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AIESEC Volunteer abroad?

I was wondering if anyone knew anything or had personal experience with AIESEC's volunteer abroad programs? The projects look very good from the online blurbs, and are extremely cheap. I am very wary though because I have only heard of one person's detailed experience with AIESEC's internship programs, and it seems a little strange that none of the travel-loving people I know, know anything about AIESEC's programs...Are the projects legit? Has anyone here been abroad on one? Do they tend to accept gap year-aged students?
Try searching 'AIESEC' in the search box (top right) to find out if anyone on TSR has done it.
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Avatar for sahjan
sahjan
12
Hi. I volunteered with AIESEC in Vietnam last Summer. Yes they should accept gap-year students.
But it wasn;t cheap...I had to pay a £350 fee (which you get back after the reintegration with you finish your project), my own flight expenses (for Vietnam it was £500 return), and even though I stayed with a host family and didn't have to pay accommodation, i spent well over £1200 on my trip.

AIESEC is a student run organisation so naturally it was terrible. Firstly, the project I applied to and interviewed for, I was told I had been successful. But get this - when I got to Vietnam, when they picked me up from the airport to take me to the organisation I was gonna work for, they told me RIGHT THERE in the TAXI that they'd changed my project to another one without telling me. They didn't even tell me the start dates and finishing dates of the new project.
Not that I didn't like it - it didn't seem much different from the one I applied to, except it's just an unprofessional thing to do.

Secondly, you get an AIESEC 'buddy' in the country you're volunteering in, and they're there for you if you have any questions, to hang out with, explore the country in your free time etc. My friend's buddy didn't contact her at all. Mine skyped with me to introduce herself, but even then she didn't seem very nice and welcoming.

Thirdly we were invited to a 'party' that they held for all the AIESEC volunteers in all the projects in that city in Vietnam, but this was a kiddy little thing where they tried to have us stand in a circle, introduce ourselves, do a little dance or whatever. In the end no one participated and we told them that they should just let us mingle and do our own thing.

AIESEC in Vietnam was absolutely unprofessional and a complete shambles. They were completely disorganised and didn't help us one bit.
But the project itself was good. We worked in a primary/secondary summer school and stayed with host families. I made great friends with the other volunteers I worked with. It's just AIESEC that was terrible.
But if you have your own initiative you shouldn't have any problems.

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