-be graduate hoping to enter the creative industry in the near future, I figured it was worth it to step into enemy territory to investigate what all of this creative talk is all about. We visited two of the "creative districts" of Durham and I've organized my photos according to their district.

American Tobacco Campus

 

Brightleaf Square

 

 

 

Documentary Storytelling: A Critical Look at The Six Degrees of Helter Skelter

For this blog post I decided to filter through Netflix and find a documentary that I haven't seen, and watch it under a new light. In Account Planning, we've been talking about the importance of telling a story whenever you are giving a presentation or just trying to command an audience. The idea is that a documentary is just a well thought-out non-fiction story that combines the attractive elements of motion video, audio, and narration to enhance that story. My goal was to be particularly critical while watching this documentary, and then see if any successes from the movie could be used in my personal storytelling.

When deciding which documentary to go with, I had a hard time picking, but decided to go with The Six Degrees of Helter Skelter. Ever since reading Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, written by Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor in the the 1970's Manson Murder Trial, I've always been really interested in this topic. The story behind the murders and the true power Charles Manson had over a group of people is remarkable. If you can get over the sickening pain in your stomach and dig through the grueling details behind the most tragic murders in Hollywood, there's a lot to learn about the psyche and emotional intelligence of Manson and the rest of his followers.

Contrast to Bugliosi's eloquent description of the story, I wasn't particularly blown away by this documentary. Sure, the narrator who walked us through the series of events knew the facts and showed up at nearly every significant (and some not-so significant) land mark that Bugliosi mentions in the book, he didn't make the same impact that Vincent Bugliosi did in his book version. I guess it makes sense that Bugliosi, the one man that had to stand across from Manson every day during the trial and accuse him of the heinous plans he so obviously headed up, tells the story of the Tate and LaBianca murders like no one else. With that being said, there were aspects to the documentary that could be useful to review and reflect on how they support the art of storytelling.

The first and most obvious thing to note was the film's use of background music to supplement the narration. Although this has proven to work over and over again, it fell a little short this time. When they showed an excess of words on the screen, a light/upbeat tune played to help you get through the entire passage before moving on to the next passage. When the narrator went on for a long time about some of the less-interesting details, they again added a more interesting song that slowly started to play louder and louder.  I do think they were on the right track with supplementing boring material with music that keeps the audience tuned, but they could have made much better music selections.

One element that I did like was the narrator's choice to tell his story with a very specific persona to his character. Whether he actually was or not, the narrator portrayed himself as an old time Hollywoode tour guide. Even though some of the facts he shared and land marks he took us to may have been boring to someone who has read the prosecuting attorney's version of the story, it really made it seem like you were on a tour of Hollywood and following the steps of the dangerous Charles Manson. All of the same facts were there, it was just told through a little different lens.

The main thing I can take away from this documentary is that when telling a story, it is important to think about the way you're telling it. What makes you the right person to tell that story? Are you connected in anyway to the story? If not, how can you portray yourself as a relevant source of the story. The narrator in this documentary did just that. Because he was a Hollywood tour guide that spent many years driving tourists around the city and rattling off facts here and there, he was a valid option for telling a very famous story that hit Hollywood by storm. Now it's my job to figure out how I can do this during my next presentation, pitch, or any time storytelling is necessary.

Puerto Rican Adventure

After a busy week back from spring break, I am just now starting to get caught up on my work and getting into the hang of things. A week ago, six of my friends and I spent the week in San Juan, Puerto Rico for our senior spring break. I had never spent a lot of money on spring break or planned a vacation with just friends before, but there's a first for everything. This was without a doubt, the most relaxing and enjoyable vacation I've had in a long time. See below for some pictures of our time in the tropical paradise that is: Puerto Rico.

 

 

 

Post-grad Plans

Before I get to some exciting news that involves my plan after graduation I wanted to finish my discussion about the structure of AIESEC and how the local level relates to the rest of the global community. Just as their is an executive board at each local committee, each country that AIESEC is present in is run by a national team of AIESECers that have worked their way up from the local level. These are typically recent graduates of colleges from that country, but it is not unusual to have national teams with international AIESECers on them. These teams consist of 5-12 people usually, depending on the team structure decided by the elected president. The name for the national team of each country is their member committee, led by the member committee president.

Each member committee provides guidance and resources to the local committees and drives national strategies for AIESEC in that country. The team consists of various VPs and director positions that cater to the VPs and team leaders on the local level with their respective positions. They also represent AIESEC United States in the global network of AIESEC International.

This would be the point where I proudly announce that I have been selected for the 2014-2015 Member Committee of AIESEC United States!

My official title is Director of Account Delivery. What this means is I'll be the member committee position responsible for all of the local committee VP's of Account Delivery, the position that I served as during my executive board term in 2013.

As you can see from this graphic, our team is still not complete. Our leader, Niels, planned for a team of twelve, three of those positions have not been filled. The second round of applications actually close tomorrow, so after a week or two of interviews we should know our final three teammates!

My favorite part of serving on AIESEC Chapel Hill's executive board was getting the intense team experience that came with running the growth and development of a local non-profit. This was definitely one of the contributing factors for me applying for the member committee.

One difference with this team experience, however, is we live together. About a week after graduation, I will be leaving my beloved Chapel Hill to move to the big apple, New York City. It was always my dream to move to NYC after college, I just never knew what exactly I'd be doing. Well, now it's official. I'll be continuing to work for the organization that played such a big role in my college career, living and working with eleven other recent graduates with like-minded aspirations and dreams for where we can take AIESEC United States. This organization has me so inspired that I'm just not ready to give it up. And for the first time since I joined AIESEC, I can finally tell my parents that I'll actually be getting paid for all the work I do.

The two lovely ladies in coordinating gold dresses seen to the right hold the positions in the current member committee that myself and Karan (pictured in the middle) will be holding starting June 1st. This is a picture of us at a national conference this past new years. My next blog post is going to dive into AIESEC conferences. This is where we have the opportunity to share strategies and provide functional education to our members across various regions around the United States. Look forward to that post!

AIESEC Team Experience

So to continue on from my last post, I wanted to go into a little detail about the division of responsibilities within AIESEC chapters around the world and specifically, what the structure of AIESEC Chapel Hill looks like. Before anything else AIESEC is a leadership development platform that focuses on creating the leaders we want to see in the world. A lot of times we get confused for some club that just sends a lot of students on international internships. Although this is true, our primary focus is not exchange. Exchange is actually the byproduct of our core purpose: leadership development.

 

 Each local committee of AIESEC structures their chapter a little different, but for the most part, they all consist of the following teams: Outgoing Exchange, Incoming Exchange, Communications, Talent Management, and Finance. Each of these teams are led by a Vice President, or in some case two, which make up the Executive Board. The Executive Board is then led by a Local Committee President.

To the right is a picture of my Executive Board when I was a VP in 2013. These six individuals became more than just my best friends. Somehow, after a year of the most intense team experience I've ever been apart of, through disagreements and many successes, we became a family.

For the remainder of this post I want to go into a little more detail about each of the individual functional teams and how their efforts play into the bigger picture of AIESEC Chapel Hill. Over the years these teams progress and change into more productive teams with lengthier job descriptions and more efficient processes.

Outgoing Exchange (OGX)
As you may have guessed, this is one of the two exchange teams, this one being the one that sends our local students abroad on international internships. This team offers two products here, the first being a volunteer opportunity abroad for six to eight months. The second is more of a professional internship which lasts from three to eighteen months and often requires a degree. The OGX team is responsible for interviewing interested students and then guiding these exchange participants (EPs) through the process of finding the internship that is best for them. We have a database of thousands of internships that students can be matched to and Americans are often top choices for these international companies.

Incoming Exchange (ICX)
This is the reciprocal team of OGX that gathers and convinces businesses here in our local area to take on international interns. It is divided into two teams that work on separate parts of the process. The first, Business Development, are the initial sales people. They make cold calls, attend networking events, reach out to warm leads, and utilize our Board of Advisers as well as the local Chambers of Commerce to some how find the right companies for an AIESEC intern. A lot of market research, targeting, and sales meetings go into finding these companies. But once a company agrees to take on an intern and signs the contract, the work is then passed on to the Account Delivery team. They have the responsibility of advertising, sourcing, and then finding the intern that is perfect for the company. After many interviews with people who English is not their first language, a short list is then given to the company. Once selected, we walk the intern through the process of obtaining a visa, as we are an official J-1 Visa sponsor. Lastly, our team is responsible for the reception and initial support the intern needs when they arrive in the states. This includes airport pickup, apartment searching, and finding transportation solutions. In 2013, I was the Vice President of Account Delivery, so it's clearly what I'm most passionate about in AIESEC.

Communications
The Comm team is similar to the marketing or PR department of any small business. They have smaller teams responsible for certain things such as: design, campus engagement, and social media. One of the biggest challenges is making sure that all of our designs and output matches the branding guidelines set by AIESEC United States as well as AIESEC International. With so many resources available and a network so large this can become difficult and is such an important aspect of an international organization. During recruitment periods for both new members as well as exchange participants, this team works non stop to relay all of the information to UNC students in the most creative way possible, to bring in the most interest. As an advertising major all through college, I spent my first two years on the Communications team before moving to ICX.

Talent Management (TM)
We like to compare the TM team to that of a Human Resources department. Their main job is to make sure all of our local members are staying happy and really getting the most out of their AIESEC Experience. Because our organization revolves around leadership development, they provide opportunities to improve ourselves professionally like resume workshops and networking tips. And because we're college students and all like to have fun, they are also responsible for social events and really bringing the whole local committee together. If they're doing their job, we all should be growing and stretching into better people and better leaders.

Finance
Just like it sounds, this team manages all of the budgeting, and money flow that goes on behind the scenes of our local committee. With every exchange experience we create, our income increases and the finance team tells us what we can do with that money. They allot a certain amount of funds to go to events or supplies and manage refunds. Because we are a non-profit, they have also been working really hard to gain external funds by hosting fund raisers and doing grant writing.

I hope these brief descriptions give you a better idea of what each of our teams roles are within AIESEC Chapel Hill. Every single person has their own job description and should know exactly where they fit within the organization.