View Annual Review - IAESTE

International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience
TEN YEARS OF IAESTE
IN AUSTRALIA
Australia and we were not overwhelmed
with enthusiasm. Then wondering what on
There have been low times too, as we all
experience in such a position, so why did we
IAESTE ANNUAL REVIEW 2006
It is now almost eleven years since we were
visiting friends in Canada who just happened
to be the National Secretary of IAESTE
Canada and his wife, and first discussed
taking on the role of establishing IAESTE
in Australia. It is just over ten years since
Australia then became a Member of IAESTE
in January 1996. It is hard to believe that a
whole decade has passed since that week in
Copenhagen.
What has a decade of IAESTE in our country
meant? In terms of the obvious benefit to
individual students it has meant that 640
Australian students from universities in all our
States and Territories have worked overseas
(this includes 422 reserved offer students)
and 275 students from 39 countries have
worked here for 44 different companies
and research organisations in all States and
Territories. We have a National Committee
with representatives from universities and
industry from around the country and we
have a home. By the end of 1997 we had
both retired as academics but our university,
Swinburne, has continued to house us as
a hosted organisation. So we think we are
now established here and poised to move
forward.
But what are our outstanding memories?
Well to start with, convincing our
university that applying for Membership as
a Co-operating Institution was a good idea
- no easy task, as we were to discover that
almost nobody had heard about IAESTE in
earth we had let ourselves in for as we read
a copy of an Administrative Guide which we
had been sent to help us prepare for our
fi rst General Conference. Nevertheless we
set off for this with lots of enthusiasm, four
placements and no students.
We returned home exhilarated by the
Conference and the people we had met
there and discovered our next problem. We
had to fi nd students to send to the countries
which had given us placements and what is
more we had to fi nd them by March 31. This
was not easy given that our students were
still on their long summer vacation and were
not going to return to university until early to
mid-March. Again people were very patient
with us and we eventually sent six Australian
students away that year.
We had also witnessed the night of fun and
camaraderie that is the National Party in our
fi rst year and came prepared the next year.
After much wracking of our brains to fi nd an
Australian costume and food, we had come
with hats worn by our “swaggies” decorated
with hanging corks to keep the fl ies off their
faces in our hot summer and kangaroo
salami as an Australian food. We have kept
this theme since and it culminated this year
when we brought a blow up plastic kangaroo
which was much more popular than we had
expected. It also had more stamina than we
had expected and fi nished a night of dancing
in better shape than many of the rest of us
we suspect!
persevere? We did so because of the highs.
Having students arrive at the airport after
twenty four hours of travelling to reach us,
and being told that no, they did not want
to rest because they were just so excited
at being here, is unexpectedly rewarding.
Reading the letters and e mails from students
telling us what a difference IAESTE has made
to their lives is wonderful. Watching the
face light up of an Australian student, who
came from Vietnam originally, while he was
telling us how thrilled he was with his work
experience and living in a dorm with students
from so many other countries is wonderful.
And hearing that when it was his turn to cook
a typical meal from his home country, he did
not cook a stir-fry, but rather an Aussie BBQ
is wonderful.
And the biggest high for us at a personal level
is having met so many committed, caring
and fun people over the last eleven Annual
Conferences. That has been wonderful. We
have had reinforced the idea that putting
people together from all around the world
to work together to help others can be a
co-operative, harmonious and beneficial
experience done with a lot of goodwill and
good humour. That has been wonderful and
we thank you all for it.
Geoff and Jacki Hill
President and National Secretary
IAESTE Australia
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