This week’s Campus Celebrity is Rosalind Stockill, a true leader on campus! Originally from Liverpool, England, she helps bring in international students to do internships in Canada in her role as VP Corporate Relations for AIESEC. Ros is professional, passionate, and personable, and a serious inspiration to many others on campus. Read her interview to learn more about AIESEC, time-management skills, and the importance of tapping into your own potential!
Esther Vinarov for Her Campus McGill (HC McGill): Can you start by telling us what AIESEC is?
Rosalind Stockill (RS): AIESEC is the world’s largest student-run organization in which we give leadership experiences through sending people on international exchange and managing that exchange. At McGill we have a team of 80 people that work year-round through the summer, that sends students abroad (we have had people go to Guatemala, India, Azerbaijan, etc) and the other thing we do is bring in international talent to have their exchange in Canada, so that’s what I lead. I work with businesses to provide international internship opportunities, and in this whole process we foster something greater than the exchange itself, and that’s the culture of AIESEC: the people we recruit and hope to develop are much better assets to the community after the AIESEC experience – we hope they’re more self-aware, that they feel like they’re more responsible to the world and communities that they live in, that they’re active in empowering others, and that they’re solution-oriented. I see it as a ripple effect – knowing all these things about yourself and how you work – there’s a ripple effect of positive stuff from your AIESEC experience. You can be in AIESEC for six months but hopefully the AIESEC experience should never end because of what you’ve learned. That’s really important because we’re taking active roles in making a difference. I get really frustrated when people don’t do anything in their lives – we have so much potential as young people, but people don’t tell us we have potential, they don’t activate it, but AIESEC is a great place where you can realize your potential.
HC McGill: So you find internships for people – they apply to you and you take care of them?
RS: Yes, we’re very caring people – we have a seminar before you go about cultural awareness and expectation settings. One thing AIESEC isn’t is voluntourism – you’re not going to go there and spend one day a week doing your internship and the rest travelling saying you found yourself through travelling Peru – you’re going to find yourself through doing work and being in a different culture.
HC McGill: Would I be eligible to do an AIESEC internship after graduating?
RS: Of course! You have two years from graduation from university when you’re eligible to go on an AIESEC internship, and you have to be under 30. We have loads of opportunities – volunteering and professional (marketing, teaching, business). The majority of McGill students go on volunteering internships – one of my friends was in Greece helping in a kindergarden, another was in Guatemala doing HR development for a company. There’s no one AIESEC experience, there’s a million ones that will teach you a million things, but you’re all coming out a better person for it.
HC McGill: What is your role in AIESEC specifically?
RS: I am Vice President of Corporate Relations, I lead a team of around ten people, from corporate branch marketing to sales, and in doing that I try to create relationships with companies where they sign a contract saying they’ll take an international intern to their company. What I really focus on is not sales but in people feeling comfortable in an atmosphere in which they feel like they can succeed. I have a team in the office four hours a week, doing calls, and going on meetings. It’s tough, but I want to make them feel happy and that they’re connecting to something greater than doing cold calls. If I can reinforce why they’re doing it – if they think about the fact that one call in one day can have this domino effect – that one call can lead to a meeting, and that company decides to take the intern, and then that person’s real life that we’re responsible for can change. Through this domino effect you’re really changing someone’s life forever, so I try to enforce “the big why.”
HC McGill: How did you get involved in AIESEC?
RS: I came in very skeptical, I don’t know why I stayed, but through time I became involved in the community and being surrounded by people who want to make a difference really changed me and gave me a chance to learn about myself. I went to an information session thinking I’d like to go abroad, but then I thought no, my parents wouldn’t let me. I don’t know why I applied to my first team leadership position, but I’m here now one and a half years later wanting to apply for the national chapter, so something good must have happened.
HC McGill: So what is the next step for you?
RS: I am applying for the national chapter; it’s a year-long position in Toronto to work full-time for AIESEC. I’ve given so much to AIESEC, and when you talk to people at the national chapter, they give so much to other people. You’re in a position of great authority and responsibility to people’s development on such a huge scale around the country, and I feel like I can do that really well. I feel like I haven’t been in a position yet in AIESEC where I can create as big of an impact on people as possible, and I feel like I can do it well – I’m very approachable, I’m extroverted, I’m not scared of meeting people, so if I was on the national chapter it would be a perfect way to finish my AIESEC chapter and give back to the wider community. The way I make my sales team comfortable, I want to make the country comfortable – it sounds cliche, but I’ve seen people doing it before and it’s a wonderful thing. When else would you be 21 and in charge of a national organization?
HC McGill: Who is AIESEC run by at the very top?
RS: Everyone is under 30 in AIESEC, there’s a national team for every country (about 130 national teams) and and then there’s AIESEC International: 30 people who live in Rotterdam, made up from other university and national levels, and they oversee the global organization. I think the current president of AIESEC international is about 25.
HC McGill: Could you see yourself doing that?
RS: Whoa, one step at a time! AIESEC is like a drug, it’s hard to say no, this is the end of it, because it feels good and you want to do more. I’m not ready for my AIESEC experience to be over and I want to take the next step.
HC McGill: I know you put in many hours per week – can you explain how much time you dedicate to AIESEC and how you manage your time?
RS: Well I have many roles – for my VP role, I probably put in a nice 25 hours. I’m also on the national support team so I coach other people around the country, and that’s 5-10 hours a week, and applying for the national chapter, that’s about another 5 hours a week. So that’s a lot of hours, but it doesn’t feel that way. It doesn’t feel like work, because you’re with people that you like and doing things that you like, it’s crazy. I’ve learned to fit it into my life. I thrive off variety. Yes, I give all these hours to AIESEC but I also do other stuff. Over the weekend I try not to do too much AIESEC, it’s very much a week thing – I have late night meetings and early meetings, but the weekend is when Ros tries to do schoolwork. You get more efficient with your time – my grades went up last semester even though I was the busiest, because you learn to manage your time. Time management is key. It’s hard though, it’s never easy. I‘m in honours, I have friends, and I’m in choir. I think it’s the personality type; I thrive off doing 12 things a day. When you’re doing work you know how to become more efficient.
HC McGill: Thanks so much for fitting this interview into your busy schedule! Is there anything else you want to add?
RS: Go women!
Images provided by interviewee.