Sanne (25, master electronics) came to the Netherlands for an exchange semester. She ended up being part of the board of AIESEC, which gave her the opportunity to travel to Jordan and Lebanon. After her exchange year, the original plan was to return to her home country Sweden. However, plans changed and Sanne currently lives in Taiwan. How did she end up there and what did she learn from her journeys?
What are you currently doing?
‘I am following an internship in Taiwan at the moment. I work for a biomedical company on medical devices. I will stay for six months. That means I return in the summer. During my board year of AIESEC, a Taiwanese girl told me about this internship, so I could match others to it. I was really enthusiastic and decided to do the internship myself.’
Why did you decide to do a board year at AIESEC?
‘I did not know about the existence of AIESEC until I came to the Netherlands. In my house, I met the members of the board, who let me know there were still positions left. I saw this as an opportunity and I did not regret it. A board year is a good way to meet new people in Enschede. I especially like the familiar atmosphere, it is really honest. I am interested in developing my leadership skills, and it’s great that I also increase my knowledge about other cultures.’
What did you do in Lebanon and Jordan?
‘I was studying at the UT and I was supposed to go back to Sweden. However, the semesters in Enschede are quite different from the ones in Sweden, meaning I had missed a lot. In the meanwhile I heard about the opportunity to improve abroad organisations. I applied for the program and waited. Eventually I heard I was accepted and that’s how my adventure began. I helped with bridging the gap between the Arabic and western culture.’
What did you learn from your time spent there?
‘A lot. For example, even though I thought I was open-minded, I still ended up with a scarf in my backpack. The people at the airport laughed at me, a scarf to cover me was not necessary. After a while, I got used to the environment there, I became a part of it. I figured that everything is the same there as here, they also have regular working days, we have a lot in common.’
Back to Taiwan: what do you want to achieve with your internship?
‘My main goal for this year is to get a bit more understanding. This may sound cheesy, but there are a lot of things going on in the worlds and I don’t want to have prejudices. Instead, I want to bring up understanding.’
What do you want to pass on to fellow students?
‘I learned to be insanely thankful for living in a country like Sweden or the Netherlands. We can go anywhere we want with our passport, we have the possibility to go away and experience new things when we want to. I want to remind other students that finishing your study as fast as possible is not always the right thing to do. There are a lot of things to see and experience, and we should be grateful to have the possibility to do that.’
