Peace Corps in Macedonia: Career Directions

AIESEC Prilep broke its multi-year, seminar hiatus by hosting Career Directions on December 12-14. The goal of the seminar was to prepare high school and university students in choosing their ideal career path. A mix of company representatives and AIESEC members delivered sessions over the three days to about sixty students from the Prilep area.

Our Local Committee President decided to host this seminar to both increase the visibility of AIESEC in Prilep and to keep many of our members active. Just like any local project, we started Career Directions by electing an Organizational Committee president, selecting her committee, and then providing support for them as they found partners for donations, marketed the seminar to students, organized the logistics and sessions, and executed the three-day event.

Since I have been busy working with AIESEC’s new system for internships and preparing my team for assisting our applicants, my involvement in this seminar had been very minimal. Besides interviewing and providing feedback for the candidates for the organizing committee, as well as a bit of marketing among the high schools, I was not very involved in the seminar’s plan. This compares to some of the other members of the Executive Board, who found themselves meeting with companies or creating marketing materials when the OC members fell short of their responsibilities. Even though I feel bad because they could have used some help at times, in a way their experiences managing these tasks helped them develop their capacity, a major goal of Peace Corps. Peace Corps may be one of the few organizations where doing less work is part of the job description, which for me is a difficult concept to grasp.

Days before the conference, it was apparent how the OC Teams efforts had materialized into success. Over 105 students applied to attend the seminar (even though our room could only hold 70), and various companies from Macedonia, including Kromberg and Schubert, Vitaminka, Pelisterka, and Elitte Caffe donated products or money. I also noticed a stark change in the attitudes and professionalism of the OC team. These members were more serious during the meetings, showed patience, and really understood how to manage a project and work as a team.

The facilitators taught the students some soft skills like emotional intelligence or thriving through uniqueness. They also learned from companies new financial models, HR policies, and marketing. Each day the students were required to organize an imaginary birthday party for their “brother”, and on the final day they presented their project with budgets, guest lists, a venue, and other logistics to the representatives of Kromberg and Schubert, who judged and selected the winning team. The students really enjoyed the seminar and gave very high marks on the evaluations.

Overall this seminar really helped AIESEC Prilep and its members grow. Due to its success, AIESEC Prilep has grown its list of partners. It also helped market AIESEC to the students and gave them an idea of how our organization is trying to make a difference in the society. Of course, the seminar also helped develop the skills and experiences of our members, which has made our capacity stronger and will allow us to accomplish even more ambitious things within the next year.