1.

1 Rationale

As a university graduate, I have undertaken my internship as a global volunteer of AIESEC

Indonesia. Whether an internship is paid, for credit, unpaid or not-for-credit doesn't change its
value. Internships are investments for our future. There are some obvious reasons which led
me to take this exchange opportunity as my internship. I was personally motivated to take
this opportunity over any other conventional internship in multinational companies for the
quest for experiencing outside my comfort zone and learning the cope up with cultural
diversity. I have always wanted to involve myself in something different than others. So when
I found this opportunity as internship exchange program, I jumped into the option for my
intention to explore myself in abroad.

Joining in AIESEC as an intern gave me the opportunity to work in hands on in an unusual

and diversified professional environment. I had the privilege to see the real world outside my
comfort zone which helped me to gain authentic real-world experience by facing obstacles
and struggle. Throughout the project, by conducting several workshops, seminars, the process
of teaching throughout this internship opportunity, I have made a pretty impressive global
network in home and abroad. Personally, my internships have introduced me to a lot of useful
resources and have given me the opportunity to meet a variety of individuals. And making
this report will help me to gain compile and precise my opportunity in a collaboration. The
opportunity has also helped me to gather multidisciplinary teamwork experience by
collaboration and cooperation.

Since we are in this modern era, where only practical knowledge is reliable to everyone and
every company in this world, according to that as we know this project by AIESEC gives us
the proper experience about culture, ways of thinking differently, problem solving method,
self-motivation and learning, real life challenges, seeing humans from different corners of
this world, international platform etc. this practical experience makes us capable of adapting
in any situation , solving any problem from the root , giving a quick solution to any sudden
problem, improving own self through every process, teaches us life from different
perspectives etc.

So basically, my decision was based on these three points of interest, which are – knowing
and living international life standard, knowing the value of education, problems regarding

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education, ways to solve it and having an impact globally through this SDG goal 4, and lastly
I wanted to improve myself from every possible aspect.

And I believe, I have not regretted yet and no will regret through this internship experience
and I must mention this whole program was quite cost effective. So it’s really easier for any
one with the same interest who wants to have an impact globally by enriching his/her
knowledge and experience. No one should miss this opportunity to be a global volunteer,
having this experience and being capable of doing something for the world.

1.2 Objectives

● Understand the activities done throughout the project ‘big smile on Makassar.
● Identify the issues that AIESEC international needs to improve.
● Recommend possible solutions for the identified issues.

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1.3 Background

AIESEC

AIESEC is the world's largest non-profit youth-run organization. It is an international

governmental not that provides young people with leadership development, cross-cultural
global internships, and volunteer exchange experiences across the globe. The organization
focuses on empowering young people to make a positive impact on society. The AIESEC
network includes approximately 27 000 members in 127 countries.

AIESEC is a non-governmental organization in consultative status with the United Nations

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), is affiliated with the UN DPI and UN's Office of
the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, member of ICMYO, and is recognized by
UNESCO. AIESEC's international headquarters are in Rotterdam, Netherlands. AIESEC was
originally a French acronym for Association internationale des étudiantsen sciences
économiques et commerciales (English: International Association of Students in
Economic and Commercial Sciences); however, the full name is no longer officially used as
members can now be graduate and undergraduate from any university background.

The organization grew exponentially in the following years, with more than 1,000 exchanges
took place in 1955 alone, the same year that Israel became the first non-European member. In
the following few years, AIESEC quickly became global by establishing its first North
American member, the United States, in 1957, and its first South American and African
members, Colombia, Venezuela, and South Africa in 1958.

For the first years of its existence, AIESEC had no central governing body, but was instead
managed jointly by a Presiding Country Committee composed of the National Committee
Presidents of each member nation. As the organization grew, a central governing body was
created and led by democratically elected Secretary General. Morris Wolff, from the United
States, was chosen as the first Secretary General in 1960, and established the first permanent
international office for AIESEC in Geneva, Switzerland.] Over the following decade,
AIESEC expanded to eastern Asia, Australia, and deeper within Europe, Africa, North
America, and South America, having a presence in 43 countries by 1969.

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As of 2015, AIESEC has since expanded to 127 countries and territories across the globe.
AIESEC annually offers over 27,500 leadership positions and delivers over 500 leadership
conferences to its membership of over 100,000 students. It is present in over 2,400
universities in its 127-member countries and territories across the globe and its international
exchange program that enables over 27,500 students and recent graduates the opportunity to
work or volunteer in another country. AIESEC is supported by over 8,000 partner
organizations

Vision of AIESEC

Empowering Young People for Peace and Fulfillment of Humankind’s Potential Globally
minded and ambitious, we believe that by developing more value driven leaders we are able
to improve the state of the world.

Mission of AIESEC:

Activating Leadership

We lead by example and inspire leadership through action and results, taking full
responsibility for developing others.

● Living Diversity

We seek to learn from the different ways of life and opinions represented in our multicultural
environment.

● Enjoying Participation

We create a dynamic environment through the active and enthusiastic participation of

individuals.

● Demonstrating Integrity

We are consistent and transparent in our decisions and actions, fulfilling our commitments
and conducting ourselves in a way that is true to our values.

● Striving for Excellence

We aim to deliver the highest quality performance in everything we do, through creativity and
innovation.

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 ● Acting Sustainably

We act in a way that is sustainable for our organization and society, taking into account of the
needs of future generations.

AIESEC Indonesia

Universitas hasanuddin, Unhas, is one of the largest autonomous universities in Indonesia. It

is located in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province. The university was established
in 1956, and named after Sultan Hasanuddin, a former King of the Gowa Kingdom.
Indonesia, Hasanuddin University started its history as a part of the faculty of economics of
University of which during the early years of its establishment had faculties scattered across
the archipelago. These faculties later developed into full-fledged universities of their own,
such as Bandung Institute of Technology (faculty of engineering), Bogor Agricultural
Institute (faculty of agriculture), and Airlangga University (faculty of medicine and
dentistry). Hasanuddin University was officially launched by the first vice President of
Indonesia, Mohammad Hatta.

Over the following sixty years it developed a range of faculties and degree programs. In
2016, it rose in the list of the top 12 universities in Indonesia, to 8th place. The Minister for
Research, Technology and Higher Education compiles this list based on teaching, research,
facilities, student achievements and accreditation standards. In 2017, Hasanuddin University
became one of several Autonomous Universities, freed from the need to seek Ministry
approval for basic operations and budgetary matters. [2] It remains as a public university until
now. Students from other faculties can join AIESEC too. Now, the team has gone through
winter project, and preparing themselves for upcoming summer project. AIESEC in
Indonesia aims to provide fun, life changing and impactful experience for your Global
Volunteer program this summer. There specialty is in Youth Leadership Development,
International Internships, Global Student Pool Sourcing, and Youth Learning and
Development.

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AIESEC in Bangladesh

AIESEC in Bangladesh was established in 1997 comprising of 4 local committees but in

2011 various reasons external and internal led to disbandment of AIESEC in Bangladesh. -
Since its establishment, AIESEC Bangladesh has organized many national and international
conferences to train and develop its members. AIESEC in Bangladesh obtained its full
membership status at the International Congress 1999 held in Durban, South Africa. The
expansion of AIESEC Bangladesh was undertaken by AIESEC in India. Representatives of
AIESEC in India came to Dhaka in 1997, and selected representatives to lead the operations
of AIESEC Bangladesh. The activities of AIESEC Bangladesh started with the inception of
AIESEC in North South University in the same year. Since then, AIESEC in Bangladesh has
expanded significantly to include three of the leading private universities of the country -
BRAC University (2003), Independent University, Bangladesh (2003) and very recently,
American International University of Bangladesh (2005).

In Bangladesh it began its operation in 2016, with view of bringing AIESEC global mission
which is fulfillment of human potential; it focuses on youth leadership, in Bangladesh it’s
also dedicated to provide leadership experience as well for the young people. Aiesec in
Bangladesh focuses on cross cultural experiences. In Bangladesh they mainly facilitate with
outgoing global volunteering in different countries for different projects, there are some
incoming global volunteering as well but outgoing global volunteering is the main focus here.
The current president is Asitima , The vice president of customer experience is Louis kim and
the MCVP DX is Camilo Forero.

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2.1 Activities undertaken

I have joined the exchange program – ‘Big smile for Makassar’ which was based on activities
related to the sustainable development goal no.4- quality education. The project was of 6
weeks. Each week had same scheduled tasks repeating respectively. Every week, there were 5
working days (Monday-Friday), including one day of evaluation meeting. The project
officially started with an opening ceremony and introduction of the exchange program
participants. The activities were visiting orphanages, daily teaching, and workshops on
learning English etc.

So, here are my weekly activities schedule details mentioned below:

From Monday to Thursday we used to teach in this school, as a regular teacher:

● On the first day of visit, I presented my respective country there with a PowerPoint
presentation – which contained our country basic information, tradition, culture and
heritage. In the first view, the children of this school was bit shy as they are not used
to communicate with outside people that much.
● In the presentation, I tried to communicate some with them in their Makassar local
language by greeting or welcoming them. 3 countries and their culture were
represented on that day- Bangladesh, India, Indonesia itself.
● Gave knowledge to the students about all the countries and different cultures through
the peoples who were working in this project.
● Tried to be friendly with the students.

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● On the second day of daily teaching, I, along with two more exchange participants,
were told to seat with a group of students comprising 5-6 kids, and help them to write
about their dreams and reason behind it in English.
● The purpose behind this activity was to make them comfortable to communicate along
with enhancing English writing. After the writing session, every child was told to
present their particular writing in front of everyone. This actually helped to for the ice
breaking. Me along with all the exchange participants also played interactive games to
make them friendly towards everyone.
● Interactive session with kids to improve their learning.
● Discussing with other exchange participants about different ideas to improve and to
find out different ways of teaching.
● Discussing and finding ways to make the proper use of power point presentation.
● Made another schedule of the next day together to proceed with effective teaching
methods.
● The third session was about building motivation in them to chase their own dream. In
that session, I showed them some motivational videos captioning- “never give up”,
“keep trying” and etc. Rests of the sessions were usual daily teaching.
● Showed different videos to motivate the children.
● Took text on previous lectures given and evaluated the result of those kids.
● Talked to every child individually and tried to be friends with them and tried to know
about their fears, interested topic, way of thinking, way of living etc.
● We tried to talk to them personally to help them fighting their fears; we motivated
them to run towards their dreams.
● Children who had poor marks or performed poorly we discussed among us hot to take
care of them, found a way and we planned on that.
● Rescheduled out plan and time to ensure the quality education equally.
● On the very last day, AIESEC arranged fun activities for them including games and
singing, dancing. Winner group of the games were rewarded by gifts. And all the
children were given sweets and drinks as refreshment. When I was seeing them off
from the project, they were much more representing and communicable to people than
before.

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 ● The impact I had on them been clearly visible by their communication skill and
spontaneous approach towards everyone. After working and making effort to
communicate and teach them relentlessly, these feedbacks felt like golden rewards to
all of the exchange participants.
● Learned so many new things from the local people, students and other volunteers.
● Evaluated each other and our own self based on the works that we have done there.

Rezki Amalia

From Friday to Sunday we used to visit this orphanage and teach them there very
professionally and in a very comfortable way, our schedule was to visit the orphanage called
– rezki amalia. The children of this orphanage were not like other orphanages. There were
more than 30 kids in the orphanage. The children there were very capable of doing everything
and very interested to learn but they had their ill fate though so I had to communicate them
with games, interactive session and fun activities, for example- painting, playing games,
planting trees, and making origami to boost their confidence, to make them comfortable and
give them a friendly environment.

● On the first day of daily teaching, I had an introductory session where I introduced my
respective country to them by showing them a power point presentation and some of
our country souvenirs. That presentation was done by me, and each of us brought their
country’s souvenir here to represent their country and culture.
● On the first session, they were a bit shy and introvert, but after conducting games like
hide and seek, paper games, puzzle games, they became so friendly with us.
● Ages of those children were random there were kids under 10 and then there were
kids above 16, So on the second session, I told them to draw your dream about

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 Indonesia. And as a result, beautiful drawings came out from the innocent perspective
of the children. Their paintings were reflecting their dreams and hope about their
country.
● Rest of the sessions was compiled with daily teaching and usual communication with
the orphan kids. For this orphanage activity, our whole exchange participant group
was divided into 3 different groups as the orphanage contained 30 plus children, as
they were already very concern about their own situation and very sensitive to handle,
the correspondents of the orphanage always accompanied us to avoid any kind of
problem or uncertain situation.
● From my experience I will say, though those children were different than other kids,
still their actions and communication were as much impressive as a human being
having better capabilities. I shared different stories, motivational stories and views
with the children to enhance their mind creativity. I used to give them activities to
improve their additional skills. On the last day, AIESEC arranged fun activities and
light snacks party with them. Everyone had a great farewell session altogether.

Government’s school and the orphanage in bulukumba and takalar (villages)

Basically, we have visited 2 villages, takalar and bulukumba where we worked as a teacher
there in the local government’s schools and the orphanages. Over there we had 2 local teams
or association to help us or bring new things through this project, since locally they have been
working on the same thing about child education.

● On the first session, as the schedule of other orphanages and schools all exchange
participants represented their respective countries and tried to communicate with them
in their own languages, teaching them little bit Bengali, along with English. The
children were so friendly from the first day, wondering about us, quest of knowing
about our culture and language. After the session, I played games like- word games,
pillow passing etc. I was bit fortunate that I made a good impact on those kids on the
first session as well.
● On the second session, the exchange participants were divided into groups according
to high school, elementary school and were guided to teach them about their dreams

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 and hopes in English. On that session, I was able to make them develop their own
dreams and aim in life in English language.
● Following this session, on the next day, they were told to present their previous
session writings in front of everyone with proper presentation guidance we gave them.
Without any doubt, they gave an outstanding performance. The rests of the sessions
were included with daily teaching and interactive sessions such as games, sharing
opinions, dancing etc.
● On the last day; AIESEC arranged a fun activity and farewell session with them.
There was gaming competition like – passing the straw with rubber, sack game etc.
The winning kids were given special gifts along with general gifts for every child.
There was some sort of refreshment snacks too for the kids.
● The impact I saw in the village kids was much more than we expected. The EP groups
of us had so much cultural diversity, so we thought they must be nervous or shy to
approach us. But fortunately, they granted us with utmost cooperation and hospitality.
After all the hard works, the impact seems like golden output to me. Some adult kids
of high school group are still in touch with us by social media.

BAZNAS (BADAN AMIL ZAKAT NASIONAL), Bulukumba

Basically, it’s an organization of bulukumba village. This organization basically collects the
zakat’s money (Islamic money allocation system) and they use it for educational purpose,
among the poor people or student. These students are very interested to learn English and to
get the proper education, but because of the misfortune they do face the problems caused by
lacking of money or proper resources, so through the partnership [with AIESEC Indonesia
they are trying to improve the education system over there and to encourage students in this
village. This is a nonprofit approach to the poor people so it shows the brighter side without
taking anything in return.

● Local organization. Bulukumba village.

● Works for the peoples or students who cannot study because of having not enough
money.

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● Follows Islamic money distribution system to make sure quality education for all who
are in need.
● Nonprofit approach and non-paid partnership with AIESEC.
● Consist of young, bright and energetic local students who are capable of doing
voluntary tasks.

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KBP, Taklar

KBP, takalar another group of young people, there are students of university and college, they
are trying to gather all the young minds together to generate more ideas to improve their
country by developing education system from the root. With different kinds of inspiring
ideas, from different countries and peoples. They help to organize different events in the
schools or orphanages that give them the knowledge and power of communication that can be
only gained through education. In this project they helped us to share our idea to improve
themselves and this education system as well.

● Local Organization or group of young people.

● Main intention is to gather the entire young mind together under one shade to find
innovative ways to make sure equal education.
● Works on finding or making new, fun ways to make education more interesting and
attractive to the students or kids.
● Assist international helpers or volunteers who want to work for education.
● Tries to collect or make different materials for study to make it look easier.

Overall activities we tried to do to have impact on the students and international

participants

Beach visit:

The first day our host OC and others took us to the famous local beach, which is named as
makassar, pantai losari beach. They took us there to have the cold breeze, to get familiar with
the place and people, to have a good time and to ice break among us.

Daily Teaching:

My main job was to teach unprivileged children in orphanages, and in the school. Weekly 5
times a day we used to go to these orphanages and schools and taught orphanage, school kids.
The project scheduled with the orphanages that which days we will go to the orphanages and
teach the kids for 3 hours. All the orphanages had kinder garden, junior high school, high
school kids. For this reason, there was a team which has been divided to different category
school children.

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Quality Education:

I worked on quality education which is UNs number 4 goals, our managers, vice presidents
and presidents helped us to develop daily modules for teaching in a way that it should include
everything which can be shared with the kids in a very short time.
Big smile on Makassar project was all about quality education that is why we the exchange
participants had to be very careful with our learning skills and sharing knowledge with the
children.

IPS (Incoming preparation seminar):

The exchange participants had IPS (incoming preparation seminar) about the work,
expectation settings, SNS and LDA where everything was clearly mentioned about Makassar,
culture, society, what we have to do and what do not have to do. This is a seminar which
helps to understand about a country the city we went to, transportation, food everything
which is important for daily purpose. It helps you to prepare yourself and gives you
motivation as well.

Weekly Evaluation:

I and the exchange participants and OCs, managers and other team members had weekly
evaluation or meeting in makassar, AIESEC office about our work, flaws and mistakes and
also about communication for what to improve. After that we used to give suggestions how
we can improve our daily teaching, behaviors with one another and how we can maintain our
time.

Preparing teaching modules:

Every representative country had to prepare slides about their country, culture, traditional
things, currency, history and other things. We had to prepare different teaching sessions about
games, motivation, how to achieve the dreams, enhancing their English speaking, how to be a
good human being. And so on. Teaching modules were very important because everything
was dependent on the teaching modules.

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Working in small teams:

The exchange participants were divided into small teams consist of 3 or 4 members
sometimes even 5 members from different countries to cope up with one another, to lead one
another and to help one another for daily work and teaching.

Teamwork, to learn to work together with different background people:

While working there for 1.5 months it was always everyone’s concern that we have to
understand each other and their way of doing each work, supporting them.

● Time scheduling with everyone’s approval.

● Selecting meeting place after team meeting.

● Designing teaching modules.

● Designing practical activities.

Daily meeting point:

We had a specific meeting point before we went the work every day where everyone had to
come within a specific time, and then start from that point to the destination. If someone was
unable to come within the due time he or she had to give a fee for being late at work. That
meeting point used to change time to time.

Global citizenship day:

After 2 weeks we had global citizenship day for the eps who were done with their project and
in that global citizenship day we had to give a presentation about our country show a video of
our culture and tourism places, we had to visit stall of eps from different countries who were
presenting souvenirs and foods

Big event day:

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Big event day was held for the orphanage kids where we performed something of our culture,
had competitions among the children and get to be the judge of them for story telling
competition.

Spend time with host family:

Individual eps were obligated from the project that they have to give time to their host
family, so in my host family I worked with them in their house hold activities, went to a local
market, and also travelled some places.

Maintain relationship with OC buddy:

The eps had an oc buddy of their own from whom you can have any kind of help whenever
you need, so it meant you have to maintain a professional and also a friendly relationship
with your oc buddy.

Sharing culture:

Sharing culture with organizing committee, team members, delegates were a part of our daily
activities.

Participating in tours and travels with the team:

Happily participating in every activity, whether related to work or not, was also a type of our
daily activities too. A member, participant can’t have an unsocial attitude. Exploring a new
country, city gathering knowledge was an obligation from AIESEC in Bangladesh as well in
AIESEC Indonesia. You have gather knowledge and report it to your manager in Bangladesh
that what your experience was.

Taking care of each of the team members:

If any team member is feeling not enough motivated or sick, it was our responsibility to look
after him/her. Our responsibility was to give support so that he/she doesn’t give up at all.
Because as a person it’s your moral obligation on the other hand AIESEC tries to make you a
better person in every way.

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Make a video of your project and activities:

All individual exchange participants were obligated to make a video of their amazing
experience throughout the project. After that you have to submit the video to the project and
also to your manager so they can share it to interested candidates as a motivation. The video
has to contain 10 project related photos at least.

Weekly report to AIESEC in Bangladesh:

We had to report weekly to our Bangladeshi manager about work activities and problems.
Because this weekly report was also evaluated by AIESEC in Bangladesh to see whether the
exchange participant is doing his/ her job properly or not

Global village day:

In global village day was must obligated for eps where the eps had to give booths with
traditional foods, prepare small slides and also give souvenirs from Bangladesh. There we
had to perform something from Bangladesh so we performed two songs in front of all the eps
from our project, from two other different projects, Ocs, managers, vice presidents, presidents
and all the staffs.

Write sugar cubes:

All the eps had to write sugar cubes for others how they feel about them in a paper. This was
also obligated. This sugar cubes are then given to each other for memories and to remember
each other

Farewell Speech:

The eps had to give speech about AIESEC about the project and about other things in the
farewell party.

Report on the project:

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From 1-3 pages we had to write a report almost like a story about the project and send it to
one of the manager of Big Smile On Makassar because during IPS they told was that before
we go to our country we have to write the report and they will have it with them.

3.1 Observed in the organization

Although the entire experience was splendid and totally worth all the efforts, still I would
like to mention some major challenges I faced during the exchange participation. I better
address them the basic constraints as they had to happen because participants went there
knowing about the facts of diversification. So here I mention the constraints and challenges I
faced during the project.

Cultural Diversity

● The project was comprised of 3 exchange participants from 2 different countries

(Bangladesh, India, Indonesia).
● Firstly, I was already in a different country with different culture people, besides that
working with new people from different countries which had 3 different cultures was
quite a big challenge for me.
● It took pretty good time to come up with everyone, as they all had different
distinguished taste of food, manner and behavior, reaction to actions.
● Change in food taste.
● Change in regular habitual facts.
● Difficulties in doing regular exercises or regular works that we used to do.
● Change in regular clothing pattern.

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Understanding the Activities

● For the language problem and other factors, it took time for me to understand and
settle myself with the exchange participant activities in daily basis as we had diversity
in our everyday activity.
● For example: we had 5 different activities in 5 days a week. So for the first two
weeks, I faced some mislead and ambiguity in my schedule.
● Difficulties in time management.
● Transportation problems.
● Faced challenges while planning forward.
● Communication gap because of language barrier.

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Working with Diversity

● I had work there with several different cultured people. When I was formed in a team,
I had to face some conflicts with my team members as each of them had different
perception about our daily work.
● Everyone was right in their respective perceptions. So it was bit tough to get
collaborated and settle up with my team members.
● Opinion clashes were there.
● Hard to understand each other because of communication gap.
● It was hard to sit and work under one shade, together.

Different working schedule

● The project had 5days of working schedule every week.

● The work timing was not same every day.
● The timeframe was different everyday based on the availability of the student’s timing
of the orphanages. So, every 5days- with different work time every day was bit
complicated for me to adjust into my body clock daily basis. And also, it was a
constraint for my other works or appointment confirmation too.
● Not only that, I had to work as a permanent teacher in their government’s school from
8 am to 12 pm, that was really hard for us to cope up with the situation and teach them
though we had local teachers to assist us throughout all the classes that we / I took.
● After taking classes there we had to run to the orphanage. We took classes there from
3 to 6 pm. So basically, we worked from 8 am to 6 pm including the lunch break time.
● Hard to manage time for group meeting.
● Less time for exploring other places because of regular work load.
● Challenge was managing time.

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Shy orphan and school children

● The children of the orphanages were never opened up to the outside people like us
before. This resulted to them being a bit introvert and conservative in front of us.
● For the first few days, they were very absent and inactive in expressing their thoughts,
exploring themselves and active participation as well.
● The exchange participants and the local communicators had to convince them to
merge with us. The curriculum was made based on their active or passive
performance.
● Lack of information regarding orphan children.
● Time miss-match.
● Communication gap between us and the children.
● Lack of basic or primary knowledge among the children.
● Not being friendly with us or not opening up.
● Language barrier, lack of acceptance.

Changes in Curriculum

● The curriculum of our daily teaching was designed before conducting the activities.
But when I arrived at the orphanages, I found that the children were not so open up to
us and they were being conservative to explore themselves spontaneously.
● The pre-planned curriculum wouldn’t work as well in this situation. So the exchange
participants had to change the whole curriculum to make it easier and student friendly.
● Bringing changes in the curriculum took time for me to again coordinate all the stuffs.
● Time consuming process.
● Sudden changes in the plans.
● Lack of observation time.
● No fixed plan, everything was situation based.
● Lack of coordination.

Working in a different country without any family members

While working outside the country, totally unknown place, Exchange participants often miss
their home, family members. There might be times when he or she is feeling alone. Also for
long work schedule, the person might get no time to talk with parents/friends.

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22
3.2 Academic Preparation

This part of the report refers to the mismatch between the academic preparation and the
actual situation I faced during my entire project. Throughout my project, I faced some
situation and realities where I found conflict of my preparation or my expectation.

Yes, there were mismatches between what I have learned and what I faced during the
program.

● Prior flying to Indonesia, I had expectation about the project that it will have some
relevance with the academic learning of my courses and bookish stuff. But reality is
something else. When I entered into the project completely, I found that it is totally
different to cope up in work place based on academic learning. All you have to do is
learn by yourself from different situation and actions.

● In the courses and academic learning, I have learnt lots of formulas, theory and rules
about working in a job life. But when I started my project, I found that apart from
terms and rules, I need presence of mind, experience of handling critical situation and
analytical ability to handle complex tasks
● In our university the faculties have always clearly mentioned us how you have to cope
up in work life and what you have to face but they didn’t mention how much you
have to work hard when you will work in another country, they didn’t mention the
pros and cons in working in another country in an international organization.

● During my academic learning I learned so many things as an example I learned about

marketing, supply chain, human resources, accounting, economics and many other
things. But never learned how you have to do a volunteer work in another country and
as well as never learned how to work on the sustainable goals which is very important
for different nations.

● Academic learning makes me confident about the organizational terms. But job does
not work like that; it is more of analytical ability and present sense of mind.

● Lack of practical knowledge is one of the biggest missing knowledge because after
completing graduation it’s hard to tell who will work where, so the more practical

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 knowledge will be given by the university the more confident a student gets to
compete in the real world.

● Lack of field trips and field works for practical knowledge. Because of this lacking
the students face difficulties while they work in an organization

● During my exchange program, I haven’t faced that many challenges to deal with
works, but I think more students need to be self-aware and respect their own country,
university as they are going to represent him/herself, the university she/he belongs
from, and the country he/she lives in.

● Beside the academic skills and professional learning, the curriculum should include
some real-life related activities, for example- active programs and participation of
social welfare clubs.
● Some professional skills like- Excel and Power point workshops should be improved
and enhanced. I faced some major problems of working in Excel as I did not have
much professional skill of skill.

These things I had to face, which were not taught in my university. But our faculty members
tried hard to show us the differences.

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3.3 Missing Knowledge

I do highly appreciate the efforts and forces of my university. Still we need to flourish our
knowledge to keep pace with the modern era. From the learning of my project, I found some
extra skills I should develop and I suggest everyone to develop these skills.

Here I mention them:

● Doing work without anyone’s commands by own wish is something very important
for everyone. This practice is must from the beginning of university life.
● Instant presentation, instant idea sharing, instant solution providing these skills needs
to be more developed throughout the entire university courses. Rather than pre
planned or prepared presentation every time.
● Based on our universities courses we know the basic knowledge and how to create
contents for reports or presentation but the official manner, behavior, gesture or
posture these things are taught during the classes but I think the curriculum needs to
include a mandatory presentation and grooming workshop as well.
● Particular Self-development work shop or training is must for our university to have.
Because we are developing our education skill or knowledge but we are lacking of
these self-development tricks and techniques.
● We are quite knowledgeable based on our education but in terms of saving own self or
self-defense we are too weak to face any risky situation or any new circumstance. Our
University should have workshop or short training course regarding this.

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4.1 Lessons Learned from the Internship Program

Stepping for an internship abroad was quite challenging and important for my career. The
lessons I learned from this experience is beyond any experience. I have learnt how to adopt in
new place, how to manage to work with different culture people, and lastly how to manage
myself all alone. The broader lessons I learnt from this experience is described below.

Adaptability:

I had to fly to Indonesia to experience my internship abroad. There, I was arranged to stay
with an Indonesian family for 6 weeks as a part of their locality. It was quite a big challenge
to get adapted to a new family besides my own comfort zone and giving them no chance to
complain about my lifestyle. Trying to adopt myself with the family and the exchange
participants from 7 different countries enhanced my adaptability. I have learnt to cope up
myself with the new people and new environment.

● Coping up in any situation.

● Increase adaptability.
● Handling situation like an expert.
● Knowing own strengths and improving them day by day.
● Working on own weaknesses and improving own self.

Delivering an Elevator pitch

An elevator pitch is a short, sharp response that you can give when you have the opportunity
to introduce yourself in a professional capacity, highlight your expertise, pitch an idea, or
break the ice in a new social setting. As an international intern, I have learnt about this tactic.
As a part of the project, I had to visit several orphanages and schools where I had to present
myself and my nation as well. Also, I had to communicate with the global volunteers and
other peer groups too. From that experience, I have learnt effective communication and
delivering elevator pitch.

● Learning to be professional.
● Knowing formal or professional manners practically.
● Leaning to grab on opportunities.
● Risk measurement.

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Cross-Cultural Interpersonal Abilities

Connecting with people outside my native culture was a challenge, particularly if there’s a
language barrier. However, cross-cultural bridges are crossed every day, many times by those
with experience living in a foreign culture. While interning abroad, I had the opportunity to
learn how to befriend and share with people from all over the world. Knowing what topics
and conversations are appropriate in an international community is a unique and important
skill that has boosted my ability to network and build strong professional connection around
the world.

● Having international connections.

● Learning how to behave on an international platform.
● Learning different cultures.
● Exchanging knowledge and culture.
● Knowing and learning different methods of teaching throughout the world.

Communication Skills

Learning how to get my point across in a foreign culture, particularly in a foreign language, is
a huge boost to a global intern like me to improve overall communication skills. I have learnt
how to express myself precisely and clearly in any culture or language. Clearing that hurdle
while in a foreign country will attune a young professional to the importance of language and
communication on another level. Being abroad also gave me the chance to improve
observation and listening skills, which are important elements of being a strong
communicator. I have also learnt being able to understand how to effectively communicate in
an international office which might open up opportunities as the world becomes increasingly
globalized.

● Learning different languages.

● Learning different manners of communication
● Exchanging skills, ideas through different workshop or meeting.
● Knowing international job opportunities.
● Knowing and discussing international education standards.

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28
Problem-Solving

The ability to find creative solutions to problems is a crucial skill for a young professional in
any career. Experience abroad, not just at an internship, gave me the chance to enhance my
reasoning and problem-solving abilities. Living abroad landed me constantly in unchartered
territory, making simple day-to-day tasks a bit of a challenge. Whether lost during a hunt for
grocery or making solution for comforting orphan kids, enhanced my problem-solving ability.
And now I can capture any situation my handling it moderately.

● Learning methods of quick problem solution.

● Learning to find out core of the problem and solving it from the root.
● Discussing and learning different methods of finding and solving problems.
● Improving the capacity of being creative.
● Knowing and learning ways to make the process of problem solving fun and
technical.
● Gaining technical knowledge through different works and idea sharing process.

Multicultural Awareness

With international integration on the rise, understanding and respecting varied world views,
customs and cultures is an increasingly important attribute. This exchange program has made
me open up my perspective on the world, making my more sensitive and attune to global
issues. It’s important to learn that own country isn’t the center of the world and that each
country has a way of doing things that is simply different, not necessarily better or worse. It’s
hard to get to that place without having international experience. That is how I have learnt to
respect the world culture and heritage.

● Learning ways to respect different cultures.

● Coping up with different ways of living.
● Managing and learning to be an international volunteer.
● Learning and gaining more knowledge, methods and techniques.
● Learning to represent own country with dignity.

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Organizing events

Every organization organize events at a certain time so do I had to organize events with my
managers, OCs and with the other exchange participants as well. There were 3 events that I
worked in and as well performed in the events.

During the internship program I have implemented many things that I have learned
from my university, which are:

● I have learned how to Cope-up with every uncertain situation. Like- not meeting with
the supervisor, and how to deal with it. Etc.

● I have learned perfection. My supervisor tried her level best to make my report pin
point perfect.

● I have learned how to write a formal affiliation report. Or how to conduct research
and complete a research report.

● I have learned how to write a CV in a standard way.

● I have learned how to manage time, by helping my family and also visiting my
university supervisor.

● Time management was the best learning of everything.

● I have learned what to do when in a difficult situation. My university and my

supervisor has taught me that in a very smooth way.

● I have learned to have patience.

● I have learned there is always a chance for improvement. My supervisor taught me

that by correcting my report again and again.

● I have learned not to give up in hard times.

● I have learned to have ways or solutions for every emerging problems or current
problems.

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4.2 Lessons learned from my university

Leadership

AIUB (my university) is a platform which provides young people to develop their leadership
potentials, so I’ve learned about leadership as well as I could develop leadership skills within
me.

Convincing

We have learned how to convince people, how to manage our seniors or supervisors, and how
to make them happy with our skillful and knowledgeable work-activities.

Facing Challenges

Our university education is basically about facing different challenges with and without
preparation. We have learned how to face challenges successfully by meeting dead line of our
work, by giving sudden exams, by giving reports or presentations on random topic with no
preparation etc.

Punctuality

Our university is known for its strict rules and regulation, and we were bound to learn
punctuality throughout all the courses and activities in my university life.

Self-awareness
every program or courses of my university helped me to know my strengths, weakness and
where I should be looking for opportunities, what can be threats to me and How to face and
overcome with these.

Communication skills

I believe my communication skill became stronger because, this entire experience of my

university life taught me how to communicate with different peoples, way of communication

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formally and officially and how to represent own self internationally and how to
communicate internationally.

Patience

In every step my university taught me that patience brings success. I have learned how to
have a cool head and handle every uncertain situation with patience.

Responsibility towards the country

I was staying abroad for one and a half month; their love and responsibility towards their
country taught me what we should be doing for our country. My university was the gate way
to learn how to love, respect and be responsible regarding own country and other countries in
the world.

My university taught me to be a sustainable and responsible tourist.

Presentation skills

During my entire university life, learning presentation methods, developing presentation skill
and communication skill were the most important learning for us and fro me, our university is
always emphasizing on this skill development training.

Public Speaking skills

These 4 years of BBA journey, public speaking was the only thing and way to survive, to do
better. This was developed throughout the whole time of university.

Solution oriented and decision making

Our university always taught us how to have solution oriented decision making skills and
techniques.to teach these methods, my university gave me different practical task, reports,
field works etc. to observe and develop us.

Pro-activeness

Doing works and taking responsibilities, and doing the work in the right way, attentive,
confident, these were taught by the training and different programs, courses provided by my
university.

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Adaptability

Throughout the university time of learning my adaptability skill developed more than I
expected because I had to adapt with everything whether I like it or not, I had to adapt with
every uncertain situation I was bound to have this skill because that would show me success
in the next steps.

Team work

In my university we always had to do team work whether liking it or not. Consist of 3 to 5

members and the most important thing was we had to assist each other all other time. For this
I learned that how important to have team works in an organization. I learned how to cope up
with different peoples.

Ways to represent own self and opinions

My university taught me the best formal ways to represent own thoughts, own self, own
opinion in international and local platforms.

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5.1 Summary

In the last chapter of the report, I might summarize my exchange participation as a

challenging and motivating experience that has enhanced my personal skills and goal setting
of future life. In the report, I have broadly discussed the pros and cons of the project
participation, including the background of AIESEC, the related and other working activities,
lesson I have learnt and the challenges I have faced from the experience. This project has
helped me to develop myself as a proactive learner and enthusiast one. Throughout the
project I have experienced how to adopt myself with several new cultures. Besides good
experiences, I have faced many problems and challenges too. Facing these challenges has
made me matured enough to handle any type of situation further. I have mentioned the
missing lessons that I have noticed between my academic knowledge and my project activity.
I must mention few things to summarize my whole internship experience. So basically, on an
international platform the main thing I learnt is how to represent my country and another
basic thing was how to respect other cultures. Besides this, knowing different countries
education system and comparing with own country to find out problems and solve it with
exchange of ideas was very important for me and for every one of us. This internship showed
me the current situation of international market and the quality with the standard of market
and education as well, through this internship period, all of us learnt and realized the ways of
being more adaptable, quick fun and tricky ways to solve problems, ways of handling kids,
different, fun, creative teaching methods, being more open minded towards different ways of
living, manners on an international platform, being more creative and so on.

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From my point of view based on this internship experience, I think we need to know different
ways of looking at problems to figure out the perfect solution and to solve a problem
effectively we need to know and solve the problem from the root. And to make this happen,
we need to share our ideas, thoughts, tricks, methods, knowledge, information etc. under one
shade. This internship taught me the power of being together and exchanging ideas that can
make each of us more creative.

In a nutshell, I might say I have learned life lessons from the internship exchange program
and making this report.

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5.2 Suggestion

Suggestions regarding the project

A project might have some problems and critical situation. And so, I faced some situations
like these too. The challenges I have faced has been described in the chapter 3 of the report.
For the challenges, it requires some possible solutions. Here I am mentioning some
suggestions against those challenges I have faced:

● One of the biggest challenges I faced was the rapid cultural diversity while working
with 2 different country people. Every one of them had different opinion and views.
So sometimes it was hard to compile everyone’s views into one point. To avoid this
situation, I would suggest AIESEC to apply a standard rule of working and schedule
which should be strictly maintained by everyone to avoid mismanagement. And also,
they should be careful about exchange participants to respect each other’s culture.
● The working time was quite difficult for us as it was fluctuating and not settled down.
In this point, my suggestion will be to make a proper timeline of working activities
schedule before the project gets started. So, the project will run smoothly according to
the plan.
● Some of the exchange participants had issues with language. They couldn’t
understand the activities properly. In this case, one standard language should always
be followed to keep the manner of the project. And as English is the standard
language, I would suggest every host locality of AIESEC to communicate the
exchange participants in English.
● I think all the exchange participants should have the freedom to explore so that they
can learn more by their own selves and there should be assurance of security so that
they can feel free to roam around or learn and teach more. This is how both the
countries will be benefited, and cultural exchange will be complemented and
completed.
● I believe, the cultural exchange should be from both the sides. This is how the main
concern of this project will be followed.

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 ● There has to be some sort of security measurement which is visible to the volunteers’
parents or relatives and that has to give a proper assurance of safety, so that relatives
of the volunteers feel safe and tension free during internship period.
● The managers should give additional time during the project to each volunteer to have
a proper knowledge regarding the city and culture through local guidance and security
as well moreover there should be some fun activities for the volunteers.

Suggestion regarding university’s curriculums

● Students who are willing to work with non-profit organizations for the nation’s
betterment they should know more about AIESEC or other non-profit organization so
that they can choose their career and work on their dreams as well as for changing
other young student’s life too.

● Programs/workshops should be conducted in universities on the topic of sustainable

development goals. Because acquiring the sustainable goals is the main goal of the
world to live in a better place and improve it.

● More practical workshops or short training courses are needed in the university
regarding SDGs.

● Cross-cultural topics should be learned so it activates the broad mentality to accept

any culture and respect their life-style. Every country has different cultures we don’t
know where we will end up this is why cross-culture is very important topic for
everyone to learn.

● Online project or team working on same topic, partnered with different universities
abroad so even if students are not going abroad they can share ideas, communicate
with different cultural people.

● At some point the students who are very interested to go for volunteer work in another
country and if they don’t have the sufficient finance then university should help with a
certain percentage to help the student to go for the opportunity.

● AIUB has taught us about general organizations, multinational organizations and how
they work but they should implement some professional working experience during

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 the semester. Like- seven days’ official work or company visit and learning manners
in between the courses. etc.

● AIUB must have a course or short course which will include the learning activity of
UNs 17 sustainable goals which is very important for every nations and how every
organization and everyt4hing has an impact on it moreover this is a must for the
development of the country. This should teach how to works on these topics
practically.

● When we learn a course aside from 2 or 3 courses the other courses should have
analytical learning pattern so that our skills can be more sharped and we will easily
implement it in an organization while we work.

● Aside from bookish knowledge we need more practical knowledge, even though the
faculties try their best to give practical knowledge but it’s not sufficient. The more we
acquire practical knowledge the more sufficiently we will survive.

● We need more lab classes to know about Excel and other essential soft wares. During
my internship program I had to face some difficulties using some software and Excel
files.

● AIUB should have this process of teaching students to work by their own self or own
will, like, student should clean their own class rooms, students should use or do the
photo copy or other things to do their works, students should take turn and start
managing own university in different stages with the help of management etc.

● Our university should give more permission for the field trips and field works because
the faculties want but they don’t get the permission to take us to a field trip. And this
knowledge of practical work is much more needed.

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Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrieved from AIESEC “General Activities”,14.8.18,10.00pm.

https://aiesec.org/ Retrieved from AIESEC 2017 “Company Background” 14.8.18,10.00pm.

http://www.aieseczagreb.hr/about-aiesec/” Retrieved from AIESEC 2016 “Mission and

Vision 14.8.18,10.00pm.

https://aiesec.org/about-aiesec/ Retrieved from AIESEC 2017 “About Us” 14.8.18,10.00pm.

Contacted Person:

Dila (Vice President, AIESEC Indonesia Makassar).

Wahiyu (Manager, AIESEC Indonesia Makassar).

Books:

Negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals, Book by Ambassador David Donoghue,

Felix Dodds, and Jimena Leiva Roesch (Published in 2016).

Intern Abroad This Summer: Intern Abroad, Expand Possibilities Book by Aniket Singh.

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