DU’s chapter of AIESEC, which started at DU last fall, sent nine of its members to a national conference in San Francisco over winter break to work with other AIESEC members from around the country.
AIESEC, which does not stand for anything, is an international student-run organization that promotes internships abroad and works to provide local students with internship opportunities abroad as well as to connect international students with students in Denver.
“AIESEC national conferences happen bi-annually and they provide a unique forum for AIESEC local committee presidents, vice presidents and members to share ideas and strategies with each other and also to collaborate with their national support team,” said Vice President of Communications Kieryn Wurts.
The conference took place from Dec. 30 to Jan. 3. Members spent much of the time electing the new national president of AIESEC, while committee presidents participated in legislation sessions for the organization.
“This was actually the largest conference in AIESEC U.S. history, with over 400 people attending from all over the U.S. and the world,” said Wurts.
“Those of us from the Denver chapter learned a ton and had lots of fun meeting people and exploring the city,” said Wurts.
The nine DU students who attended the conference were Greg Sobetski, Kevin Bell, Sara Reyes, Wurts, Cameron Patterson, chapter president; Catherine DuBois, vice president of talent management; Thomas Tarler, vice president of finance; Hilary Houlette, vice president of incoming exchange; and Heather Cook, vice president of outgoing exchange.
AIESEC worked hard to build up its exchange program throughout the fall quarter.
“We’ve also been partnering with area businesses and non-profits to facilitate internships for international students in the Denver area,” said Wurts.
Most recently the club has been working with Global Text International to bring the first AIESEC trainees to Denver. The interns hire will work in social media and crowd-sourcing in Spanish-speaking populations.
“We have also helped send a recent college grad from the Denver area to Denmark for an IT internship with a local company,” said Wurts. “Right now, we’re preparing for our big Winter Traineeship Drive for DU students looking to intern abroad this summer.”
Wurts said she predicts the AIESEC Denver will only grow from here.
“Greg Sobetski, Kevin Bell, Sarah Reyes, Megan Sullivan and Brian Travis put in tons of work to found AIESEC in January of last year,” she said. “They literally started from scratch, and we’re looking to carry on what they started by continuing to grow our membership, our exchanges and campus-involvement in the coming year.”
The club is now reviewing applications from students who want to be members of AIESEC for winter quarter.
The deadline to apply for internships is Feb. 17. Students interested in applying for a summer internship should visit AIESEC’s website at http://aiesecus.org/denver.
