AIESEC University News Letter October 2012
In this issue
Recruitement Compaign Welcome Afternoon
Local Motivation Seminar Tunisia from a Different Eye
Member of the Month
AIESEC University, Tunisia
Issue of October 2012
Recruitement Compaign
After the online registration, it was time to have the interviews. Almost all the Local Committee members were involved in this big step. The Vice-Presidents and some of the present Alumni such as Ahmed Mejri, Hayfa Ben Miloud, Marwa Troudi...were the first responsibles of the interviews, of course with the help of the managers and some oldies. For that we spent 8 days mostly in the FSEGT, SESEME, ENIT, 9 Avril, ISLT...promoting the recruitement compaign and doing the individual interviews for the students interested in AIESEC. And when we say numbers we would say that we had 381 interviews to pass to the next step which was the selection. A work made by the Talent Management Departement and the Executive Board.
AIESEC University, Tunisia
Issue of October 2012
Welcome Afternoon
The first conact with the newbies had time on 13 October 2012, in FSEGT though out an event we call The Welcome Afternoon. It is a tradition in AIESEC University in which we welcome the newbies and we try to explain for them “What’s AIESEC” within some session. For the 2012 version of the Welcome Afternoon, we had 150 person attended. The Chairman was our dear Alumni Ahmed Mejri and the Facilitators were the Vice-Presidents. To answer the previous questions we had these sessions: - AIESEC Structure presented by Ahmed Mejri - AIESEC History presented by Amine Jmel & Faten Saadoaui - AIESEC Way presented by Oussama Souayah & Khouloud ben Abid - AIESEC Values presented by Mahdi Houli & Farah Ben Jemia And afterward the newbies were divided into groups supervised by some managers where they choose one global or national issue and they tried to find out a solution for it through out AIESEC and what they learned about AIESEC and they headed back to present their work.
AIESEC University, Tunisia
Issue of October 2012
Local Motivation Seminar
Chairman Anis Letaief - Alumni AIESEC University, Tunisia
Facilitators Ahmed Mejri - Alumni AIESEC University, Tunisia Wael Ben Romdhane - Alumni AIESEC University, Tunisia Fakhri Louati - Expension manager AIESEC Tunisia Zeynel El Glaoui - Board of Advisor AIESEC University, Tunisia Amal Amraoui - Old Member AIESEC University, Tunisia Ahmed Baaziz - Local Committee President
Organizing Committee Mahmoud Hattab - Organizing Committee President Youssef Rezgui - Organizing Committee Member Responsible of Finance Eya Chemli - Organizing Committee Member Responsible of Logistics Marwa Abdelli - Organizing Committee Member Responsible of Logistics Elyes Zarouli - Organizing Committee Member Responsible of Communications
Sessions Second to None: Opening Planery The All Spark: My AIESEC Faith in Our Nation: Why We Believe Iridescent: My Issues No Prisoners, Only Trophies: Innovation Camp How We Fight: The Way We Do It Optimus Prime vs. Megatron: Leadership vs. Management It’s The Fight: My Game Matrix of Leadership: Time & Team Management Lost Signal: Effective Communication Head Above Water: Goals Settings for more information take a look on this wiki http://www.myaiesec.net/content/viewwiki.do?contentid=10235042
AIESEC University, Tunisia
Issue of October 2012
In the afternoon of the July the 5th I took the plane to Tunis, Tunisia. Although I felt really excited to go there, Tunisia actually did not belong to one of my main preferences, because what I had heard about this country was that it was full of all-inclusive hotels, spoiled Russian tourists and annoying street-sellers whom almost make you force to buy their crappy souvenirs for a price which is way too high. This did not seem very appealing to me, since my objective was to immerse myself into a traditional Islamic culture which was really different to what I was used to. A country notorious for tourists whose primary objective is to get tanned as fast as possible and who are not willing to put one step outside the terrain of their hotel did not fit into my picture of a cultural experience. Although these expectations turned out to be more or less the reality, they only depicted a very small part of the reality. Tunisia, and especially the Tunisian people, have much more to offer than this image would suggest. This North African country has really surprised me, especially the people’s friendliness, openness and hospitality. My last weeks in Tunisia I spend travelling around the country. During my trip, one day, my friend and I had been to the beach and were looking for a taxi back home. (Actually, we were staying in the house of a friend of a friend we had met once and had offered his holidayhouse for us to stay in.)
AIESEC University, Tunisia
Issue of October 2012
When we were waiting for a taxi, two men aged around forty, offered us a ride back home. They were going to the same place where we had to go so they insisted to bring us home. We kindly thanked for their offer, because… come on, two girls shouldn’t get in a car with two men they don’t know. We were a bit suspicious, but they kept on saying that they would take us home, that wasn’t a problem. Finally they convinced us - they did have a nice car ;) - and it turned out to be a really pleasant and surprising meeting: we had an interesting conversation, they took us to some nice places and we were even invited for dinner. For the record: we had just met one hour ago! I think this is very characteristic for Tunisia. I truly feel honored that I had the chance to have experiences likes this, because it changed my view on the world. It broadened my horizon in the sense that it made me realize that “we in the West” could have much more fun if we would sometimes be more flexible and open to people and not be so stuck to our hectic agenda. Flexibility is certainly a feature which belongs to the Tunisian people. Though, there is a reverse to every medal and in this case this means that the Tunisian way is often the unstructured and slow way. Waiting seems to be a national sport. During my time in Tunisia I participated in a program of the Croissant Rouge called Kofat Ramadan. The Croissant Rouge is the Arabic version of
AIESEC University, Tunisia
Issue of October 2012
the Red Cross (the cross symbolizes Christianity, the croissant refers to the Islam). Kofat Ramadan is a project organized every year which aims at collecting food and money in order to hand it out to poor families during Ramadan. The first two weeks of this internship made me sometimes feel frustrated, angry and astonished: how could Croissant Rouge make us wait for two hours before they picked us up from our home? If they say to meet at 10 a.m, why did we not get started before noon? The answer to this question I found through conversations I had with the guys from AIESEC-Tunis and by just undergoing Tunisian life. I think, the lack of organization can be partly explained by their believe in Allah. An expression often used is “Insha’Allah” - if God wants it, it will happen. The consequence of this is that you do not have to plan everything, they are putting themselves in God’s hands, Allah knows your future so why worry? Moreover, or maybe as a result of this, Tunisian people have a vibe which is opposite to the stressful way of living you sometimes encounter in my country. This vibe opens the door widely for spontaneous actions (you can call anyone, because no one has plans). Another advantage I discovered for myself is that, as a person from Western Europe, you will never be too late. Even if you think you are late because you arrive later than the time agreed on, on beforehand, still, you are not too late. Time is only relative and stressing about it is useless, that is the Tunisian spirit!