AIESEC GREECE 2014 – 2015

OutGoing Global Community Development Program

Dear Exchange Participants,

Since your experience abroad has come to an end,

let us welcome you back in Greece.

What have you done these past weeks?

Were you dancing salsa in Brazil? Or did you swim with sharks in North Africa?

Did you learn history in Italy?

Did you visit the castle of Dracula in Romania?

Regardless where you were and what you did we sincerely hope that this program helped you gain some skills and develop yourself and the society. This program was about achieving your goals and this was our priority too.

However coming back to reality and everyday life here in Greece may have proven more difficult than you had expected. As you have realized already everything here is the same, your town, your school and work, the only different now is you. Perhaps your friends will get tired of listening to your stories of your experience anddo not understand how hard it may be for you to adjust. Perhaps your life now seems dull and not interested comparing to the 6 weeks you passed doing every day something exceptional.

Whatever you are feeling right now, no matter how distant you feel from your friends and family and how not creative you think your life is we would like to ensure you that this situation is not permanent. It is very normal for every exchange participant to feel this way after coming back for the internship to feel the exact same way. In order to minimize the effect of your returning and make your reintegration as easy as possible we have created this booklet. It contains information on how to infect onyour experience, how to deal with reverse cultural shock as well as a presentation about AIESEC programs.

We wish you the best for your life from now own!

REFLECTING UPON YOUR EXPERIENCE

Reflecting upon your experience is almost important as your internship. You may go

through different things right now and not feel ready to go do this now but it is essential not to delay more since now all your memories and thoughts are fresh and vivid in your mind.

We have some questions for you to answer in

order to see what you gained from your internship!

So you should write your answers so as to be easy in the future to remember all your experience abroad.

1. What was your project about and what exactly did you do?

2. What was your unique contribution in this project?

3. Did you use any of the skills and interests you had before the experience at any point? And how?

4. What knowledge – skills did you gain?

5. What was the best part of your internship and why?

6. What was the worst part and how did you cope with it?

7. Do you feel that you have achieved something in your internship - was it worthy? Did you achieve your goals?

8. What challenges did you face and how did you react?

9. Did you experience ‘cultural shock’ in your internship and if yes how did you deal with it?

10. How are you going to utilize what you have learned during your

experience to have a positive impact in your society?

Last but not least, very important is to share your experience and present it to others in order to become known what the program is andwhat it offers. You can do it either through photos or through videos and make the public!

REVERSE CULTURAL SHOCK

Probably you were prepared to face cultural shock before going to you exchange and had been informed that it is going to be difficult for you to adjust to a foreign country. But you managed to do it, to adjust and becomea bicultural person at no time. So, what happens now? Why are feeling likea stranger in your own country? What you are experience is called ReverseCultural Shock.

What it is: it may take place returning to one's home culture after growing accustomed to a new one. The affected person often finds this more surprising and difficult to deal with than the original culture shock.

How can you prepare for it?The best way to cope with reverse cultural shock is to accept the fact that you are going to experience it and be prepared to deal with it before your arrival home.

Most of the people in your life will be interested in hearing your stories and will want you to describe every single day of your internship. Some of them though may not be so thrilled to listen to your experience every hour of each day. You shouldrespect that.

Accept that you may not like the same things anymore. A Starbucks latte may pale next to the Ethiopian coffee ceremony you attended last month.

You may get bored more often than before. Getting back home may feel as you are back to ‘the same old the same old’. You have to accept it and try to adjust in your daily life.

Find things that made you happy and fulfilled before your exchange. Try if theyinterest you now.

Some things may feel odd to you or at least completely different than what you have gotten used to during your internship.

Your routine has now changed. You may not try something different every day of your life now but this is normal and you should live with it.

Try to adjust some of the habits you developed during your internship in your life now so as to mitigate the effect that reverse cultural shock has on you.

Dealing with the reverse cultural shockAll those things may indeed occur and you are definitely are not the same

as before. So how you deal with these changes and go back to your lifereadily? Here are some ideas.

Avoid staying at home.

Get in touch with your friends, go out and most importantly avoid talking about your trip. Difficult as it may seem, try to talk about what your friends were up to, what you have missed and what changed in their lives. That’s right – most of your friends have listened about your trip a thousand times, now is their turn.

Keep in touch with your friends from the internship

Just because you have left doesn’t mean you disappear. Keep in touch with the friends you made there, sent mail, share your situation, the problems you are facing adjusting back. Probably they feel the same and talking with them will help a lot. Besides, now you have friends from all over the world – you should keep them.

Capture your memories

Probably you have many materials from your internship. Try to collect them all and have a book dedicated to your ‘explore’ where you will keep everything related to your trip.

Take up a hobby

Start doing things instead of staying at home and feeling depressed. Have a hobby which is always helpful. Take up a sport or start drawing – it doesn’t matter what it will be as long as you are kept busy and you are enjoying yourself.

Take a language course

Surely during your internship many times you wished to know more languages. So why not do it? Start learning a new language while learning a new culture at the same time.

Talk for your experience with others travelers

Join a blog or a forum for travelling and share your experience. You will help other people who are interested in going to this country and atthe same time you will have the chance to talk once more about your experience.

Accept the fact that you are home and be grateful for it

Enjoy time with your family and friends, catch up and keep all the memories as a dream came true.

Plan your next trip

When you got back you couldn’t wait to leave again. So plan your next trip now that you feel the international spirit.

AIESEC OPPORTUNITIES

You just got back from you trip and you have so many new experiencesto share and so many memories that you will hold on for your entire life. Some of you may feel that this is not enough, that their traveling desire is so high that are willing to go for another exchange with AIESEC. Some think that they should offer this amazing experience to other people and would like to become a member in this organization. Some may think that their involvement with AIESEC has come to an end. Whichever category you are in to, we would like to present you allthe programs we have in AIESEC and what each offers.

Team member program

The Team Member Program is one of the most important means through which AIESEC provides its members the opportunity to

choose their path to leadership. This stage offers access to a globalyouth network and an opportunity to experience working within ateam through an interactive learning environment

Benefits

Theoretical and practical knowledge Personal and professional development Free access to trainings and preparation seminars Opportunity to attend national and international conferences

Networking with national and international companies’ representatives

Team leader program

Team Leader Program will provide you with personal and professional development through team building and team management. The participants will gain experience in leading other members or teams and guiding them on their work, thus becoming an essential part of their development.

Benefits for you:

Theoretical and practical knowledge Personal and professional development Free access to trainings and preparation seminars Opportunity to attend national and international conferences Networking with national and international companies’ representatives

Global Community Development Program

Global Community Development Program provides you with an opportunity to volunteer abroad and work on projects concerning any of the current issues, such as HIV/AIDS awareness, cultural education or environmental responsibility. You will be offered an opportunity to develop your personal skillsand competencies through multiculturalism and social responsibility.

Benefits for you:

International work experience Being involved with different issues of social concern New multicultural perspectives Network of people from all around the world Free access to different trainings and preparation seminars

Global Internship Program

Global Internship Program offers international internships and aims contributing to your professional development by helping you to gain experience in a particular field of work. The internships are normally conducted over a longer period of time and might vary from working for a small start-up company to working for a large multinational firm.

Benefits for you:

International work experience New professional network with people from all around the world Exposure to working in a multi-cultural environment Professional and personal development

Besides these programs, you can always participate in the organization an share your experience either in our information meetings or in classrooms. It will be helpful to have people who have lived this experience talking and motivate others to live it too.

If any of these programs caught your interest and you would still like to continue being involved with AIESEC, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us:

LCVP oGCDP name:

LCVP oGCDP email:

We would also like to remind you that it is important both for us and for you too to fill our NPS (Net Promoters Score) survey in order to evaluate your experience better. You can choose a numberor write a comment on all the services provided to you so as for usto know what we did wrong and what needs improvement. This survey is truly significant because we aim to offer the most qualitative experiences and we cannot do that without fixing our mistakes!

We will wait for you all to our bringimpACT seminar in order to discuss all this in person and meet each other better.

Date:

Place:

Time:

We really hope this booklet was helpful and offered you some ideas on how to deal with what you are facing right now. Whatever your AIESEC journey will befrom now on feel free to keep contact with us and we will always want to hear about your experience.

‘The world is a book, and those who do not travel only read a page.’