Interview with Henry Tabansi

AIESEC has impacted lives; and if you give AIESEC a chance, it can impact yours too.

AIESEC has taken shy young people who once struggled to introduce themselves and turned them into leaders confidently addressing thousands of people.

There are real stories and this is one of them.

We were recently opportuned to interview Henry Tabansi, a fellow AIESECer, about his time in AIESEC and his experiences blew my mind. Henry is a one time Vice President for the Human resource team in AIESEC, where he oversaw the activities of over 150 Human resources managers across 120 countries. Mind blowing!

Prior to this, Henry had held several positions on different teams in AIESEC, his most memorable being the time he was on the planning team for a conference in Kano. The team was at the extreme end of planning, and had no money to pull things out. All options from reaching out to potential sponsors, partners had been exhausted. So they did something crazy:

Henry and his team mates decided to go around the streets of Kano to sell AIESEC and tell people about this conference, also asking them to support in any way they could. Before you wonder what makes this interesting, I'll tell you.

We have a culture in AIESEC called roll calls, where we dance to songs in a choreography-like manner. Imagine the time you danced “Opomulero” in primary school, yes, roll calls are similar to that. But we don't use white socks in AIESEC. AIESECers are cool kids, so we maintain that coolness even while dancing.

However, I can imagine Henry and his team dancing in the market square confidently and boldly just to raise awareness and get support for this conference. Instead of giving up, they came up with different solutions and this one being the most feasible was acted upon.

According to Henry: some people laughed at them on streets thinking they corporate beggars, but it was fun doing it with fellow AIESECers and at the end of the day, we ran a very successful conference and thinking about how we sacrificed our steeze and did what we did, I'm happy it worked out.

This story makes me remember a write up that says: If you’re surrounded by people who love to complain about the rain, you’re going to get wet. But if you’re among people who immediately start building a dam, you begin to think about ways to solve every problem that comes your way.

Another AIESECer I know has a favourite saying “I like to exhaust all my options before saying I tried my best”. And this was exactly what Henry and his team mates did. They laid down all possible solutions and found a way out.

I have to say, there is something about AIESEC that just makes you find your way around every obstacle. AIESEC gives youths the platform to not just develop skills like “Solution-Orientation”, but also make an impact.

For Henry, AIESEC impacted his life, gave him an opportunity to network and meet people who have influenced who he is today. In his words,

AIESEC has also given me an opportunity to develop transferable skills. And that's one thing I tell everyone — when you go through an AIESEC experience, always be very conversant of the transferable skills that you take out of this opportunity because you are in AIESEC, not just because of AIESEC you're in AIESEC for what you're going to be or do outside of AIESEC. It's the impact in the world that truly matters.

Do you know what blows my mind the most about Henry's story? Most of the experience he gained as an AIESECer, he gained while in university. AIESEC is a youth-run global organisation, and every AIESECer across the globe is just like you; providing solutions to the problems that the world is facing.

AIESEC isn’t just an organisation, AIESEC is “The Platform For You To Grow”. AIESEC has taken shy young people who once struggled to introduce themselves and has turned them into leaders confidently addressing thousands of people.

AIESEC has helped youths who lacked direction find their track and their voice.

AIESEC has taken people who felt unseen and given them community, friendships that feel like family, and networks that last far beyond school.

You can experience what Henry experienced and more. You can write the story of your youthful years intentionally and beautifully in and through AIESEC. All you have to do is click this link: https://aiesec.ng/membership