Colin's visit

Today after coming back from the first trainee reception weekend in Den Haag (post that later), one of the AIESEC Canada's BOAs, Colin Baril, contacted us Netherlands trainees and asked to meet up to give him a low down on our experience as trainees / SNs / the new term "EP" or exchange participants. We had a good gathering that consisted of Patty ongpin, Jenn L'hereux, Elena, myself and my future roomie Sandy Woo.

It was nice to have that personal contact form home and check in on us and to take input on how the Canadian MC can improve tings in terms of the trainee's point of view. Over beer and dinner, had some great discussions ranging from people development at home compared to here, to structure of learning, to local integration and interaction, to communication with the home LC and MC.
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The experience with Colin was pretty sweet and I found was an opportunity to re-ground myself with someone back home and that the life of AIESEC can continue even after the traineeship is done. I always knew you could continue on supporting local activities as an alum, but having his perspectives and hearing his experiences as an alum has shaped that prospect a little more.

Maybe Canada should implement a similar program where anytime an alum travels to take a few hours out of their travel itinerary to meet with some of the local trainees to check in on them and ask them some challenging questions. I find not only will there be great reception from the trainees that someone in addition to their current support group from home shows interest in their lives out here, but hopefully the alum will find value in bringing key learnings back to the MC and LC portfolios; this would be a pretty sweet little project to roll out.