Sabine’s story is just one of 4000 youth taking part in AIESEC’s Global Internship Program this year. Read more about her life change exchange experience in Colombia below.

One summer Sabine Ziem decided to do something different. She heard about AIESEC’s exchange program and after applying for that, she found herself heading to Colombia for her summer vacation.

Sabine spent her summer vacation working for a social entrepreneur that had set up a foundation to build small cooperatives with single mothers. Her foundation would attract single mothers with little or no education and train them, and help them to set up an informal business by using his contacts to get contracts from suppliers, etc. 

Her role there was to apply for non-corporate funding to help sustain the foundation and enable it to grow. During her time there she applied for more than 15 grants, and set up a system to enable them to continue her work once she left. The most rewarding day of her stay there was a few days before she left, when she received her first grant acceptance—it was a great personal accomplishment and she felt good leaving knowing that her work there had made a difference.

Although the experience was short, Sabine says it made a definite impact on her personal growth.  “You really notice what you are doing when you are outside of what is normal for you,” she explains. “You have to go through this process to really know yourself, your strengths, leadership skills, etc. You won’t find this by staying in your own environment.”

Living in Colombia also gave Sabine a chance to practice her Spanish that she had been studying at university. While it was challenging at first, she learned quickly being surrounded by it all the time, and after about three months she was almost fluent.