AIESEC is an organization officially founded in 1948 by a group of students. At that time its mission was to expand the understanding of a nation by expanding the understanding of the individuals. It aimed to bring students from across the globe together and by doing build more understanding between nations. Nowadays, AIESEC has expanded to over 107 countries with over 50,000 members worldwide becoming the largest youth-run organization. Its current aim is to help develop leadership capabilities through internal leadership programs and providing students and graduates with international exchange and internship programs for profit and non-profit organizations. Therefore, AIESEC aligns itself with their current slogan: “the international platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential.”
Similar to other organizations, AIESEC is structured in four levels. The first level constitutes the Local Committees, for AIESECers known as the LCs. A Local Committee is based at a university and it holds itself responsible for AIESEC’s leadership and international internship programs. The second level constitutes the Member Committee (MC), each representing a country. The MC is the national board and coordinates activities for the particular country or territories. The MC organizes national conferences and supports all the LCs on a national level. On top of the MC we have AIESEC International (AI), their tasks are similar to the MC but on a larger scale. A few times a year international congresses are organized and all AIESEC members can attend these conferences. Lastly, situated at the top of the pyramid is the Global Plenary, also known as Global Network.
This international network meets throughout a set of international meetings to discuss global strategies. These meetings support the international network by means of Global Information Systems, conferences, country coaching, regional products and specific country support.
As an active member of AIESEC, I have learned that in order to reach the top of the pyramid you have to work your way up and live the whole “AIESEC experience”. It is known within the LCs that if you want to be in the MC first you have to take responsibility in a local committee team and if you are lucky nail a position on the local committee board in order to become eligible for a position in the MC, and this fashion work your way up to AIESEC International.
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| The AIESEC Experience |
AIESEC the Netherlands. (2009, January 26). Retrieved from www.aiesec.nl
AIESEC International. (2010, January 26). Retrieved from www.aiesec.org
AIESEC the Netherlands. (2010, July 6). AIESEC the Netherlands: Annual report 2009-2010
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