View Annual Review - IAESTE

Friend of IAESTE Network (FoIN)
Since 1948 IAESTE has exchanged more than
300,000 students for practical training in other
countries. There is no doubt that IAESTE has had
a great influence on these people’s lives
regarding career, global friendships and even
finding a life companion through a traineeship.
Many of these people still feel a strong
allegiance to IAESTE and have therefore joined
the international IAESTE Alumni organisation:
Friends of IAESTE Network (FoIN). FoIN offers a
range of services for its members. An on-line
database lists all the members and a search function makes it easy to locate friends in the network.
All private information, such as e-mail addresses, is of course kept strictly within IAESTE. FoIN
Newsletters are sent out several times a year and news items are constantly uploaded on the FoIN
web page.
Opening Ceremony
General Conference, Madrid 1958
It is important for an established organisation like IAESTE to have a strong
alumni organisation, as the alumni represent an invaluable resource of IAESTE
experiences, memories and contacts to people and companies. The main
purpose of FoIN is to make it easy for national IAESTE organisations to keep
in touch with their alumni, and vice versa, in order to support and promote
the concept of student exchange and international understanding.
Company visit, General Conference, Madrid 1958
Today we can count more than 8,000 members of FoIN. Running an alumni
organisation in each country is for many of the national IAESTE organisations
not possible due to the limited resources available. Since 1996 the FoIN
alumni work has been organised on an international level, where a group of
volunteers collect stories, write newsletters, administer and develop the webbased
system.
A short abstract of FoIN news from last year:
The IAESTE General Secretary meets a trainee from 1948:
Considering it is 57 years since IAESTE was founded and the first students were sent abroad, it is
great to know that a few are still in touch with IAESTE. One of them is Frank Leighton from the UK,
a retired civil engineer who now lives in Vancouver, Canada. The General Secretary, Mrs. Pauline
Ferguson met Frank one summer evening in 2004 and talked about his time as a trainee. Frank
studied Civil Engineering at Imperial College in London from 1946 to 1949, following service in the
armed forces. "I was fortunate to participate in the inaugural exchange programme and spent the
summer of 1948 helping to construct a large hydro-electric dam high in the Swiss Alps, working for
EOS (Energie de l'Ouest Suisse)". Frank was surprised to hear how IAESTE has developed to a
worldwide exchange organisation with more than 80 participating countries. And who would have
thought so back then?
IAESTE Romances:
Frank Leighton (left) 1948,
Switzerland
Several FoIN members have sent us their IAESTE love stories during the year. One of them is Julie
from Canada, who met her Finnish husband on a traineeship in Malta back in 1998. Both of them
are now living and working in Dubai.
Thanks to all contributors and supporters of the Friends of IAESTE Network. We hope for another
successful year, when even more Alumni will contact us and tell us how IAESTE has
influenced their lives.
Seminar on IAESTE Development
1990 Denmark
Contact FoIN at friends@iaeste.org and find us on www.iaeste.org/friends
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