Posted by: Lieke Toonen Posted on: Monday 14 September 2009, 14:29

AIESEC exchange experience The main goal which AIESEC presents to all its members is to help them explore and develop their leadership potential and their natural abilities in order to make the best impact on society. Since I’ve joined AIESEC, in October 2008, I’ve came in contact with the AIESEC way of making things happen . And I can say I’ve been delighted so far and I keep discovering new things about AIESEC and making the most of my experience as an AIESEC-er. My name is Ionut Plesa , I am 22 and I come from Romania. Currently, I work as a trainee in The Netherlands for an Eindhoven-based company called Multimedia Brains, starting from August 2009. The job is great for learning new things and developing my skills each day, with workmates that are very open and always ready to help me with my technical skills and also with my teamwork skills. Going abroad is not something new for me, I’ve been in contact with other cultures and also worked with people of different nationalities. But this experience with AIESEC is proving to be different, because I always have someone to turn to even after I finish my work.

The stories I heard before joining the AIESEC Exchange program seem to be more and more true as time passes now. I do not think I’ll ever come to regret the decision of coming to The Netherlands and starting this internship, because I feel each day spent here will help me improve as a person and also will help me become a trusted professional. Trying to adapt to the Dutch culture it’s still a challenge. Some things are different from other places where I’ve lived , but this makes the experience interesting and one thing I know for certain, it will be very hard for me to ever get bored around here. Making new friends was easier, because the people in AIESEC were around me right since I came here and I know I can count on them always. It was them who helped me with the paperwork, with housing, with getting to know the city. Right since I decided to try this experience I knew it was not just about coming here and trying to live in a new environment. It was much more. I was really eager to try and understand and then fit in the Dutch culture, to take something from this new culture, to make friends and to try and live like a Dutch person.

I know that next year, by the end of my internship, I’ll have to make a really hard decision, if I will stay and move here or go back to my country or to another place. Until now, my stay here was better than I expected, I made new friends and I’ve got to see and learn a lot. I got the chance to work in a very professional and modern environment, where I felt like I could really improve myself and also I had the chance to see how other young people can be such a big support to you when you need it most. I started going by bike instead of a car or bus and also I’ve improved my Dutch a lot, since I only had a basic vocabulary before. To sum all up, I can say that until now I’ve learned to be more tolerant and to accept another culture, matter how different is from mine and to always look on the good side of things and not look for problems when they can be avoided. Because with my friends form AIESEC next to me, there is nothing I can’t conquer.