https://aiesec.org.rs/_nuxt/BswnHFZN.js

1const t={history:{hero:{slides:[{label:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1940s"}},decade:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1940 - 1950"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"When students decided to change the world"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Europe still smelled of smoke and ash when students from seven countries decided not to wait for someone else to reconcile them. It was 1948, three years after a war that claimed 55 million lives. They met in Stockholm with one idea - that exchanging people changes the world. No budget, no offices, just the belief that young people could do more. In that first year of AIESEC, 89 students crossed borders that had been closed until yesterday."}},events:[{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1946"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"A café in Paris that changed everything"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Jan Maatsa organized a meeting in a Parisian café. Nine students from eight different countries showed up. No one knew that this informal conversation would become the foundation of one of the largest youth organizations in the world."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1948"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"A first attempt, three months earlier"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Students from nine universities and seven countries met in Liège, Belgium, with the idea of starting something that hadn't existed before. It was an informal meeting, without a name or statutes, just a feeling that Europe needed more than rebuilt factories. Three months later, that idea got its name in Stockholm."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1948"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"AIESEC is born"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"On July 2nd, 1948, in Stockholm, Bertil Hedberg and students Jaroslav Zich from Czechoslovakia and Stanislas Callens from Belgium founded AIESEC, headquartered in Prague with Jaroslav Zich as its first president. The goal was one - peace through understanding."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1949"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Statutes, purpose and identity"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"A year after founding, representatives of seven countries gathered again, this time to turn the idea into something tangible. The organization's statutes were adopted and its purpose defined - building friendly relations between nations through direct contact between young people. AIESEC stopped being an agreement among a few and became an institution with rules."}}}]},{label:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1950s"}},decade:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1950 - 1960"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The idea starts walking"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The congress was on paper, the statutes were signed, but the real test came when a Danish student packed her suitcase and set off for Rotterdam. It was 1951, and the first concrete internship in the organization's history. In the years that followed, the story spread to Yugoslavia, then to a thousand exchanges a year. What began as a conversation between a handful of students was becoming a network."}},events:[{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1951"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The first internship in history"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Aase Rasmussen, a Danish student, packed her suitcase and traveled to Rotterdam. There she spent the summer working at Unilever. It was the first official student internship in AIESEC's history, proof that the idea from the congress hadn't stayed on paper."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1953"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"AIESEC arrives in Yugoslavia"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Just four years after AIESEC International was founded, economics students at universities in Belgrade, Ljubljana and Zagreb recognized the opportunity and founded local AIESEC committees. Yugoslavia was one of the few Eastern European countries to join the network."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1953"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The first internship in Yugoslavia"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The same year it was founded, AIESEC in Yugoslavia carried out its first internship. A student from Belgrade traveled to Amsterdam. At a time when travel documents from Eastern Europe took months to process, this was an achievement in itself."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}

1],s:"1955"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"A thousand reasons to continue"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"By 1955, AIESEC had carried out more than a thousand exchanges a year. An organization that started with just a few dozen students became, in only seven years, a serious international network changing lives across Europe."}}}]},{label:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1960s"}},decade:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1960 - 1970"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"From Europe straight into the world"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The sixties were the decade AIESEC stopped being a European organization and became a global one. The American president received delegates at the White House, the Pope received them in Rome, and offices sprang up on every continent. In Serbia, the network spread beyond Belgrade. The organization was growing faster than its founders could have imagined."}},events:[{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1961"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"A first permanent address"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Morris Wolff of the USA was elected AIESEC's first Secretary General and founded the organization's first permanent international office in Geneva. After more than a decade without a fixed headquarters, AIESEC finally had a home."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1961"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Subotica opens its doors after Belgrade"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Just eight years after the first office was founded in Belgrade, AIESEC opened its doors in Subotica too. The city in the north of the country became part of an ever-growing network slowly changing what a student organization could do."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1963"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"A congress in America, a reception at the White House"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"In 1963, AIESEC held a congress outside Europe for the first time, in Princeton. Delegates were later received at the White House by President Kennedy. It was a sign the organization was no longer just a European affair."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1964"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"An audience with the Pope"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Delegates of AIESEC's 16th international congress were received by Pope Paul VI in Rome in 1964. For a student organization only sixteen years old, this was confirmation that its voice reached far beyond university halls."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1966"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The first country behind the Iron Curtain"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"By 1966, AIESEC was present in 42 countries, including Czechoslovakia as its first member behind the Iron Curtain. An organization born from the ashes of war was now bridging the deepest divide of Cold War Europe."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1969"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"An office opens in Niš"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"AIESEC in Niš has existed for more than 55 years, making it one of the oldest offices in the network. Serbia's third-largest city didn't wait long to become part of a story that was already changing students' lives across Europe."}}}]},{label:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1970s"}},decade:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1970 - 1980"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"When quantity gave way to quality"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The seventies weren't a decade of rapid growth but of deliberate maturing. AIESEC decided internships had to last longer, that quality had to win over quantity. The network reached fifty countries across six continents, and the organization started building people, not just sending them abroad. In Belgrade, an office sprang up at FON, and the idea slowly spread to other faculties."}},events:[{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1973"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"AIESEC arrives at FON"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Just two years after the Faculty of Organizational Sciences was founded, students recognized the opportunity and opened a local AIESEC office. FON was new, ambitious and outward-looking, so the match was natural. The network in Yugoslavia was slowly ceasing to be a matter for economics faculties alone."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1974"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Quality ahead of quantity"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"At the international congress in Bordeaux in 1974, it was decided that every internship had to last at least six weeks. An organization that had spent decades chasing numbers finally said it wasn't about how many internships there were, but how much they were worth."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1977"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"On 6 continents, in 50 countries"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"By 1977, AIESEC was present in 50 countries across all six inhabited continents, and more than 40,000 young people had gone through one of its leadership development programs. From seven students around a table in Stockholm to a global network in under three decades."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1977"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The Leadership Development Seminar is born"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"That same year, the concept of the Leadership Development Seminar was formulated - a program that would become one of the pillars of AIESEC's approach to developing young leaders. AIESEC was no longer just a broker of internships; it was starting to build people."}}}]},{label:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1980s"}},decade:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1980 - 1990"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"A record decade heading for collapse"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The eighties were perhaps the most contrasting decade in the history of AIESEC in Yugoslavia. On one hand, a record number of exchanges, a European-level award, and a new office in Kragujevac. On the other, a country slowly coming apart at the seams. The decade ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall and a record 7,029 exchanges - but everything already smelled of change."}},events:[{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1983"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Novi Sad opens its doors to the organization"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The Novi Sad office was founded in 1983, extending the network beyond Belgrade further north in Serbia. A Vojvodina city with a long tradition of multiculturalism was a natural fit for an organization that always believed differences between people were an advantage, not an obstacle."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1985"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Yugoslavia at the top of Europe"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"In 1985, following the European Congress held in Belgrade, AIESEC in Yugoslavia won the award for the country that had progressed the most that year. From modest beginnings in three cities, Yugoslavia became a role model for the whole network in three decades."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1985"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Kragujevac joins in"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The Kragujevac office was founded in 1985, and shut down in the late 90s due to the situation in the country. It survived as an idea and a memory, until it reopened its doors at the Faculty of Economics in 2005."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1989"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"A record no one forgot"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"That year, AIESEC achieved the highest number of exchanges in its history, with 7,029 students crossing borders. And then the Berlin Wall fell and the world changed. Borders that had been closed for decades suddenly opened, and AIESEC was ready."}}}]},{label:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1990s"}},decade:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}

1],s:"1990 - 2000"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Survival as an act of will"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The nineties were the hardest ten years in the history of AIESEC in Serbia. Yugoslavia fell apart, sanctions cut the country off from the world, and any contact abroad was a feat in itself. Despite everything, the organization never stopped working. Career Days launched at a time when unemployment was an epidemic, the Singidunum office opened amid the crisis, and the internet was slowly bringing new possibilities."}},events:[{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1990"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The silhouettes that survived the decades"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"At the presidents' meeting in Hong Kong in 1990, a visual identity was adopted that became the organization's official logo a year later. The silhouettes stepping out of a blue mass symbolize the leaders AIESEC identifies and develops. The logo has survived more than three decades and remains one of the organization's most recognizable symbols today."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1991"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The end of an era"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The last national conference of AIESEC in Yugoslavia, the 58th, was held in April 1991. The next conference, in December of the same year, officially marked the end of AIESEC in Yugoslavia. An organization that had connected people for four decades faced the collapse of the country it lived in."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1992"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Survival in isolation"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Throughout the 90s, professionals in Serbia were cut off from international travel, scientific information and international organizations. For AIESEC in Serbia, this meant working in conditions where any contact with the world was a privilege. Despite everything, the organization never stopped working."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1993"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Singidunum joins AIESEC"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The Singidunum office was founded in 1993. It emerged during one of the hardest periods for Serbia, when every step toward the world had to be genuinely fought for and earned."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1994"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Career Days"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"In 1994, AIESEC in Serbia launched the Career Days project, at a time when unemployment had reached levels affecting entire generations of highly educated young people. It was perhaps the most important project AIESEC in Serbia ever launched."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"1997"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Internships move online"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"AIESEC launched the Insight system, which for the first time enabled online matching of student internships. In Serbia, the internet was still a luxury, but the world was changing, and AIESEC internationally was moving with it."}}}]},{label:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2000s"}},decade:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2000 - 2010"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Serbia returns to the map"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The 2000s brought what had been missing for years - open borders, lifted sanctions, and the freedom to be part of the world again. For AIESEC in Serbia, this was a new era. Kragujevac reopened its doors, Metropolitan joined the network, and global AIESEC surpassed 10,000 exchanges in a single year for the first time in its history in 2010."}},events:[{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2005"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"A new chapter in Serbia"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"In the early 2000s, sanctions were lifted, borders opened, and Serbia was part of the world again. For AIESEC, this meant something concrete - students could travel more freely again, internships became more accessible, and the network started growing at full strength once more."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2005"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Kragujevac is back with us"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The Kragujevac office, closed in the late 90s due to the situation in the country, reopened in 2005 at the Faculty of Economics. It was a sign that the hardest period was behind, and that Serbia was returning to the world map."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2006"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The New Leaders conference"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"New Leaders is a conference held since 2006, born from the need to promote youth activism and encourage young people to take on leadership roles in their communities. Today it takes place in seven cities across Serbia and gathers more than 800 young people a year taking their first step toward change."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2006"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Opening the door to your success"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"In 2006, AIESEC launched the OPEN IT project to help reduce brain drain and give students a space to ask questions directly to experts from leading companies. Today it's the largest IT conference for young people in Serbia, with more than 350 participants, 40 workshops and 20 companies in one place."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2009"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Metropolitan joins the organization"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The Metropolitan local office was founded in 2009, the last in line to expand the network in Belgrade. The AIESEC network in Serbia was now complete as we know it today."}}}]},{label:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2010s"}},decade:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2010 - 2020"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"A generation that changes the world"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"These weren't years of growing numbers, but of growing meaning. In 2015, AIESEC stood before the United Nations with leaders from 126 countries and stated clearly where it stood. More than a million young people had by then passed through the organization, and AIESEC became the first youth organization to align its operations with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals through 2030. The question was no longer how big it was, but how much it mattered."}},events:[{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2010"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Over 10,000 exchanges in one year"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"In 2010, AIESEC crossed the threshold of 10,000 exchanges carried out in a single year for the first time in its history. From the 89 students who crossed borders in 1949, the organization had grown, in six decades, to a scale its founders would have found unbelievable."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2015"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"New York, UN headquarters, 126 countries"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"In 2015, AIESEC leaders from 126 countries, in cooperation with the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, gathered at UN headquarters to launch youth participation in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. AIESEC became the first youth organization to align its operations with the 2030 Agenda."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2016"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The Youth Speak conference"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Youth Speak is a conference AIESEC launched in 2016 to make sure young people's voices reach decision-makers. In Serbia it takes place across several cities, and globally it has so far reached more than 93,000 participants from over 100 countries."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2019"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Over a million leaders"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Since its founding in 1948, AIESEC has engaged and developed more than a million young people through international internships and volunteer opportunities worldwide - a number the founders in Stockholm would have found unimaginable, and one that's still growing."}}}]},{label:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2020s"}},decade:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"TODAY"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Borders close, then open again"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"In March 2020, the world stopped. AIESEC, an organization whose entire purpose was crossing borders, had to halt all exch

1ange programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was an unexpected test for an organization that had survived the Cold War, the breakup of Yugoslavia and economic sanctions. Borders eventually reopened, students set off again, and the story continues."}},events:[{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2020"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"A pandemic closes all borders"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"In March 2020, AIESEC responded to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic by suspending all exchange programs so that no participant, employee or partner would be put at risk. An organization whose entire purpose was crossing borders suddenly had to stop."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2022"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The GameJam hackathon"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"As part of the OPEN IT conference, GameJam was held for the first time - a hackathon dedicated to video game development. Teams had less than two days to conceive, build and present a game on a given theme, in partnership with leading companies from the gaming industry. It was a logical next step for a conference that had always followed IT trends."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2025"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Over 230,000 experiences around the world"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"To date, AIESEC has delivered more than 230,000 experiences, all carried out by young people for young people. Borders reopened, students set off again, and the story continues."}}},{year:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"2026"}},title:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"The network in Serbia keeps growing"}},description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Novi Pazar, Čačak and Zaječar become part of the AIESEC network in Serbia. Three cities, three different stories, but the same idea that began in Belgrade in 1953. An organization that for decades was tied to major university centers is finally building bridges where they were needed most."}}}]}],cta:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"READ MORE"}},prev:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Previous decade"}},next:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"Next decade"}}},events:{cta_next:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"SEE THE NEXT DECADE"}},cta_about:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"LEARN MORE ABOUT US"}},cta_restart:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"VIEW THE BEGINNING"}}},pageTitle:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"A Brief History of AIESEC"}},meta:{description:{t:0,b:{t:2,i:[{t:3}],s:"More than 7 decades of AIESEC - from the first 89 students in Stockholm to a global network counting 70,000 youth today."}}}}};export{t as default};