By Guest Contributor Jackie Stol
What does it mean to feel empowered? What experiences does one need to go through in order to bring out this feeling? Of course, each and every person has the potential to feel empowered, yet somehow, within many people, it remains hidden. In thinking of this feeling, words that come to mind include motivation, passion, open-mindedness, and another word that may seem out of place…
… fear.
I bring up the word fear because this is exactly what I was feeling before hopping on a place in the Summer of 2011 to spend 50 days in New Delhi, India for a social development project with an organization called AIESEC. AIESEC is the world’s largest student-run organization present in over 110 countries in which students send others students abroad while bringing them in to their own country as a means of exchanging international perspectives and gaining valuable personal and professional experience. The organization is built as “The international platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential.” Not only did I begin realizing this potential on my trip to India, but I am now a Vice-President in the University of Ottawa’s Local Chapter leading a team of 20 students to send others abroad and representing the other 80 members alongside the rest of the Executive Board. Although I began this journey with an initial feeling of fear, the result of this entire experience was a feeling of empowerment that continues to persist in my day-to-day lifestyle. I would have never thought that I would be gaining the experiences and the passion that both AIESEC and my own decision to step out of my comfort zone have provided me.
What could have possibly happened during the past year and a half that gave me this feeling of empowerment? Well, in order to explain this, I will take you through the how AIESEC has shaped who I thought I was then to the empowered person I am today.
For me, this trip all started with an unexpected email from AIESEC, which answered the question to my feelings of confusion. I was searching and searching for something that I didn’t know was within me and around me for a long time. I was yearning to feel passionate about something because I felt as if I was suppressing my potential to give to people around me, and I was scared to step out of my comfort zone to reach this potential. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go or where I would find this passion, but I just needed to trust that the decisions I made were from my heart. So I chose AIESEC.
At first, I had the idea of doing an education traineeship in order to make money for the next school year like the majority of people set out to do in the Summer, but in viewing the development internships I could feel myself being drawn to them. After looking through hundreds and hundreds of internships, I came across one form called the social development project, and every part of its description kept me interested and intrigued. I went back and forth for days, confused about where I should go and which internship to accept. I don’t know at what point fate gave me the best gift I could have asked for, and I’m still struggling to understand how everything worked out to be perfect, each step of my journey never ceasing to amaze me. I booked my tickets with little knowledge about India or AIESEC. This organization seems so vast, yet so hidden amongst people’s views. I joined their sessions in the beginning locked away in my comfort zone, but still amazed at how this was STUDENTS creating bonds with people from all over the world. Now I see how special this organization is… what we need is for people to understand each other from every walk of life. So much joy and change can be made if we can learn to connect to each other and give back to society through learning from our differing point of views.
My life was enriched during this trip during which I was working on a child empowerment project, planning and conducting sessions for children from the slums of New Delhi with students from a multitude of cultures… China, United States, England, Taiwan, India, Turkey, Poland, Russia, Italy, Ghana, Holland… the list goes on. What really shocked me though was how much I learned about my own country. How much I have to learn still. How much I have in my country. My adaptation started slowly, but ended quickly. With my first step off the plane knowing that I was alone to walking into the trainee house of 15 interns, quickly taking away my fear. I realized that everything I did would simply be teaching me, not hindering me. Each time the electricity stopped and we were trapped in heat, I would feel what those living on the streets don’t have access to; each time a child begged me for money, my empathy would grow; each time I was pushed and shoved in the subway from crowds of people, or taken advantage of for my ethnicity, I would try to understand what they were seeing through their eyes. Each day was a surprise, an astonishing amount of experiences to learn from. Language barriers can be knocked down, smiles can become the world of meaning and each person can knock down their own fears by digging inside their potential.
During the first few weeks of the project, Project Udaan (Fly), I was worried about how I would manage during the sessions with so many cultural differences. On our first meeting our project leader, Raghav, asked what we knew about the project and what our goals were. We had few correct answers while we were cramped in a tiny room sitting on hard, wooden beds. But I don’t think there was an answer until we saw the kids and experienced their world. Finally, the confusion left me about 3 days in to the session when the kids opened their hearts to us. I still remember the chaos of our first session but I was so happy to see so many smiling faces and children running and jumping at us from all directions. When one boy came to me and asked me if I would be coming to meet him every day to do games and activities, and I replied with every single day, I could see in his eyes the excitement and joy this brought to him.
Fifty days later, after travelling all across Northern and Western India – climbing the Himalayan mountains and visiting the Dalai Lama, sleeping underneath the stars in the desert, standing in the scorching heat in front of the Taj Mahal and watching the rural villages roll by outside the window of a sleeper train – I left India knowing that I had the power to impact others no matter where I was.
For more information about AIESEC please send an email to aiesecottawa.ic@gmail.com