April 2010

AIESEC: The new EB of AIESEC-Jyväskylä, Part 1

by Heidi Clee

In the jungle of Mattilanniemi’s offices six tigers are sleeping there this new term. The new EB has affectionately called itself Lao Hu Poppoo. The name means the Tiger group and comes from the fact that according to the Chinese Zodiac, this year is the year of the tiger. In 1986, when most of the new EB members were born it was also the year of the tiger – hence the name.

The current EB of Jyväskylä 2010-2011 is led by Mari from Finland. Taking care of the talent management is Finland’s Vanamo. Seeing to the outgoing exchange is Maria, also from Finland, and taking care of the incoming exchange is China’s Fei. The only two guys of the team, Tsuri and Tuukka from Finland, are managing public relations and the finances of AIESEC-jkl.

I have asked them why they wanted to become an EB member and how it feels at the moment as well as how they ended up joining AIESEC in the first place. As for who they are behind those feline masks…Let’s find out.

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Mari, a native of Kitee in Eastern Finland, is a 23-year old Civil Society major. She moved to Jyväskylä four years ago and neither graduation nor running the new EB is worrying her today. Mari knows what she wants to do: she wants to work in an NGO and wants to seriously help make the world a bit better place and AIESEC-Jyväskylä is proud to have such a responsible leader as head of their EB.

Mari took time hiding behind the bushes of the AIESEC office before finally aiming and pouncing on the chance to become the Local Committee President. She spent hours in the office talking to people and finding out about things like the Exchange program. A year later in 2008 she joined the ICX-team and when she had come back from Erasmus exchange in France, she did something she promised herself she wouldn’t and applied for a leadership experience. “Lao Hu Poppoo is awesome”, she says “I want to keep myself busy and have many irons in the fire. I also like challenging myself and try my skills as a leader. I couldn't do this without great people around so I feel very lucky.” Her motto is “Never say aldrig” (= Swedish for never).

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Talent management –leader Vanamo was born in Kuopio 25 years ago. She has three sisters and their all named after flowers. Vanamo came to Jyväskylä about five years ago to study French. She has now finished her master’s thesis and is enjoying the job of being needed as TM-leader and is looking forward to being a part of a really tight team where everyone has the same goal. “I think it is supercool to be an EB member! As the talent manager, you are in charge of taking care of the members and they can rely and turn to you in case of problems which is quite an honour, you have the feeling that you are really needed.”

Aside from taking care of AIESEC-jkl’s members, Vanamo also enjoys learning new things about languages and cultures as well as enjoying sports, especially swimming. She has studied English, Spanish and even Development studies to help her learn more about the world around her. She has also lived two years in Switzerland and traveled around different parts of Europe and Latin America. She also likes to make bad language related jokes and rhymes about her fellow EB members, so watch out!

Vanamo has found her experience as new EB member so far nothing but positive. She likes the fact that despite all the hard work, no one forgets to relax and have a good time.Vanamo is perfect for the job as TM-leader because she likes challenges and taking care of people. Vanamo’s journey to AIESEC- started with finding out more about the organization's internship possibilities. She first joined the ICX-team and found that AIESEC is more than just what it first appeared to be and her internship abroad will now have to wait. “I just noticed that AIESEC is much more than that and you can do other nice things as well…” Vanamo’s motto is: “ 'Arriving is nothing but the journey everything' which means that reaching a goal doesn't mean anything if you haven't learned something and also enjoyed the journey along the way. This goes with AIESEC as well as with life in general!”

To be continued...