AIESEC Slovenia

AIESEC is an international, non-profit, non-political, organisation run by students and recent graduates of institutions of higher education. It describes itself as “The international platform for young people to discover and develop their potential so as to have a positive impact on society”. Its international office is currently in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The AIESEC network as of February 2008 includes 25,000 students in 105 countries at over 1100 universities across the globe, and realizes around 5000 exchanges annually.

The Slovenian office of AIESEC has a long history dating back to 1953. At that time it was a part of AIESEC in Yugoslavia. After Slovenia got independent as a country in 1991 it was also the AIESEC office that separated from the Yugoslavian. This happened in 1992 when AIESEC Slovenia became accepted into the AIESEC network as an independent entity.

History

1950's - Establishment of AIESEC in Yugoslavia

In 1953 there were 18 countries in the AIESEC network, all of them were Western capitalist states. While working in another student organization, Srečko Jamnišek, the student of economics, found out that the Western European students of Economics have their own international organization called AIESEC. Immediately he started establishing a mail and telephone contact with AIESEC International.

Gaining the support of the Students of Economics of Yugoslavia was crucial to establish AIESEC in Yugoslavia. In the beginning of 1953 a conference of all the faculties of economics in Yugoslavia was held in Skopje, where it was decided that Yugoslavia should start the process of joining AIESEC International network. Srečko Jamnišek was elected the fist President of AIESEC in Yugoslavia and the one responsible to make this vision a reality.

While the Communist party of Yugoslavia allowed technical students to go abroad through IAESTE they were worried that the students of economics might »get infected« with the capitalist ideas if they went to internship through AIESEC. This resulted in the meeting called by the Communist party of Yugoslavia and the Central Committee of Student's Association of Yugoslavia. The meeting with 400 delegates of these parties was held on Belgrade's Faculty of Economics where the justification for the students of Economics becoming the part of AIESEC was discussed. The Party officials thought they would be having an easy time with the students, but it was not the case. The desire to go abroad was so strong, that the students did not want to submit to the Party's demands. Their main argument against AIESEC was that Srečko Jamnišek was too young and had no diplomatic experience. The Party knew that if they got rid of Srečko, AIESEC would not be able to find another appropriate candidate with foreign language skills who would be able to go to the 5th International Congress in Nuremberg. Simo Dulović, who hosted the meeting was Srečko's schoolmate. He interceded in Srečko's favor saying: »I've known Srečko for couple of years, and i fully trust him, that he is the right person to do his job well in Nuremberg. Please raise your hands if you support the idea of Yugoslavia joining the AIESEC network!«. All the 400 delegates on the meeting raised their hands, some even both of them. Joining Srečko in Nuremberg was also Gusti Zadnik, who very successfully cooperated in Slovenia ensuring the companies to take foreign students to internship.

In spring of 1953 the 5th International Congress of AIESEC was held in Nuremberg, where AIESEC in Yugoslavia was officially accepted as the member of AIESEC network. But again, not without complications. The founding member countries were all West European. Just as much as Yugoslav government was afraid of AIESEC bringing the capitalist ideas to Yugoslavia, the founding member countries of AIESEC were afraid of the communist ideology spreading to the west through AIESEC. Before Yugoslavia got accepted into the network hundreds of questions had to be answered, such as the plans of studies, ideologic background of the specific subjects on universities, professors, study literature, etc.

On the 6th International Congress in Rotterdam, AIESEC already had 1000 exchanges globally, 100 of those were secured by AIESEC in Yugoslavia. But it was not easy to go abroad at the time. People who wanted to travel to the West needed a special permit that was very hard to get. Very few people at that time even had passports. The only exceptions were the football players and other successful sportsmen. Those who got a passport and the permit were the lucky ones that everyone envied. One of the main issues at the time was also the students who were not able to speak English well as the foreign languages were not a part of the curriculum of the universities in most of Yugoslavia. (Srečko Jamnišek, Od bajtarjev do astronavtov, pg. 90-100, 2004)

1960's - Local expansion to Maribor

In Slovenia the local committee was established in Maribor in 1962. On International level the computer program to realize exchanges called MATCH was developed in 1967 and used in 1969 for the first time.

1970's - Local Expansion to Kranj

In 1974 a local committee was established in Kranj on the Faculty of Organizational Sciences.

1980's - The End of Unity in Yugoslavia

In 1985 around 45 exchanges were done in Ljubljana, and 6.000 globally. In Yugoslavia the student's demand for an internship abroad was huge, which enabled the selection criteria to be very strict. The students got the highest number of points in the selection process if they were members of the Socialist Party's movements, so those did not have any trouble getting through the selection. On the national AIESEC meetings in Yugoslavia a lot of the tension could already be felt between the Republics, mostly between Belgrade and Zagreb. It became apparent that Yugoslavia as a country would slowly come to an end. On international level, a computer program called TARGET was developed in 1989 to realize exchanges more effectively.

1990's - Slovenia's Independence

In 1991 the agreement was reached in Bohinjska Bistrica for AIESEC Slovenia to become an independent entity from AIESEC in Yugoslavia.

On 44th AIESEC International Congress in Budapest in February 1992, AIESEC in Slovenia officially became the 74th member country in the AIESEC network and an independent entity from AIESEC in Yugoslavia. A legendary project called Top Job was organized for the first time. The knowledge in local committees existed from the times of Yugoslavia, but with no knowledge and no office the National Committee of Slovenia had to be started from scratch. The national leadership had a hard time adopting to this new reality. Instead of nineteen local committees there were only three. A compendium had to be rewritten and a new organizational structure had to be established. A lot of help was received from AIESEC in Germany and AIESEC International. Many members left AIESEC in Slovenia at the time. A national committee was temporarily working in the office of Maribor local committee even thou the headquarters was in Ljubljana. The results of that year were not high, but a good basis for the following years was established.

In 1993 AIESEC in Slovenia celebrated 40 years. Together with AIESEC in Germany an EUNOC (European and North American Conference) was organized which was attended by 250 delegates. The fourth Local Committee was formed in Piran. From 1994 to 2000 many projects were organized such as Stock Exchange Seminar (Mali borzni seminar), seminar about Marketing in tourism, International Leadership Seminar, Management Seminar, etc. Many of those projects were not based on exchange therefore had to be shut down in 2000.

In 1996 AIESEC had more than 100 members in Ljubljana only. At that time it was the best performing local committee in Europe. In 1997 another local committee in Koper was established on the Faculty of Management in Koper.

Starting with 1997/1998 term a major shift in paradigm occurred in the way activities were organized in AIESEC in Slovenia. Intensive and close cooperation between previously divided projects and exchange created a new way of managing exchanges, providing better experience for exchange participants (students and organizations) through the exchange process - preparation, integration and reintegration of all stakeholders in exchanges. One of the results of this paradigm shift was project STEP (Student Enerpreneurship Project), which was the most demanding project of AIESEC in Slovenia and the first exchange based project in AIESEC. Its quality was recognised by AIESEC International through acknowledging the project as »best practice« and profiling it internationally as the cutting edge in that time.

On the AIESEC International Congress 1997 a revolutionary internet information system called INSIGHT was launched that empowered the global cooperation and exchange. Members of AIESEC in Slovenia were recognised as experts for implementation support both as Global Help Team members and especially through selection of a member from Slovenia into team of three Insight International Directors, whereby Slovenia was responsible for support for both Africa and Asia-Pacific region.

In 1998 AIESEC Slovenia held the 45th anniversary celebration in Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana.

As a result of changes in exchange starting in 1997, by 1999 AIESEC in Slovenia was the best country in the world regarding exchange realisation numbers per LC while at the same time being recognised as an opinion leader and developer in area of exchange. Although there were only 4 LC's AIESEC Slovenia was one of the 20% of AIESEC countries that together generated 80% of all exchange results in the preceding year, together with many much larger countries such as USA, Germany, Turkey and others, while other 80% contributed to approx. 20% of all global results.

2000's - Modern history

In February 2000 AIESEC Slovenia hosts the most important AIESEC event for the European Region - EXPRO (Exchange and Programmes Meeting) in Bernardin. During this event AIESEC International and representatives from Member Committees from around Europe prepared strategic input regarding long term organizational development on global level for the International Presidents Meeting, that took place in March same year in Turkey.

In fall of 2002 AIESEC Slovenia hosts another regional event - Mediterranean Congress - in Krško. Primarily attended by Local Committee Presidents from Mediterranean, Western and Northern European subregion it served as a learning and networking platform for the participants as well as gave the opportunity for direct transfer of agreements from the AIESEC International Congress, that took place in August that year.

In 2003/2004 term AIESEC Slovenia celebrated the 50th anniversary on Ljubljana's Castle. The President of the Republic of Slovenia and an alumni member Janez Drnovsek was the key speaker. More than 100 alumni attended the event.

Local committee in Kranj managed to have a very successful year in 2006 in terms of exchange with the Cultural Connecting project, raising many incoming exchanges for the students from all over the world. International Entrepreneurship Conference was organized by Ljubljana Local Committee.

AIESEC Slovenia Today

On 59th International Congress in Istanbul a new information system MyAIESEC.net was launched. The congress was attended by two delegates from Slovenia. Online Slovenian Alumni Database was launched in March 2008. On 17th of May 2008 the 55th Anniversary of AIESEC in Slovenia was celebrated in Rogaška Slatina on an alumni event called The Generation Bridge. 60 alumni attended the event. National Committee only had two permanent members, three at times. An important national partnership with Pricewaterhouse Coopers was raised. The Cultural Connecting project continued with its success in Kranj, while it was also expanded to Ljubljana's Local Committee even though it has not focused on exchange yet. Maribor launched the Tourism project in 2008.

ee also

AIESEC

References

* Srečko Jamnišek, Od bajtarjev do astronavtov, Ljubljana: Korotan, 2004. pg 90-100, ISBN 961-6288-08-3
* AIESEC Slovenia National Report 1997/1998. Ljubljana: AIESEC Slovenia, 1998.
* Generation Bridge, AIESEC Alumni Event 2008. Event Outputs.