AIESEC: International student leadership and exchange organization

The aim of the organization is to promote international understanding and to realize the potential of our society; the exact English formulation of the objective is "Peace and Fulfillment of Humankind's Potential". AIESEC is a platform that enables young people to develop and have a positive impact on society. Two pillars contribute to achieving these goals:

1. exchange (exchange)

• AIESEC organizes and arranges international internships for young people between 18 and 30 years of age in the fields of management, IT, social affairs or education in all regions where there are local committees. As the aim of the internships is a cultural experience, participants can only do one internship abroad. Through a central portal called AIESEC's Opportunity Portal, they have the opportunity to search for projects all over the world. In 2013, over 22,000 social internships and 5000 corporate internships were realized.
• Exchange of knowledge and know-how within the organization at more than 500 regional, national or international conferences annually

2. leadership development

• AIESEC specifically tries to motivate students to take on responsibility and leadership positions. Accompanying seminars and conferences are designed to help students benefit from their leadership experience and exchange ideas with each other. The goal is to educate responsible, tolerant and culturally open leaders who can take responsibility in society and have a positive impact in the future. Annually, approximately 27,500 leadership experiences are facilitated locally, nationally and internationally.

In 1946, AIESE, the predecessor organisation of AIESEC, was founded in Liège, Belgium. In 1949, AIESEC is officially founded with the organisation of the 1st International Congress (3-6 March 1949 in Stockholm). In the first year, 89 students were offered internships abroad. In 1953, AIESEC began cooperating with the International Chamber of Commerce and UNESCO. In 1955, the 1,000 mark in internship exchanges was broken. In 1960, 2,973 students completed an internship abroad with AIESEC. AIESEC's first permanent headquarters opened in Geneva in 1961. In 1963, the participants of the 15th International Congress were received in Princeton by US President John F. Kennedy. During the 16th International Congress in Rome in 1964, Paul VI received the participants for a private audience at the Vatican. In 1965, Czechoslovakia became the first socialist country to join AIESEC. In 1969, a computer was used for the first time to place interns. Until then, interns had been placed exclusively through so-called matching conferences. In 1970 Lufthansa became the official travel partner of the German AIESEC. To ensure the quality of its internships, it was decided in 1974 to set the minimum duration of an internship at 6 weeks. 1971 Year the headquarters moved from Geneva to Brussels.

In 1991, the internationally uniform blue logo used today was introduced. It unified the appearance of the organization worldwide under one brand. Previously, each country had its own appearance. In Germany, the orange logo was replaced. In 1992 representatives were sent to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil. 1996 AIESEC decided to focus on the intern exchange. In 1997 the intern exchange goes online. In 1998 the umbrella organisation AIESEC International moved from Brussels to Rotterdam.

With the internet-based program Insight, internships were increasingly arranged online from 1998 onwards. In 2000, an improved version insight 2 was put into operation. Insight XP was introduced in 2004. Since 2007 this was replaced by the intranet portal myaiesec.net and on 6 November 2014 by experience.aiesec.org. Until 2011, AIESEC realized a total of almost 260,000 internships.

AIESEC in Germany

The first local committee in Germany was founded by Albert Kaltenthaler in Nuremberg in 1951. Cologne and Mannheim followed in the same year. On 19 March 1952, AIESEC in Germany became an official member at the 4th International Congress in Copenhagen; the first chairman was Albert Kaltenthaler. Already in the following year the 5th International Congress took place in Nuremberg from March 15 to 23, 1953. Here the Saarland and Yugoslavia were accepted as members of AIESEC. On December 18, 1956, AIESEC Germany was officially registered as an association in the Cologne Register of Associations. One year later, the National Committee of Saarland was dissolved and admitted to Germany.

In 1964 Ludwig Erhard became an honorary trustee. Since 1971, Germany has been the country with the most internships within the organization. In 1974, the 10,000th foreign intern came to Germany and was received by Federal President Walter Scheel. In the meantime there were 25 local committees in Germany. In 1985 Germany, with its now 45 local committees, was given the task of improving relations with the People's Republic of China. In 1988, 900 students completed an internship in Germany, among them the first from China. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first two committees in the GDR were founded in Berlin in 1989. In 1990, AIESEC in Germany officially received the mandate to establish AIESEC in the GDR. In 1991 the 43rd International Congress was held in Germany under the patronage of Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker. AIESEC in Germany represented both the Western and the Eastern Local Committees. In 1993 AIESEC in Germany became a member of the German Preparatory Committee for the UN Social Summit and represented the students at the Summit in 1995.

In 2002, AIESEC Germany created the first opportunity for Afghan students to study abroad by establishing AIESEC in Afghanistan. In 2004, AIESEC Germany hosted the 56th International Congress in Hanover under the patronage of the then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The first Afghan interns completed an internship in Germany in 2005. In 2013, the number of 2000 exchanges was reached for the first time. After several closures in previous years, the number of local committees fell from around 60 in the early 2000s to 36 in the summer of 2017.

AIESEC Germany is a founding member of the Association of German Student Initiatives.

Local committees

In Germany, 35 local committees existed in March 2021 in Aachen, Augsburg, Berlin (Humboldt University and Technical University), Bielefeld, Bochum, Bonn, Braunschweig, Bremen, Darmstadt, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Giessen-Marburg, Göttingen, Halle, Hamburg, Hanover, Heidelberg, Jena, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Leipzig, Lüneburg, Magdeburg, Mainz-Wiesbaden, Mannheim, Munich, Münster, Nuremberg, Paderborn, Passau, Regensburg, Stuttgart-Hohenheim.

Austria

AIESEC in Austria was founded in 1952 and has eight local committees (Graz, Innsbruck, Linz, Salzburg and four in Vienna). In addition, a Research Group was founded in Klagenfurt in 2011 with the aim of reopening the LC there.

The National Board (Member Committee) is based in Vienna and consists of six people. The National Board is supported by a team (National Support Team), whose tasks are the administration of national concerns and projects.

Switzerland

AIESEC in Switzerland was founded in 1951 in St. Gallen and had about 300 members in 2015. There are currently eight local committees in Basel, Bern (founded in 1963), Freiburg im Üechtland (founded in 1967), Geneva (founded in 1958), Lausanne (founded in 1954), St. Gallen (founded in 1951), Zurich (founded in 1957) and Lucerne (founded in 2016).

The Member Committee, the national board, is based in Bern. As there are several official languages in Switzerland, the official working language is English.

Afghanistan

The beginning of the development of AIESEC in Afghanistan was a conference in December 2002 called NIFA (New Ideas for Afghanistan). One of the five workshops dealt with the topic of AIESEC. The conference was led by the local committee Frankfurt am Main, which was also responsible for following up the idea afterwards. The first interns left Afghanistan in February 2005 to work in Berlin. At the International Presidents Meeting 2005 it became an official AIESEC country on February 25th. In March 2005 the official MC office was opened in the Mediothek für Afghanistan e.V.. President of NIFA and therefore first MCP of Afghanistan was Marcus Wittig. The first elected Member Committee President (MCP) was Ahmad Waheed Sahak. The first and so far only local committee is located in Kabul.

Canada

AIESEC in Canada owes its foundation to a request from Donald W. James of AIESEC in the USA for a letter of recommendation. This request reached the Vice President of The House of Seagram Limited, Charles Bronfman, in February 1958. Bronfman liked the idea of AIESEC so much that he came to the conclusion that Canada should have an independent AIESEC. So on March 25, 1958, he wrote to the President of the World University Student's Society, Mel Rothman. After some correspondence, a letter ended up with Lewis Perinbam of the World University Service of Canada. On November 8, 1958, the first provisional meeting of AIESEC in Canada was held at McGill University in Montreal. Present at this inaugural meeting were Eric W. Kierans, Adam Dickie, Simon St.Pierre, Jean Dagenais, Lionel Simons, Gerald Destounis and Arthur Dalfen, all professors in various departments.

China

There have been several attempts to found AIESEC in the People's Republic of China. The first attempts were made in the 1980s, but came to a halt with the Tiananmen massacre in 1989. In the mid-1990s there were renewed attempts, supported by AIESECers from Japan, the USA, Hong Kong and Germany. The USA and Japan already had exchange programs, but in 1997 students from Germany and Hong Kong set up a first Interest Group in Shanghai. The following year, another Interest Group was established in Beijing. In 2002, China became an official AIESEC member at the International Presidents Meeting in Malta. Currently, AIESEC in Mainland China has more than 200 members at universities in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou and Guangzhou who are committed to international exchange.

Romania

AIESEC in Romania was founded in 1992 on the initiative of AIESEC in Austria and has twelve local committees.