Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales (AIESEC) in Universitas Padjadjaran (Unpad) held Youth Today to connect students in creating awareness of developing leadership skills. This year, the seminar also aimed to introduce AIESEC to new students interested in joining the organization. Nearly 200 students from different batches and majors attended this warm occasion in Bale Santika Unpad on 10 September 2022.

AIESEC is a global, independent, non-partisan and non-profit youth-run organization. Locally, AIESEC is one of the leading university-level student organizations in Unpad as many other universities have their own branches called chapters. It aims to empower youth’s leadership and skills to gain a better future by achieving positive impact.

Aurellya Stephania, president of AIESEC Unpad year 2022-2023, explained that Youth Today is a routine event held by AIESEC chapters in each university. “Youth Today is held annually or biannually by all AIESEC in Indonesia according to the framework that has been set out by the headquarter,” she said. 

Given the circumstance of the beginning term of a fresh semester as an opportunity to invite new students, AIESEC Unpad combined Youth Today with the Join AIESEC program as a joint event, while both usually are on different occasions and on different departments’ hands. Hence, attending Youth Today is considered one of the AIESEC Unpad 2022 new member requirements.

Rhea Oktaqiara, acting Vice President of Brand Marketing AIESEC Unpad 2022-2023, said “Youth Today X Join AIESEC is an induction or the first step of recruitment to welcome AIESEC’s applicants while expecting them to know closer about AIESEC before the next steps, which are Leaderless Group Discussion and Interview, still, align with the main agenda: delivering any youth topic which today’s is leadership”. “Actually, AIESEC Unpad just had two Youth Today: the first was online last year and this year has been brought offline,” added Rhea in the post-seminar interview.

Beside a quick game to refresh the audiences in Youth Today, AIESEC brought in three speakers from its members and alumnis to share the experiences and advantages they gained while in AIESEC. One of the committees, Muhammad Arsyady Umar, gave an introduction to AIESEC and his story as an current member. Firdani Apriana as an alumni spoke about how AIESEC had turned her into a skillful employee from just-an-average graduated bachelor student, and Adira Valdi as an real work-experienced student delivered her leadership experiences as well as how to join AIESEC.

Interestingly, AIESEC has a unique feature in its every event called “Reward and Recognition” where the participants earn a reward for certain categories based on its values, such as most living diversity, most enjoying participation, and most demonstrating integrity. 

The post-survey that AIESEC has given out to the participants came out very well with a 9-10 average score, indicating that participants met their expectations and were satisfied with the speakers. “Such an informative, useful and insightful event for youth who want to build their leadership skills” said Jihan Tertia, participant from Public Relations major. “It’s an event that widens my insights about AIESEC in general and AIESEC Unpad,” said Zahra Amira Athaya from the faculty of Psychology.

“Hopefully, attendants could get to know more and prepare what part to take in AIESEC,” said Stephania. “Hopefully, participants could realize that each of them actually has a leadership which they could have developed, it is just the matter of how they showcase it to people”, added Rhea.

Penulis: Ammar Bianda Katon

Reporter: Ammar Bianda Katon

Editor: Fareez Eldacca

Foto: Dokumentasi reporter