A pool of diverse experiences

Introduction

Hello readers! I am Sanjana Navarathne, an International Relations Consultant in the Incoming Global Volunteer function of AIESEC in University of Colombo. Let me tell you my AIESEC success story from its beginning. I joined AIESEC back in 2020 in the winter peak as a member of iGV. In contrast to the beginnings of some other AIESEC stories you might have heard when joining AIESEC, I knew what it was all about. But I never thought it would leave such an impact in my university life and even beyond.

Experience

Joining as a member of iGV project ‘Beyond the Ability 13.0’, I stepped up in the AIESEC ladder step by step. Next step was becoming a team lead of iGV project ‘Paw Prints 10.0’, which was the first leadership role I took and which was the most challenging but the most fun filled role I experienced in AIESEC. After the team lead role I got the chance to become an IR Manager. How I got context in becoming an Internal Relations Manager is through joining the IR team of iGV as a member while I was working on my first project Beyond the Ability 13.0. There is no need to express my passion for working with different people from different backgrounds, ethnicities and countries as it should be crystal clear to you seeing me still pursuing as a consultant in the IR team.

While carrying out my responsibilities in my local committee, I applied to my first national-level opportunity. ‘Global Youth Dialogue’ as an Operations Organizing Committee Vice President. This was a whole new experience for me because I got to work with AIESECers from different other local committees as well. Then I held the role of Organizing Committee President for iGV event ‘IslandBlue’, which was another very challenging experience as me and my team had to face a lot of difficulties throughout the event, but in the end we somehow managed to pull off an impactful event. Continuing, I held my next national level role as an Organizing Committee Vice President Delegates for Global Village which is the most vibrant event of AIESEC Sri Lanka. Here I got to further improve my skills on multitasking and take up new challenges. After that I was a national project manager for iGV IR. The most recent role I held is the role of Organizing Committee President for Hey Amigo 3.0, my first local committee-level event, where I got the chance to make use of my experiences in IR beyond my function. 

Conclusion

Every opportunity I took in AIESEC gave me different experiences. And if I were to go deeply about the opportunities, challenges and learnings from them, this one-page article would definitely not be enough. But there are three common outcomes from all of them, and they are the most important for me out of all. The first one being the experiences themselves. The second one is connections. I cannot express how much I connected with people, with how many different personalities I got to interact and work with, how many inspiring young leaders I learned, and how many friends I made. The final one is self-development. Even though you can’t really measure it or count it like the number of connections you make, you definitely can feel an improvement in yourself with time. This is what AIESEC is to me and I’m so grateful for almost 2 years of my AIESEC life!

So grateful!

Sanjana Navarathne 

AIESEC in University of Colombo