NEC- AIESEC Indonesia New President!

Last Jauary, I was in Jogjakarta for 4 days attending National Election Conference 2014 of AIESEC INDONESIA. It was hosted by AIESEC LC (Local Committee) University of Gajah Mada, Jogjakarta. Along with my other teammates in AIESEC: Udin, Jodi, Faris, Aldila, Bayu and Molly. Unfortunately, not really many AIESECer from UMM who could be delegates of NEC because of the small quota. Anyway, we went to Jogja by bus which took approximately 7 hours on the way (duh! Another silly way to hurt my *ss). The reason why we choose bus was because it is cheaper than train.

Conference was held in this hotel.

I will tell you more about the conference. The conference was held in @HOM hotel in Yogyakarta. I think this was my 9th or 10th conference so far, and I wasn’t that excited attending this conference because there were only few delegates from AIESEC UMM. But from other LCs they have more than 8-10 delegates came.

 Another thing was that this conference mainly about President Election of Member Committee AIESEC Indonesia. So, basically I’m witnessing the process of the election. However, AIESEC UMM hasn’t allowed voting because were still in Official Expansion state. Entities that were allowed to vote at that time were LC Bandung, LC UI and LC Brawijaya because three of them were passed Internal Audit and became Full member LC. But the other entities were allowed to give questions to the candidates.

The candidates of the election were Ardian Widjaja, currently at that time hold the position in MC Indonesia as MC Director of Entity Development. The other candidate was Fandy Thesia, Local Committee President of AIESEC University of Indonesia. I didn’t really know both of them personally. I could say that I know them professionally in AIESEC. And both of them are great leader and AIESECer. They are also inspiring person.  I’m proud of AIESEC which creating future leaders for our beloved country, Indonesia. I believe, people like Ardian and Fandy will be a great leader in the future.

The election was hold in the second day of the conference. Unfortunately I was very sleepy during the election (my honest confession). I guess I needed more rest, because  at the night before, I slept really late and wake up so early.There were several sections of election process, such as: personal section, AIESEC knowledge section, General section, Specific Question, Panel Discussion, and The group discussion. Each section represents what type of questions given to the candidates. For example, if it is personal section, then each representative of each LC must only ask about their personal things. To ensure their motivation in life, to know what their purpose of life, to know their ambition, etc.

However, the thing that I like the most from the election process is group discussion. Here, one group LC and its member may ask some question to each candidate for certain duration given. So we can ask everything as we want. It could be personal, strategic, etc. We could know the candidate better. This section could be the most important section of all, because each LC will ask question that could be related to the condition of their LC.  So, every answer given could be correct or incorrect is depends on the group of LC itself.

All sections were finished, and then it was time for each LC to discuss their choice of who will be the next President of AIESEC Indonesia for term 2014-2015. That time, AIESEC UMM was only allowed to discuss with its own LC sister, LC University of Brawijaya. We can only suggest and give our opinion about each candidate, but we couldn’t vote. So, LC UB could consider our suggestion and also opinion. We would have democratic process of discussion. Whether it was UB or UMM, the final decision of whom was going to be chosen is depends on what we decided together. We discussed it together to decide who deserved to be president and had the opportunity to develop himself and also bring changes to AIESEC. (And here, I won’t tell you who was chosen by us, anyway. It was secret. And then, the voting process was begun. UB, UI, and Bandung gave their vote to the committee. The same like the usual election process, there were papers resembled picture of both candidate and the voters has to cross it.

While waiting for the counting process, all of delegates may have some party, we called it election party. Last year, there was no such thing. But I was glad that there was this year. That party was awesomely exciting. Did you know about schooling? Yes, it is a competition of fast drinking. Mostly people use beer. But since we are Indonesians, we would use cola for alternative.

waiting for the party

“I challenge myself to join this competition. It was time to get out from my comfort zone”. What I am saying just now was ridiculously true. There had to be a team from each local committee to compete with other teams. Each team consisted of three people. The rule of schooling is like this: the fastest team will be the winner. Who is finished their glass had to invert the glass above their head. Another condition must be fulfilled; the inverted glass must not contain any water or drop anything to the head. It means that the glass must be totally empty. The game was so fun, but our team was lost because we are not fast enough. And did you know? my chest was really in pain because I drank a lot of Soda. hiks IT'S PAINFUL AND FUN! 

After the Party, it was time for the Election Annoucement.... wohoooooooooooo! I was so excited. And the elected President of AIESEC Indonesia 2014-2015 is... DRUM ROLL PLEASE....!

Finally, Ardian is the elected President of AIESEC Indonesia. I hope he could really deliver his promise and develop his leadership potential through this responsibility. I'm happy for him and wishing the best luck for AIESEC Indonesia. I could feel the hype and enthusiasm of all the members that night which reminds me the moment when I was elected as the President. :') I admit, that being president of AIESEC UMM was the best experience I ever had. I promise to tell you my election story in the next post. 

Anyway, the conference wasn't end yet. We still have 2 days more. The next day, we have Member Committee Vice President (MCVP) selection. The procedure was almost the same like we did for President election. But that time, we had to select for Ardian's team member. Another honest confession, I was so sleepy. And the result of MCVP was announced directly that evening. The only MCVP who passed was Akbar from LC UPNVY, He was finally got his new role as MCD expansion. So proud of him. :') Later that night, we had another party, "Roll dance" Party. Wohooo..... Well, UMM delegates didn't prepare any dance moves. And Jodi came with an idea that we can just dance using Korean Music Video Clip "Jumping".  Okay... Korean Dance. We only had 45 minutes left for practice before the party. Until then, someone told me that AIESEC UMM got the first turn to dance. Whaaa....t?! But it's okay, we could do it anyway, even with some mistakes with the move, we were still confidence and dance well. The audience seemed excited with what we've done. (I wish I had the video) Since we had the first turn, we forgot to tell someone to record our dance. :'(

Knowing AIESEC

This might be little bit not-up-to-date story, but I swear to myself that I will write everything about my experience in AIESEC from the very beginning until now. So, of course the story is starting from the first time I know AIESEC until the current day I am writing this blog. However, I would not write down everything in one full article, but instead, I would do it separately with different title. It depends on each events and memorable experiences that had happened. For example, in this post, I will share a story when I firstly know AIESEC in my university.

I still remembered clearly what happened that day, when a friend, Bianka, told me that there is a small info session about international-level organization called as AIESEC in campus. First thought, It was a scholarship organization that could send you abroad freely but I want to know it further. In my campus, there are so many international opportunities and I thought AIESEC is one of those. The famous one is Erasmus Mundus, an international scholarship program that allows you to go study abroad through Europe countries. I know this program since I was in senior high. For more, at that time, I didn't really know how it was. And what I expect from AIESEC was also similar with Erasmus Mundus that also allows me to go abroad through scholarship program.

In fact, what I was thinking was wrong. The info sessions aimed to give a basic information and a brief introduction about AIESEC to my University. It is just established in my University, and it as seemed to be an event to find volunteers to be the first  members of AIESEC in my Univeristy. I wasnt really optimistic. But, I joined the info session and listened to everything about AIESEC and it was getting interesting for me.

AIESEC is international platform for young people to develop and explore their leadership potential. It has existed in total 124 countries with more than 86.000 members all over the globe. It is independent non-for-profit organization that focused in leadership and global internship and global issues. While the speaker was explaining, honestly, I was bit confused about. For me, it was a very new thing that I just know.

However, I got the point that AIESEC is not a scholarship program. It is beyond that, it is global youth organization than aims to create peace and fullfillment of humandkind's potentia by providing a platfrom for young genereations to develop their leadership and management skill. Shortly, AIESEC creates future leaders to make better world.

AIESEC internship programs are more likely to be volunteering activities, but it is focused in variant global issues. Global issues here could be anything that matters to certain countries or territories for example, poverty, education, health, and childreen. Moreover, they also have a proffsional internship opportunities. So, AIESEC sends students who are willing to participate to take a contribution to others through this two programs. They could choose one or both. ( I wont explain to long about these, will be toooo loooong)  AIESEC give us opportunities to explore our world and undertand our own world. By then, we will be ready to be a global citizen.

And then for the leadership program, AIESEC provides the members with leadership opportunities to implement what you have studied at school. AIESEC will let the students to manage all operational things inside the body, and provide the education such as conferences to help the members understand what they will do in AIESEC. These conferences are hold in certain cities, and countires. Each conference deliver different massange and purpose. At the end, AIESEC give a considerable contribution this a better society by creating another future leaders for next generation. And I think, this is a great chance for me to better myself, develop myself, but at the same time I contribute something that may create a positive societal impact.

At the end of the info sessions, I disscussed and questioned few things with the speaker. His name is Camelo from Columbia. He is AIESECer (the way you call AIESEC members) from AIESEC entitiy from his home country. He explains how AIESEC really important for youth to actually create something meaningful yet impactful to their society. He recommended me to join this organization and wish me the best experience ever.

I was then more confident to take this opportunites. I asked for a contact and asked them to call me if they have further information. I would be so glad to help. If it is something impactful that require a great commitment and passion, I want to be part of it.

My Drama Team & Performance

As you may know, Drama  is a form of art performance which includes acting, dialogue, and a stage performance. It is of course done on the stage with various decorations, lighting and also sounds effect in order to make the performance alive. As second year English department college student, we all get a Drama Lecture in our class. Drama class is one of the challenging and also time consuming because you need to do a lot of practice to make your performance perfect. By the way, this experience happen to me this last three weeks.

Three weeks ago, my lecturers gave us a final project, that we had to make a group consisting 13-14 people maximum. This group had to show a drama performance at the end of December. So, we have only 3 weeks to prepare. Well, 3 weeks preparation is long enough for me. Then, we could choose the members of the group randomly. My group consisted of: Me, Mayang, Ocy, Bianka, Andre, Jefri, Ayu, lala, Milla, Dayah, Ruri, Rani, and Indrayati. As the group was made, my team advised me to be the Team Leader which means I will be the director of the our Drama. :’) Still in the same day, I didn’t want to waste my time, our time, so that we quickly discuss what story that we want to perform. Well, my idea was really simple. I think, this drama would be very interesting and feasible if we just picked up a story from the movie on which our story was inspired. We decided to adapt family-genre movie titled “Joshua oh Joshua“, an Indonesian movie stared by Joshua Suherman, Mega Utami,  Anjasmara, and Desi Ratnasari.

The story that our group made was about a missing child named Jessie who was left by her baby sitter 12 years ago and finally met her true parents. Well, you may think the story was very simple, but the preparation was not. It was consist of script-writing, casting, acting, costumes and decorating, rehearsing, and performing.

For the script-writing, we did a really great discussion ended up with very tempting and adapted story of the Joshua Movie. Well, people might not known and notice the plot which was adapted one. So, there were no big effort to make the plot. We just easily changed the ending, delete some unimportant and unnecessary scene and change few of the story’s complications. However, I wasn’t doing it by myself. My teams really supported and gave me some alternatives how the story would end. So, what I needed to do at that time were making the dialog. The script-writing took about 3 days to finish.

After the script was done, it was time to decides the characters cast. So, what I needed to do was casting the members. Actually, I had vision in my mind who would play as the protagonist and antagonist ones. But, of course I wanted to make sure that my vision was correct. So, I want them to demonstrate the dialogues. Even though the casting process wasn’t like I expect, I still believe that they can do the characters. Then finally, I chose Bianka, Mayang, Jefri, and Ayu as the main characters.

However, playing Drama in English was not easy as we playing drama in Bahasa. There were big difference especially in the way we express the dialogue. I have searched some expression that commonly used in for conversations, and I believed those would be hear able and sounds natural. I found that some of the previous teams didn’t have good dialogue because they use a very formal speech act that I thought might not suitable for drama. If the dialogue sounds natural  enough, they could memorize it easily and practice it soon.

For acting part, the thing that really matters was confidence. Well, some of my teammates seemed have difficulties in pronouncing some words. And I hear it very weird when they were practicing with their partner. So, while they were practicing the dialogue, I had to listen carefully and suggest the correct pronunciation. Then, after 3 times of meetings, finally it was time for acting. Honestly, I dont have experience in acting, movies, or being an actress. But I do love watching movies and always judging the way the actors/actress’ act. I observed how they express themselves in certain circumstance and situation. Sometimes I saw a talented actors with a very different role and characters in different movies. So, I could compared the acting between characters, the personality of the characters, and also the main strategy to make acting looks natural. And I shared it to my friends. At first, they were little bit shy and not confidence with their act. They talk slow, too fast, and unclear. It is my responsibility to guide them. In the 2nd meeting of acting session, I could see their improvement and courage to be total in their acting. I could feel that. 

Along with the acting, some of the teammates also helped me to prepare the decoration. It is me who design the stage decoration. I took us only a day to prepare the material and made the decorations which were mostly made from Styrofoam. We did that as fast as possible because the deadline was 9 more days for that day. Not only decorations, we should also prepare the costume, the material, the accessories and etc. Each of the individuals had their responsibilities to create or bring something.

Situations was getting serious and tense when the deadline was 4 days to go. We practice everyday, and starts to do some gestures and blocking for our acting. We had to record the narration, make the background videos, prepare the sounds and also the drama lab for rehearsal.

At the end, the results of our performance was very outstanding. I could see the audience enjoyed the show. Our lecturer, Mrs. Erly said that our drama wa so Excellent. And she gave compliments of our story, acting, decorations and many more. I was very proud of myself and my team. Finally we nailed it.

This good result of course no other than because our hard-work, commitment, and teamwork. At the end, they all said thanks to me that really warmed my heart that Saturday. It wasn't about me, but it was all about us. So, this was good learning that If you really committed to what you did, the result will be not dissapointing. The performance that day really made my day better.

I did appreciate what my team has done that Saturday, I knew that they did their best.

(From upleft to upright) Merry, Ruri, Lala, Mila, Ms. Erly, Ayu, Jefri, Rani, Andre. (From downleft to downright) Ocy, Dayah, Bianka, Mayang, Indrayati, and Me

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